the edible possibilities of conventional garden plants..

Apparently a favourite pastime of many children back in the day was to suck the nectar from honeysuckle flowers, but apparently only the wild ones were safe. Nowadays you wouldn't catch kids doing that!(I'm sure many are too scared to touch edible fruit and flowers, due to the 'elf and safety exec', (and a general lack of education about these things!).

Madahhlia, the way it works (aparently) is that the biggest Fuchsia berries are the most sweet tasting, and the smallest are the most insipid. I tried a small one last year and it was really bitter. The bigger the better, and when they're soft and ripe too, if they ever get to that stage that is!

 

we used to eat monkey apples when I was a child in south africa
not sure what the proper name is, but here is a pic

 

I didn't realise you could eat daffodil flowers Ziggy, I thought all parts of them were poisonous.........learn something new every day!

I've used wild primrose flowers in the past for cake decorations, sugar frosted.

 

there is actually a edible honesuckle berry , introduced in UK few years ago.

Haskap Berries

plus , people let`s not get confused with daffodil , the roots is extremely poisonous

 

I have seen a book of recipes for various teas and brews that one can make from the leaves of the scented varieties of Pelargonium.

 

I think its just the trumpets you can eat isn't it?

I've seen that in one of the seed catalogues. I'm thinking of giving it a go.

 

talking about tea , if you can grow a camelia you will be able to grow black tea or hardy tea plant.

Camellia Sinensis hardy to -5/-10 if dry

 

Oh, now I remember Saw it on Nationwide in the 1970's, tried them & found they were blooming orrrible.

 

The leaves are as well Clueless. Many years ago my dog was tearing them out of the ground to get to a hedgehog (that I had to rescue) and she was as high as a kite for a few hours after, staggering around as if she was drunk!

 

At the risk of sounding over the top, I think it's our duty to learn these types of things, because if society goes caputt, we'll need to survive. I find these things exciting.. going out to tuck into the neighbours Berberis darwinii fruit You dont half get some strange looks though.. I was in Llandudno last December and I was just getting handfuls of Arbutus fruit, and eating some, and I got the weirdest looks off people, as if I was going to die on the spot or something, very concerned people. Either that or they thought I was some wild, greedy ape in clothes !

 

I was at it today again, at the local garden centre, I was looking for plants, and come across a Mahonia in fruit, so I took some fruit, and it was delicious... definitely one of the nicest fruits I have tasted! (bit like a blackcurrant)

Not really a fan of Mahonias for their ornamental value, but for their edible value i'd consider getting one in the garden.

 

Don't wait for society to go kaput. The small subset of edible produce we've been conditioned to believe is the entire range makes for a bit of a bland diet and a lot of waste.

I've just pulled one of my two surviving turnips from the garden today. Wife laughed at me when I said I was keeping the leaves rather than chucking them straight in the compo bin. The have a delicious flavour, something like cabbage but with a nutty flavour, and they are very nutritious apparently. They contain oxalic acid and this, according one article I read, is why they are not in the mainstream diet, but the level of oxalic acid in them is lower than you'd find in the likes of rhubarb stalks, or various other common vegs.

When I was 9 I got into trouble at school, after a heated debate with another kid about the edibility of certain common weeds led to me proving my case by eating a nettle in the playground. I got reported by the shocked kid I was arguing with, and ended up in the office with my teacher and the headmaster. I can remember some of their arguments even to this day. 'Of course they're poisonous, if they were edible do you not think everybody would be eating them instead of spending money at the shops?', and 'they sting, therefore they must be toxic'. I insisted I was right, they insisted I wasn't, and I think I ended up promising to apologise if I died.

 

Indeed Maddahlia, so many children these days (and in the past) are prevented from exploring their surroundings. To be honest headmasters (for all their knowledge and educational prowess) should know whether or not a nettle is poisonous, did they not hear of nettle tea.

The internet nowadays is a fantastic resource for learning these things, of course alternatively I think rangers hold walks that deal with edible plants in the wild.

Every Autumn I go on a Blackberry hunt, just love it, the Blackberries are usually very good.. although this year they might be a little more tart than usual, but you can't beat it.

 

We get funny looks even when picking cherries, cherry plums, japonicas from planting schemes. I can't fathom why all public planting schemes don't consist of those shrubs/trees that produce edible fruits, or why all publicly accessible hedgerows aren't similarly planted http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_68940.html