“Ever eat a pine tree?”
That was a question posed by Euell Gibbons in a Post Grape Nuts cereal commercial on national television back in the 1970s. Gibbons, was a writer, outdoorsman and proponent of eating edible wild plants and fungi. In his day, Gibbons made foraging for, cooking and eating wild food stuffs sound like fun. I was never convinced, but I have always enjoyed just walking in the woods – especially when I have an apple and an egg-salad sandwich or two in my pack.
I did read, at least in part, some of Gibbons’ books: Stalking the Wild Asparagus written in 1962, Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop in 1964 and Stalking the Healthful Herbs in 1966. Gibbons also wrote a number of articles for National Geographic Magazine, including one in the July 1972 issue which described a two-week stay on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine where Gibbons, along with his wife Freda and a few family friends, relied solely on the island’s resources for sustenance. For some reason I’ve always remembered that article. He would have kicked butt on the television program Survivor.
Tubers, leaves, flowers, seeds, nuts and the stems of many plants are edible, not to mention certain fungi. Some can be eaten raw while others are best boiled or roasted. Some can be used in soups or made into tea, while others are used in a variety of homeopathic cures and medicines. Most fast and processed foods were once natural – at least in part.
In the process of reading on the internet about wild foods, natural medicines and other edible products derived from nature, I discovered some pretty interesting facts.
Did you know that the young shoots of the spruce tree are high in vitamin C or that Capt. Cook had a sugar-based spruce beer made onboard during his sea voyages to prevent scurvy among the crew. And, that certain wild plants such as the jack-in-the-pulpit, more commonly known as the Indian turnip, have high concentrations of oxalate compounds, also known as oxalic acid, that produces a sharp burning sensation in your mouth and throat and can damage the kidneys. The same plant can be safely eaten after simply baking, roasting or drying, which destroys the oxalate crystals. Or that willow bark, which provides salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally synthesized, was used as a pain reliever by the ancient Greeks some 2,500 years ago. There are more than 70,000 kinds of mushrooms, however, only a fraction – about 250 – are edible. The rest can cause illness or even death.
Death cap mushrooms are considered to be the number-one cause of illness and death when it comes to mushroom-related poisonings in North America. And, despite its attractive appearance, the “destroying angel” is the name of yet another mushroom that can kill you. This is why it’s so important to know exactly what you’re looking for when you go mushroom hunting in the woods.
And, although many of us buy them at the grocery store and willingly eat them, the common white mushroom is actually a fungi, and in more instances than not, fungi are something best left alone. When your feet agree itchy, you’ve probably got Athlete’s Foot, which is caused by – you guessed it – a fungus. Fungi and the spores from fungi can be nasty little things. In some cases they can even be deadly.
While I’ve never eaten a pine tree or really gotten into the whole foraging for and eating of wild plants and fungi thing, I have begun to appreciate a more natural diet. I just figure there’s less chance of Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli bacteria, from fish I catch in the lake or plants I grow in my own garden.
I wonder what pine nuts taste like?
