Mad Max II: A 'Weedeater's' Survival Club?

15 years ago

I'll confess something. This vegetable gardening and tropical fruit tree planting isn't something I've been doing because I need a hobby.

Maybe I'm just a pathological pessimist who's been hanging around on the internet too long, but I really do believe the American middle class is going to experience a terrible economic shock in the not-too-distant future. It seems to me our world is balanced on a house of cards. The economic course we're on is unsustainable. It must crash. I won't go into all the reasons why I think so, for now.

Anyway, if things become generally grim, we in Florida have one advantage over our northern friends. We don't have to burn stuff nine months out of the year to keep warm, and we basically have a year-round growing season.

Also, although I haven't really looked, I'd bet we literally walk right over lots of free food every day. By that I mean weeds and edible plants.

I've been toying with the idea of forming a "Weedeaters Club". By that, I mean a group of people to get together once in a while with reams of material and photos of wild edible plants in Florida. Then, we'd slather on some insect repellent and hit the woods, marshes, seashores, or wherever else our books tell us wild edibles are to be found.

Then, with our gunny sacks bulging with God-knows-what, we'd retire to the nearest member's home to try to make a meal of what we'd gathered.

The data that the survivors accumulate would be priceless. Well, maybe interesting, anyway.

Anybody up for this?

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Comments (13)

tony_k_orlando
15 years ago
The word 'cannibalism' comes to mind
imatallun
15 years ago
Brute, you present an articulate, thought provoking post regarding your passion for survival preparedness.

Lettuce (pun intended) just get through hurricane season first, okay?
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joyful_garden
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Mmmmm meat. I think if I had to live off the land, the rabbits that are eating all my gardens would have to go first. Also the deer that are in my yard eating everything as well. I think I would be ok without eating weeds. I would just sit outside at night with my shotgun and I'd eat for a month. The deer out here are huge!
garyfla_gw
15 years ago
Hi
have you learned nothing from the previews of mass worl starvation being previewed in Africa?? Defintely not only he who has the biggest guns ate the best but seems to be ate at all?
besides aren't you forgetting about global warming the entire state will be underwater Saltwater at that . Where's my books on ocean farming lol
gary
minibim
15 years ago
Living life so pessimistically must be a real blast.
fsubunnee
15 years ago
Sounds interesting but No rabbits please. Rabbits put out a great fertilizer:)
joyful_garden
15 years ago
OK- I will stick with deer, squirrels and turtle. I guess if it got that bad, I could eat fish too but I would have to find an awfully strong rock to open those tuna cans. ;-)
greentfinger
15 years ago
Euell Gibbons wrote three or more books on the delicacies that we so often overlook. My favorite is, "Stalking the Wild Aspargus" but anyhow he said that what we call a weed is just a plant we haven't learned to appreciate. Well I doubt if Mr. Gibbons included Florida however his books provide an insight to the availability to exist under extreme duress.
thonotorose
15 years ago
I agree with Imatallun. Let us just get through the season of Big Windys.

That said: Google John Starnes and the St Pete Times. You will find a long list of articles written by a Florida Master Gardener who seeks to live off his plantings in his Tampa City lot. Through his articles, I have learned about chaya, canna roots and nopale cactus, among others.

I see you are in zone 10. Here in Tampa Bay, a man named Joel Chudnow regularly hosts edible nature walks. I believe his big one is in October. He is associated with Hillsborough Community College.

If you are near Naples, get thyself to ECHO. And join your local Rare Fruits Council.

Here is a link that might be useful: echonet.org
natives_and_veggies
15 years ago
Brute,

You can start with purslane. It grows wild in almost every yard that isn't saturated with chemicals. And it has important food value you can't get with most plants, Omega-3s, for example. I've got it in my yard, and have put it in stir-fry, for the food value, and for the fun of actually eating a weed - free food and oh, how sustainable. It doesn't collapse into mush in stirfry like greens tend to if you aren't incredibly careful, so it's much better in my stirfry than the greens I grow.

I've always wondered about all my mushrooms, but I have too many friends with stories of their misspent youth raiding cowpies for the magic type... so I refrain. Would be neat to learn if any are actually edible.

And I bet if you leave off the chemicals, and your neighbors do too, the snails would be a good source of protein. Heck, the French love them. As does my puppy. But I'm not up to that yet. Anyone actually know how to cook escargot?

Susannah
SaintPFLA
15 years ago
....steamed in white wine with a butter-garlic sauce,a lemon wedge and toast points. Deee-lish!

My cousins and I used to pick buckets of sea snails (the non-poisonous kind...) off the jetties on Cape Cod. They'd be tossed into the rest of the clam bake pot. Good eats!
junkyardgirl
15 years ago
I'd love to do it. I'm still waiting for this winter, so I can eat some Florida Betony tubers. Just found out you can eat the flower petals and tender young leaves of Spanish needle. Hey! I'm set for life!
natives_and_veggies
15 years ago
You can eat spanish needle? Wow, I'm set for greens too. Question is, why am I pulling it out like a fiend so I can plant arugula? Hmmm. I really like arugula.

I'll have to try spanish needle though. Is there any danger with it, like the mature leaves have some sort of toxin?

Mad Max II: A 'Weedeater's' Survival Club?

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