"GUIDE TO WILD FOODS" lists "Safe (botanical) Families"

 

“GUIDE TO WILD FOODS”

Be Sure to Read the Appendix on “Safe Families”

By Christopher Nyerges

 [Nyerges’ “Guide to Wild Foods” book, originally published in 1978, was published in full color as of 2014.  The book, now titled “Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants,” is available at bookstores, Amazon, and at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.  It has been adopted for use as a college textbook in one college.]

 

When I was working on my very first book, “Guide to Wild Foods,” it was really a collection of random notes about the uses of the wild plants I had been studying and tasting.  I wasn’t sure how I would get it published, but I knew it should contain the overview of how to use wild plants for food that I’d been obsessed with.

 

The members of the non-profit WTI also wanted to see a local book on wild foods, and their efforts dovetailed with my work.  Eventually, I was working as a typesetter for a local newspaper, and I was able to prepare the entire first draft of the book for the printer.

 

The book is still in print, eight or so editions later.

 

One of the most important parts of the book is an Appendix that I think next to no one ever reads.  This is the section that I call “Safe Families,” which I developed under the tutelage of Dr. Leonid Enari, who was my teacher at the time, and who helped with me with many aspects of the book.   Dr. Enari encouraged me to continue to learn how to identify and use individual plants, of course, but he also emphasized the great leap forward that would occur if I began to see plants in terms of their Family relationships.

 

There are many plant families, of course, and the concept of a “family” is one that has developed over a few hundred years of observing similarities of plants, and the realization that even the chemistry of plants flows within families.

 

Dr. Enari was uniquely qualified to guide me in this direction, as he earned a Phd in both ethno-botany and chemistry in his native Estonia.  We spent many afternoons in his office discussing families that were entirely safe, or worthy of consideration, with certain qualifications.  This was not intended as a shortcut to learning individual plants, but rather a way to open the door to using all plants within a specific family.  You had to know how to definitively identify a specific family in order for all this to make sense.

 

Dr. Enari and I identified quite a few families whose members could all be eaten, again, within certain guidelines.  When the first edition of my “Guide to Wild Foods” was published, we provided a list of 13 entirely safe to consume botanical families.  Each family description included how to recognize that family, and whatever considerations you might need to take into account as you pursue that path.

 

Over time, in various articles I’d written for Backpacker magazine, Mother Earth News, and others, I’d mention these safe families, and I began to see that the idea was being picked up by others. 

 

By the way, this is not a short cut to identifying edible plants. The widely touted “short cut” is the so-called Universal Taste Test, where you are instructed to taste a little bit of an unknown plant.  If it is not distasteful in any way, you are instructed to swallow a little and wait 8 or so hours to see if any sickness results. If no sickness, you are instructed to repeat the experiment and wait another 8 hours.  I think it is terrible advice and I have never been an advocate of this potentially dangerous shortcut.

 

The list of Safe Families in my book includes only those families that most beginners would be able to identify with a bit of work. 

 

For example, we included the Grass family, which is one of the biggest plant families on the face of the earth.  You can eat any mature seeds, and you can eat the young leaves, ideally juiced or cooked.   Of course, I warn the reader to be cautious around commercial lawns and golf courses, where toxic substances might have been used to keep the lawn green.

 

Onions, once part of the Lily Family, are another safe family.  They look like little green onions, but if you have a bad sense of smell, you might have trouble here.

 

Another edible family is the Mustard Family, the same family that gives you broccoli and watercress and radish.   In the wild, you have need to see the flower – especially if you’re a beginner – to know that a plant is a member of the Mustard Family.  The flower has to have four sepals, four petals, one pistil, and six stamens (four tall, two short).  So you need to know what all those flower parts are before you go randomly eating what you think are Mustard Family members.  And even then, you’re only eating tender parts of these plants, since some members can be very woody.

 

“Guide to Wild Foods” also mentions the Amaranth Family, the Cactus Family, the Mallow Family, the Goosefoot Family, and more.

 

In the very beginning of pursuing this method, I did receive some pushback from at least one botanist who objected to what he thought was a “shotgun” approach. However, I countered that my listed families all included thoughtful considerations of what could go wrong.  In time, I have found that the consideration of plant families has gained prominence as a way to teach about ethno-botany, and to see the relationships between similar useful plants.

 

“Guide to Wild Foods” is still in print, all color now, and we have slightly expanded the Appendix on Safe Families.  Yes, it is the part of the book which nearly no one reads, but I hope you’re one of those who will read it, and discover that it assists your learning about this field which can be challenging.

 

Now titled “Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants,”  the book has been used as a textbook in some schools.  It is available at Amazon, at bookstores, and at the store at  www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com