Friday, June 26, 2009

Eating Kudzu & Hosta Plants and Other Tid Bits
( I planted some bird seed and a bird came up, I have no idea what to feed it)


Today while outside I spied a couple of our local rabbits in the yard. Personally I still get a kick from watching the nature just like when I was a kid. Have you ever seen two slugs fighting to the death? I have. Seen ants fight to but most people have I guess.
But back to the rabbits; I watched them hop over to some Hosta plants and cut the stem with flowers down. Then the little furry hoppy thing began eating the whole cutting. I knew that slugs would eat up Hosta plants but Rabbits? So my mind went to hmm, are they edible for us humans as well. To my surprise I found out that they are edible. Japanese eat it all the time and kudzu also, but I knew about the kudzu already. Kudzu roots when dried and pulverized sell for $2 an ounce and the leaves are certainly edible. North Carolinian Juanitta Baldwin in her book "Kudzu Cuisine" has recipes for this free food. "Fry the leaves up like potato chips , there good." I read an 83 year old Henry Edwards said.
I tried some of the flowers of the Hosta and it wasn't bad at all. The leaves should be cooked like other greens so I'll have to try that. Lots of plants in our own yards are edible such as dandelions and all rose flowers. Most of us consider dandelions as weeds and battle to kill them every year. We ought to be cultivating them for salads and putting them to good use. What is a weed exactly? Actually a weed can be any plant growing where you don't want it to grow. A corn stalk in your flower bed is a weed because you don't want it there. Same goes for small tree seedlings like cedar or pine coming up through your azalea bushes. So a weed is any plant growing where you don't wish it to be.
Think about your next motorcycle or car trip and get a book on edible plants. You could eat well and almost free just by learning what is edible out there. You'd have plenty of use for kudzu growing all over the south and elsewhere and more than likely nobody will complain your taking some. Just don't any from right near the road or up close to railroad tracks cause it may have been sprayed like blackberry bushes right beside RR tracks. Hosta plants being edible to but be careful picking those at rest areas, the state might not like it. Pick then when nobody is there I guess. Eat free, don't starve and save money on the road.

Now for a Tid Bit or two of wisdom

Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet 'em on your way down. -- Jimmy Durante

Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. -- Edward John Phelps

2 comments:

Lady R (Di) said...

I really like salads, but I sure hope I can still find a good restaurant so I don't have to go out and get pick my own. LOL!

I guess you'll never know when you need to rely on survival skills to survive, and as you've just pointed out, it sure would be nice to be educated. I had some basic survival training from being in the Navy several years ago, but I've forgotten a lot of what I learned.

Very interesting post, but I hate to say it. If I were stranded and hungry, and saw a rabbit... I wouldn't be thinking of salad! =:o

WooleyBugger said...

Lady,
Basic survival training that you learned in the Navy is most likely still with you, it'd probably come right back to you in a given situation.

If I was straned and hungry and saw a rabbit I'd be after it to but plants are much easier to catch and find. Squirrel is tasty and a good ole slingshot will bring them down plus they don't seem to run off and hide like a rabbit. Piss a squirrel off and usually it'll still hang around and keep chattering and barking at cha given chance for another shot. Oh, and slingshots (wristrockets)won't bring much attention to your hunting with noise. ;>)