Wild Plants as a Food Source

[Devonian]

Now this might seem a little strange and is only something that I have recently been thinking about, but has anyone ever given consideration to purposely planting/seeding wild plants which are known as a good food source??

I was thinking about things like Dandelions; Burdock; Sorrel.......

The idea would then be to spread the seeds around local hedgerows; wasteland; protected edges of fields etc etc, basically anywhere close to your home or BOL where they could grow freely during normal times without being damaged/cut down on a regular basis. This would then mean you have a well established natural larder in place if ever needed as these plants will largely just keep growing year after year and will also reseed providing an increasing number of plants over the years.

The great thing then is that if your main garden is ever raided and cleared by your hungry neighbours or others, you have a back source which is likely to be overlooked by most people, even if they are walking straight past it!

A quick look on amazon shows many of these seeds are available to buy and are very cheap:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Herb-Seeds-Burdo...ds=burdock

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nuts-n-Cones-Wil...y_lp_img_y

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SORREL-RUMEX-ACE...rds=sorrel


So has anyone else considered this and if so, what would or have you planted?

[bigpaul]

there are a lot of wild plants you can eat, best eaten when the leaves are young and tender, later on in the year they become inedible.

[Devonian]

(12 June 2014, 13:24)bigpaul Wrote: there are a lot of wild plants you can eat, best eaten when the leaves are young and tender, later on in the year they become inedible.

Yes I appreciate that Paul, but the idea was that rather than having to hunt around for the odd plant here and there, if a few hedgerows could be seeded to provide an abundant supply, it may well be a lifesaver after a total collapse.

And you could focus on ensuring that those with the highest nutritional value are also there and are well established.

[bigpaul]

sorry, I think I got confused by the "wild" plants in the title!!

[Barneyboy]

D I think that's a good idea mate hidden in plan site mate I like it

[bigpaul]

I believe its called "guerrilla gardening"!!

[Sunna]

would it be like normal fruit and veg only ready late summer time, what you do the rest of the year...

[Devonian]

Sunna

It really is just a "last resort" idea that could "help" after a total collapse. Allotments and gardens will be stripped by anyone and everyone who are trying to feed their families, but how many of the sheeple living in your street would think about picking wild plants from roadside verges; farmers fields; or even your own hedges etc?

As BP says, it is guerrilla gardening "BUT" not in the conventional sense as to most people these are weeds and not a food source and so will remain far better hidden than any conventional veggies would and these should keep sprouting up year after year.

Dandelions and Burdock are also both very useful food sources, and certainly dandelions stay around all year round, so you are not restricted to 'late summer' etc. Also you could be planting "winter" cress and other wild plants (weeds) that would provide a supplementary food source at different times of the year.

Have a look at the PDF document on the following thread, its given me some ideas:

http://forum.survivaluk.net/showthread.php?tid=6965

But just think if you spread 500 dandelion or burdock seeds this year in a couple of hedgerows, how many plants would there be in 2, 3 or even 5 years time?

[Barneyboy]

and you can dry it on mass to put in the pot

[T-oddity]

It is most likely that these plants are already plenty full in your local environment, you don't realy need to be buying seed.
I you have any water courses or wetlands near you, reed mace is a really good source of carbs all year round and very easy to introduce.

You could use guerrilla gardening seed bomb technique to spread any kind of seed that you wish.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggseedbombs.html.

Something that I have been doing for awhile on similar lines is to raise fruit trees and bushes from seed and cuttings to plant out in any rough undisturbed area's that I can find, but to be honest not all survive, expect at least 30+% losses.
The real difficulty though is finding places to grow stuff that is truly undisturbed, nearly all of our hedgerow and verges are managed to some extent, even those that look like they aren't are done on a 2 or 3 year cycle, such as some river banks, motorway embankments.

A word of warning about Burdock seed, if you choose to collect your own seed from the wild, be aware that the seeds are covered in very fine hairs that can get stuck in the pores of your skin, (itching powder on steroids) I nearly blinded myself collecting these seeds by trying to separate the seeds from the hairs by blowing on them, they promptly blew back into my face, they don't brush or wash off, I think I ended up using sticky tape to lift the hairs out of my skin.