Edible Wild Plants

Edible Wild Plants

In Your Backyard

Edible wild plants are raw super food! They have incredible energizing and healing powers and they are absolutely FREE!!! This is a great cost saving and personal energy tip for raw food enthusiasts! In this article you will find an overview of some of the more popular and readily available wild edible plants.

So what plants can you safely eat? The wild edible plants I will list are all great in salads and juices and you can find them anywhere. Most people know these plants already and they are very easy to recognize and find. It should be noted that it is a very bad idea to eat any plant that you are not completely sure is edible.

If you don't know them, these days the internet can help you tremendously. Wikipedia is a great resource. It shows great pictures and describes how the wild plants look and where to find them. If you study this recourse you will become very knowledgeable on this subject and easily be able to find the various plants.
Wild plants are free, delicious and nutritious. And it can be lots of fun to look for them (much more fun than the usual trip to the super market). Bring your kids along, they love it! What a great and educational way to get a raw food meal!

Fragaria Vesca 

Wild strawberries

The wild strawberries are rich in vitamin A, C, and K; in minerals calcium, iron, potassium, and silicon. They are great for fever, diarrhea, dysentery, liver, kidneys, and much more. You can eat the strawberries, the young leaves and the flowers. Don’t eat the leaves if they are wilted as some people will get an allergic reaction to them.

Taraxacum Officinale

Dandelions

Dandelion leaves are great in salads and juices. You can also eat the unopened buds raw (great in salads) Raw leafs have a slightly bitter taste. The leaves are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and iron, containing more iron and calcium than spinach. This should give you a new way to look at those dandelions in our yard now. I wouldn’t suggest eating them from your yard if you use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, though.

The flower petals, along with other ingredients, are used to make dandelion wine. The ground, roasted roots can be used as a caffeine-free dandelion coffee. Dandelion was also traditionally used to make the traditional British soft drink dandelion and burdock, and is one of the ingredients of root beer. Also, Dandelions were once delicacies eaten by the Victorian gentry mostly in salads and sandwiches.

Chenopodium Polyspermum

Lambsquarters

You can eat the leaves of Lambsquarters, also known as Goosefoot. The seeds of this well known weed are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. The Lambsquarters or Goosefoot is closely related to the popular super food Quinoa. There is increased interest in particular in Goosefoot seeds today, which are suitable as part of a gluten-free diet.

Goosefoots have a history of culinary use dating back to 4000 BC or earlier, when pitseed goosefoot (C. berlandieri) was a staple crop of the eastern Native Americans, and white goosefoot was apparently cultivated and used by some early European cultures.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)

Nettles

This is a great wild edible plant with a twist. The adult Nettle can sting you if you’re not careful. In many places this is a notorious weed. You can find it everywhere. The plant is so strong! It survives both the hot sun and temperatures well below freezing.

Nettle juice tastes surprisingly good and did you know that the plant has even more minerals than wheat grass? It is good for arthritis, tissue regeneration, calms allergies, lowers cholesterol and high blood pressure and even acts as a blood sugar stabilizer.

You can eat the very young leaves in a salad, but the older ones sting so you may not like to eat them raw. When you juice them, the stinging disappears. The fresh or dried leaves of the nettle can be used to make a tea.

If you do happen to get stung, the juice of the plant will relieve the sting or rub the leaves of a plantain against the sore spot to relieve the pain.

Clover Flower (Trifolium)

Clovers

This is a wild edible plant everyone knows. The clover leaves are delicious in salads or juices. Clovers are a valuable survival food, as they are high in protein, widespread, and abundant. They are not easy to digest raw, but this can be easily fixed by juicing them. Dried flower heads and seed pods can also be ground up into a nutritious flour and mixed with other foods. Dried flower heads can also be steeped in hot water for a healthy, tasty tea.

Alliaria petiolata

Garlic Mustards

The leaves, flowers and fruit are edible as food for humans, and are best when young. The chopped leaves are used for flavoring in salads and sauces such as pesto, and sometimes the flowers and fruit are included as well. These are best when young, and provide a mild flavor of both garlic and mustard.

Garlic Mustard was once used medicinally as a disinfectant or diuretic, and was sometimes used to heal wounds.



Daisies

Bellis perennis

You really can eat daisies! In many countries, they grow everywhere. Daisies are from the Sunflower family. Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads or cooked, noting that the leaves become increasingly astringent with age. Flower buds and petals can be eaten raw in sandwiches, soups and salads. It is also used as a tea and as a vitamin supplement.

In ancient Rome, the surgeons who accompanied Roman legions into battle would order their slaves to pick sacks full of daisies in order to extract their juice, hence the origin of this plant's scientific name in Latin. Bandages were soaked in this juice and would then be used to bind sword and spear cuts. Daisies are still used in homeopathy for wounds and after certain surgical procedures as well as for blunt trauma in animals. Typically, the plant is harvested while in flower when intended for use in homeopathy.

Plantago major

Broadleaf Plantains

The leaves of this strong and common weed are edible and used in herbal medicine, but can be somewhat tough. The taste is that of very bitter salad greens with a lingering aftertaste like spinach. Broadleaf Plantain is also a highly nutritious wild edible that is high in calcium and vitamins A, C, and K. The young, tender leaves can be eaten raw, and the older, stringier leaves can be boiled in stews and eaten. The leaves when dried make a great tea. Some studies have shown that plantain extract has a wide range of biological effects, including wound healing, anti-inflammatory, pain relief, antioxidant, weak antibiotic and it’s beneficial to the immune system.

Other plantains are considered wild edible plants also but they don't have as much nutritional value as the Broadleaf Plantain.

Wild Grasses

Zoysia grass flower

Did you know that all wild grasses are edible and that there are more than 400 different kinds of grasses? Grasses are super healthy and you can find this super food for free. Wheatgrass, for example, contains most of the vitamins and minerals needed for human health. It's a whole meal and complete protein with about 30 enzymes. It has up to 70% chlorophyll (which builds the blood). It's an excellent source of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. Wheatgrass cleanses the body. It is a natural raw detoxifier and it eliminates body and breath odors. The natural value of wheatgrass juice is so high that many people don't feel the "cravings" that lead to overeating. It's great for the skin and first and second decree burns.

Of course fruits and vegetables can be purchased at the grocery store as well. If you would like to learn more about the benefits of a healthy diet and how one guy managed his health and fitness challenges, follow this link and check out the short video.

If you know you need a change but your not sure exactly what that might look like, check out this FREE 6-part e-course 'Raw Food 101' to get you started in the right direction. I bet you'll never look back.