Water crops?

Hey folks. My husband and I (60 each) are retiring to a place that belonged to my deceased parents in rural southern IN (6a). There are 11 mostly wooded acres, two .25-acre clear spots with decent sun, and a 2-acre lake. I’m setting up my first ever garden, with 3 permaculture guilds, one deep raised bed for annual root crops, a straw bale garden with trellis for annuals, and some containers. The property is on spring water and I will water from the lake. What I’m wondering is, are there any food crops I can plant at the water’s edge? I know Asian water spinach is an invasive in Asia, but it would die over the winter here, so is that feasible? Any other suggestions?

Cattail comes to mind. All parts are edible at different times of the year.

Lotus root is a possibility. Not sure if it will overwinter in the pond.

Wild and/or regular rice is another.

I know there are a lot more options. A quick search online will give you more to go on.

My husband and I are in a very similar situation except we need to build the pond before I can plan in depth about the types of plants I want to go there. I'm planning both food/fodder crops as well as medicinal herbs. And some just because they will look great.

These plants are edible and recommended for a water garden:

   Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Water Spinach (Ipomoea aquatic), Taro (Colocasia esculenta), Water Chestnut (Eleocharis dulci), and Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea batatas)

I don't know anything about growing rice though that sounds like something that might work. here are some threads:

https://permies.com/t/164216/Growing-Wild-Rice-Zizania-Palustris

https://permies.com/t/102497/Fukuoka-rice-growing-success-explanation

I have a little tiny pond*, in which I'm trying cattail, Eurasian watermilfoil, either lotus or water lily, and Wapato.  As an oxygenator this year I'll probably try hornwort.

Note:  I'm not worrying about cattail taking over, as it's in baskets, and the whole pond* is tiny.  With a whole lake you'll want to be careful about which plants are invasive.

My running list of interesting plants (sites are German but you can grab the Latin name from them):

Filtration:
- https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/aehriges-tausendblatt-myriophyllum-spicatum.html

Oxygenators:  
- Hornwort - https://www.aquarienpflanzen-shop.de/Hornkraut-Ceratophyllum-demersum-im-Bund
- Red rotala - https://www.aquarienpflanzen-shop.de/Grosse-Rotala-Rotala-macrandra-Jungpflanzen-im-Aufzuchtbecher
- Water lettuce - https://www.aquarienpflanzen-shop.de/Muschelblume-Pistia-stratiotes

Pretty
- Indian lotus - https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/indische-lotosblume-nelumbo-nucifera-html.html
- American lotus - https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/amerikanische-lotosblume-nelumbo-lutea.html
- Nymphaea Berthold - https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/seerose-rosa-berthold
- Nymphaea dwarf - https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/zwergseerose-nymphaea-tetragona.html
- Giant pike weed - https://teichpflanzen-teichbau.com/riesenhechtkraut-pontederia-lanceolata.html edible (P. cordata l.) overwintering?

*ditch.  it is really a ditch.  But cute!

The only other plant from in the water which I can think of off the top 9f my head is Lake Cress (Rorippa Aquatica), but it's endangered & I don't know if it's even possible to get. Oh, also Tockwogh/ Tuckahoe.

At the actual water's edge, you could also get away with blueberry, deerberry, creek plum, Great Lakes Sand Cherry, edible grasses, like Inland Sea Oats, swamp oak (for acorns), hortulan plum (I think that's your native species, but not sure), currants & thicket service berry bush

In wet, flood prone spots, you can do cranberry, Atlantic Camas, possibly River Cane (actually not 100% sure on that one), raspberry, blackberry, Dewberry, wild buckwheat, of which we have multiple native species, if you're OK with the level of work, Michigan lily, Indian potato, Kentucky coffeetree, common milkweed, meadow garlic (which is actually an onion) & samphire greens (salicornia virginica or bigelovii?)

Due to my work in Taiwan I have seen in a supermarket a kind of "Grass" or "Sedge" and thought by myself it's green and never seen,
so for me it's clear:
It grows in Taiwan so it might grow in my food jungle, this screams for a taste test.
In my mind I saw already neighbors and friends jealously looking at a garden full of this "grass"

I thought sautéed you can never go wrong, oil into the sauce pan, cut the stuff in pieces of 5 cm and here we go...
And it was shrinking, more shrinking and even more shrinking.
The worry if I could eat a whole kilogram of this green was shrinking too.

BUT, the taste test was top of the notch and still I needed to know where it grows...

Google translate pointed on the price tag called it "Yelian" but didn't have much more to say about it..

My Taiwanese colleagues never heard about it, because of my "Chinglish" pronunciation..

Many weeks later it was available again and I asked a girl who was smiling at me in the supermarket.
She saw my helpless face and told me I should absolute try it, it is very very delicious and grows only in Meinong near Kaohsiung and is not often available here in the supermarket.

I was like:
I need a taxi NOW, where to get this fresh harvested Grass with seeds or roots, am I too late??

She started giggling and asked: "You mean it is Grass?? No Mister, it is the humble wild Lotus"

With sesame oil stir fried, roasted garlic and onions sprinkled over it is one of my favorite vegetables and every time I have the chance to eat it I think by myself: Yelian, where have you been all my life and what took you so long to find me..

Still I need the seeds or a few roots which I will defend to dead at the airport in case the customs will seize it...

and here a little story to it...
https://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2009/09/24-hours-in-meinong.html

plus some pictures

See Hes wrote:
I need a taxi NOW, where to get this fresh harvested Grass with seeds or roots, am I too late??

She started giggling and asked: "You mean it is Grass?? No Mister, it is the humble wild Lotus"

With sesame oil stir fried, roasted garlic and onions sprinkled over it is one of my favorite vegetables and every time I have the chance to eat it I think by myself: Yelian, where have you been all my life and what took you so long to find me..

Still I need the seeds or a few roots which I will defend to dead at the airport in case the customs will seize it...

and here a little story to it...
https://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2009/09/24-hours-in-meinong.html

plus some pictures

See, I read your linked story and I seriously about started to cry. Twenty years ago, I lived in Taiwan for about five months and miss the food so much, especially because my Chinese wasn't good enough to figure out a lot of the names of ingredients. I've since deduced a lot of them but there are still some mysteries left unsolved. I remember eating those green stems! They were the best, most delicious thing ever!!! And now I know what they are called. Thank you! Though I don't know if I'd ever find them here.

Anne, if you can grow these... So worth it!

From eat the weeds.

See, this is what you mean when you call it a lotus? Cool to know how to use the stems now too!

I've been playing with the idea of getting some.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:
From eat the weeds.
See, this is what you mean when you call it a lotus? Cool to know how to use the stems now too!
I've been playing with the idea of getting some.

Hi Joylynn,

Your picture shows sure another Lotus Type than the one in Tainan eaten.
But we also eat bigger Lotus in Thailand and they are also good,
but the Wild Lotus taste lets fly the wire out of the hat when eaten.

Considering the Photo I posted, you see the common Duckweed (Lemna minor) and it looks to me that there are the lotus leaves in between.
They seem to be much smaller than every Lotus I have seen so far.

My wife will be here for holiday in July and I will take her to Kaohsiung which is only 56 Kilometers away and chasing the Lotus seeds.
If we can find them I will certainly post some self made and self explaining photos here..
If I get some seeds offered I will grab deep into the bag and stuff my pockets, then put a few in the envelope and will send them @Jenny Wright.

Now we need just to find the botanical Name because if you ask Google for "Wild Lotus" it shows another breed or even an AK 47 Machine Gun.

Wild Rice

Is actually a grass with all the same characteristics as a whole grain, but has twice the protein and more nutrients than brown rice, easy to digest, can be made into flour (gluten free), can be popped like popcorn, and is alkaline when digested.

.

Saturday was my day off.
Despite raining season I jumped on my Gogoro early morning, trusted the Gogoro battery exchange station network and took a ride to Meinong.

The trip brought me into the rural parts of Taiwan and there were not many e-scooters driving.
My biggest fear was to carry two 9 Kilo power packs for miles exchange them and carry the full ones back.

But I must admit all at least 4 miles is somewhere a station with full batteries waiting.

here we go:

Arrived in Meinong I found some ponds and one girl gave me some info.
No seeds are available but she called her uncle and he told me that I will get some roots before I fly back to Thailand.

Very interesting plant. I found some more info about Nymphoides hydrophylla


Have a nice trip.

Very interesting plant. I found some more info about Nymphoides hydrophylla.

Cheers May,

this is the part of the research I was missing, the botanical name...
That makes the hunt way more easy..

Cheers

There's a list posted on the Plants for a Future website, focussed on UK, for ponds and bogs:
https://pfaf.org/user/cmspage.aspx?pageid=79

What about watercress? I've seen it growing in a spring even in the winter.

Watercress is one of the oldest known leafy vegetables consumed by humans including Hippocrates.

Used to prevent scurvy, it was carried by explorers and planted along the trans continental trails.

Nice peppery flavor, related to Wasabi.

Anne Logston wrote:Hey folks. My husband and I (60 each) are retiring to a place that belonged to my deceased parents in rural southern IN (6a). There are 11 mostly wooded acres, two .25-acre clear spots with decent sun, and a 2-acre lake. I’m setting up my first ever garden, with 3 permaculture guilds, one deep raised bed for annual root crops, a straw bale garden with trellis for annuals, and some containers. The property is on spring water and I will water from the lake. What I’m wondering is, are there any food crops I can plant at the water’s edge? I know Asian water spinach is an invasive in Asia, but it would die over the winter here, so is that feasible? Any other suggestions?

I've grown Water Chestnuts, I would put them in a bigish container that you can pull out of the water to harvest
I've use 50L (10-15 gal)containers, with soil in them is heavy enough to handle, I think
They go well in stir fries etc.. or eat raw!

Barry Embrey wrote:
I've grown Water Chestnuts, I would put them in a bigish container that you can pull out of the water to harvest
I've use 50L (10-15 gal)containers, with soil in them is heavy enough to handle, I think
They go well in stir fries etc.. or eat raw!

You'd be referring to Eleocharis dulcis, which can be eaten raw, and needs the same conditions as rice. There's another water chestnut, Trapa natans, grown for its edible seeds, which are toxic when raw, and need boiling - my book (Phillips and Rix) says for at least an hour. This is the plant that may be familiar as a wild one in S Europe and E USA.

If there is a spot in your pond where the water is running, you can grow wasabi.  You probably won't eat all of it, but it can become a cash crop. Japanese restaurants and Asian gourmets will purchase the fresh root from you. It's not something that is grown too much in the US. More on wasabi

Recently came across lotus root in an Asian market.  It was sliced and looked to interesting so I bought it not knowing how I should cook it.  Well, I experimented with making stir fry and cut each round in half and adding it to the other vegetables in the skillet.  Was it ever delicious!  Has a slightly sweet taste, not as crunchy as water chestnuts but very nice flavor.  I wonder if you are able to grow lotus root in your zone ?  https://www.epicgardening.com/how-to-grow-lotus-root/

Anne Logston wrote:Hey folks. My husband and I (60 each) are retiring to a place that belonged to my deceased parents in rural southern IN (6a). There are 11 mostly wooded acres, two .25-acre clear spots with decent sun, and a 2-acre lake. I’m setting up my first ever garden, with 3 permaculture guilds, one deep raised bed for annual root crops, a straw bale garden with trellis for annuals, and some containers. The property is on spring water and I will water from the lake. What I’m wondering is, are there any food crops I can plant at the water’s edge? I know Asian water spinach is an invasive in Asia, but it would die over the winter here, so is that feasible? Any other suggestions?

If the water moves, watercress would be a great crop. I know that it survives easily hear in zone 4b, with no winterkill. I'm trying to start some near my rain barrel. I just need a small pump to keep recirculating the water. I'm looking for a recirculating solar pump.

Here in Missouri we have the native lotus with yellow flowers but I am not sure how big the roots are. I bought the sacred lotus seeds ( Nelumbo nucifera hardy to zone 5) and was able to germinate them in water. Somehow I let the bowl dry out.  In order to get harvest fast, I went with tubers this year and got two varieties from Ten Mile Creek Nursery this year. One is ornamental and the other is specific for growing edible roots. As shown in the picture below, the edible one has much bigger root. I planted them in a 19 gallon tub and a 32 gallon trash can respectively and they both have leafed out nicely.

I would second the idea of blueberries - in southern and coastal Maine (zone 5ish), the uninhabited edges of many lakes are covered with high bush blueberries (not sure of the subspecies). But if you time your harvest right, you can fill a gallon bucket in 15 minutes or less.  Assuming, of course, that the deer, birds and two legged foragers haven't been there before you!

I have been planting water cress under leaky faucets outdoors for a long time.  The cress grows just fine with the hose being run every couple of days.  It's not finicky and easy to grow.   This way I use all the water and don't have to feel guilty about the occasional drip.

Today's Permies Daily-ish has something you may like.  Jules posted this thread on building a frog bog -- at a kid's school.  If you can attract frogs then you don't have to worry about mosquitoes at all.  I love this idea, but I don't think I have the skill or the strength to execute it.  But, I'm thinking -- maybe I can adapt it.
Jules said: "Well, isn't this a delightful BB thread about creating frog habitat? I almost tripped over the most luminous and beautiful green tree frog just yesterday, who was not in a tree... The first video in this thread shows the wonderful Costa from Gardening Australia – a legend – and you'll see why!" https://permies.com/wiki/148750/frog-habitat