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Foraging Coffee Alternative

 
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Hi All,

This is my first time posting. I've been trying to learn more about wildcrafting and foraging.  I want to get away from coffee and would like to find something I can forage that makes a nice coffee alternative. I will be harvesting dandelions later, but I want to reserve those for the bees for the spring.  If anyone has ideas, I would really appreciate your direction.
 
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there are several plants that can be a good alternative to coffee depending on where you live.

I really like yerba mate though it is a South American plant.

Yaupon holly is also an alternative that grows in Texas where I live, and other places.

Chicory is good and has a pretty blue flower.
 
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Are you looking for taste, caffeine, or both?

From my own observations, a lot of the things that can be "roasted and used as a coffee substitute" don't taste like coffee. They taste like "overcooked". I've been told that mesquite seeds are the exception, but haven't had the chance to try them myself.

Caffeine is hard to find, especially this far north. As far as I know, the only caffeine source that will grow in my part of Wisconsin is cleaver seeds. If you're in one of the warmer states, look for yaupon holly or yerba mate, as Anne suggested.
 
Janet Wolff
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So, I realized after posting I wasn't very specific and left out a few details. I'm in Washington state (U.S.) and the climate is varied with ocean, temperate rain forests, and plains on the east side of the mountains.  I'm not really looking for caffeine, more of a earthy flavor.  I do enjoy roasted dandelion, but I was hoping for a spring alternative so I could leave the dandelions for the bees.  I was hoping to go out to the woods and forage for something I can roast.  I don't think chicory grows wild, does it?  I'll have to look up how to identify that.  I've heard of roasting mushrooms or something - we will have morels soon, but I've never gone out to harvest those. Only the chanterelles, which are really good but I don't think they are earthy enough for roasting for a coffee/tea. Hope that helps!  Thank you everyone for some ideas. I'm going to check those out as well.  If anyone has any ideas for rummaging through a forest, please let me know.
 
Anne Miller
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Janet said, " I don't think chicory grows wild, does it?{/quote]

It at least grows wild in Louisiana.

The root is what is a coffee substitute.

There are two kinds of chicory.

Chicory is grown as a forage crop for livestock. It lives as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe, and is now common in North America, China, and Australia, where it has become widely naturalized.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory

 
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Chicory grows wild here in Wisconsin too, at least one kind does.  I have lots of it growing on my land.  The kind I have looks like the flower below.
chicory.JPG
Chicory flower
Chicory flower
 
Janet Wolff
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"There are two kinds of chicory.

Chicory is grown as a forage crop for livestock."

I didn't know there were two - I did see there are a couple of different flower colors. I'm wondering if it might grow over in Eastern Washington as the summers get hot and dry over there.  Western is too damp and cold most of the year for chicory.
 
Anne Miller
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Actually, there may be more than one variety.

Years ago when I was researching chicory I was getting something called endive.

Description - Endive (Cichorium endiva) and chicory Cichorium intybus) are members of the Composite family. Endive has two forms, narrow-leaved endive called curly endive and the broad-leaved endive which is often called escarole. ... Chicory for greens is grown much the same way.



https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/endive.html

Trace have you tried Chicory?

When I grew it we ground up the roots and just mixed it with coffee to extend the coffee.  No one said the coffee tasted different.

 
Janet Wolff
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Anne Miller, that is interesting. I've heard of endive, but didn't know it could be used as a tea or coffee substitute. I'll have to look that up. But I'm pretty sure that has to be cultivated, right? Not foraged?
 
Trace Oswald
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Anne Miller wrote:

Trace have you tried Chicory?

When I grew it we ground up the roots and just mixed it with coffee to extend the coffee.  No one said the coffee tasted different.



I haven't. I'm not a coffee drinker. I just enjoy the plant for its flowers. It seems to thrive on terrible soil. Mine grows best along the sides of my very long driveway in what is basically just dirt mixed with breaker rock that was brought in to make the driveway before I bought the land.  I tried to pull one to see the roots and I have to think the root is very deep and very strong because I couldn't pull the plant from the ground.
 
Anne Miller
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The thing about endive is I don't know if its roots are good for coffee as I have never read that.

Something that you might forage for is berries plants.  Most have leaves that tea can be made from.
 
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A couple of other suggestions from here: purple/water avens (Geum rivale), American beech (Fagus grandifolia) nuts, the Kentucky coffee tree, fever wort, and sunflower. Of these I've tried the water avens, and unless I prepared it wrong I can't really recommend it (see my 'blog) Maybe it needs roasting first?
From here barley tea is suggested (we sell a barley coffee drink and it is quite popular, although I haven't tried it myself) they succeeded in making a blend using acorns, and also mention burdock root as a possibility. They give quite a detailed method for preparation, which you may find useful.
 
Janet Wolff
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American beech (Fagus grandifolia) nuts, the Kentucky coffee tree, fever wort, and sunflower, barley tea blend using acorns, and burdock root.

A lot of great possibilities here! Thanks so much! I'm curious about the sunflower. Although I can't exactly forage some of these, I can try my hand at planting the sunflower and some chicory and see what happens up here in the cooler, damp NW air.
 
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a couple more non-caffeine options include chaga mushroom and crushed, dark-roasted black walnuts (including shell) aren’t bad. i know ellendra doesn’t like the seemingly random ‘just roast it dark’ options, but if what you’re after is slightly bitter roastiness, it’s not a bad option.
 
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greg mosser wrote:a couple more non-caffeine options include chaga mushroom and crushed, dark-roasted black walnuts (including shell) aren’t bad. i know ellendra doesn’t like the seemingly random ‘just roast it dark’ options, but if what you’re after is slightly bitter roastiness, it’s not a bad option.



I'm not familiar with chaga mushrooms - I'll have to look that up. I've heard of using mushrooms for coffee and sometimes see ads for a mushroom coffee-type blend in my FB feed. I LOVE black walnuts! Hails back to my childhood in the midwest!  So, do you just crush it all up, roast it and then...what...boil or steep in some water??? This actually sounds delicious!
 
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chaga is a wood conk that grows on birch trees - admittedly, i don’t know if you’ve got them where you are. i think the black walnuts in washington are a different species (or hybrids) than in the midwest/east, but the process should be the same. yeah, crush them up, roast until dark, and simmer in water for a while - then strain well! that’s nuts with shell, but no hull. hulling and some level of curing should come first. there are some other threads on processing black walnuts elsewhere on permies.
 
Janet Wolff
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Thanks, Greg Mosser!
 
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Chicory grew wild where I lived in New York State and Massachusetts in the 1970s through 90s. I think it's probably a widely adapted wild plant. It had the blue flowers shown previously on this page. But I don't know if the species of chicory whose root is roasted and used as a coffee adulterant is the same species.
 
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I like chickory coffee. Going to try growing some this year for that purpose. There is a commercial brand of coffee around here that contains some chickory. https://www.totallynawlins.com/Luzianne-Premium-Blend-Coffee-Chicory-16-oz_p_30.html
 
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Mike Barkley wrote:I like chickory coffee. Going to try growing some this year for that purpose. There is a commercial brand of coffee around here that contains some chickory. https://www.totallynawlins.com/Luzianne-Premium-Blend-Coffee-Chicory-16-oz_p_30.html



I guess I'm now concerned about the extended use of chicory having impact on our retinas... Kinda weird, but I'm just not learning about that.  Do you know anything about it?
 
Mike Barkley
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I've never heard of that before.
 
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There do seem to be a few references online to retinal damage due to "excessive and prolonged" use of chiccory. I gather you are likely to have other less ominous symptoms of digestive issues before then though. I'm now looking at it as a deep rooted soil improver....
 
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Have you considered yaupon holly? It is native to the southeastern US and is cold hardy to zone 7. You can make a tea of the green leaves leaves just like it’s cousin,Yerba mate (Ilex Paraguariensis), and is very tasty. However, the Native Americans of the southeast would slow roast the leaves to make a more savory beverage called the “Black Drink” or Asi Yola. If fact, the Seminole warrior Osceola’s name meant “ Black drink singer”. As an added benefit, yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) does contain caffeine. It grows quickly, is evergreen, and thrives in poor soils with little care. I’ll be taking cuttings from some wild Yaupons and ornamental weeping Yaupons tomorrow that I hope will be rooted and ready in late spring or early summer. Get up with me later this year if the plant sound like a good fit for you. Either way, good luck.
 
Mike Barkley
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I knew about yaupon but had completely forgot about it until a few days ago. It not only contains caffeine but tastes good too. It's more of a tea than a coffee. I think it has many of the same antioxidant properties of tea. Not 100% sure about that. The caffeine level is in between the two. Yaupon grows wild here. There's more available within a 1 minute walk from the front door than we could drink in a year. A few years ago when Texas was in a severe drought it was the only tree that didn't seem to suffer. It will probably be my drink of choice this summer. Free tea, what's not to like?

Be careful to identify it properly. There is a type of privet that looks similar. That contains poison.
 
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One up for cleavers (Galium aparine) seeds! I tried once, just roasting the seeds, crushing and steeping. It tasted like coffee, plus... something. My ex thought it tasted like "coffee, with a slight addition of brown beans." I'm going to experiment further, got some seeds last autumn. Maybe soaking/fermenting prior to roasting might improve things, coffee beans are fermented I believe? Cleaver seeds, as mentioned, are also supposed to contain some caffeine, though way less than coffee.
 
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Thomas Black wrote:Have you considered yaupon holly? It is native to the southeastern US and is cold hardy to zone 7. You can make a tea of the green leaves leaves just like it’s cousin,Yerba mate (Ilex Paraguariensis), and is very tasty. However, the Native Americans of the southeast would slow roast the leaves to make a more savory beverage called the “Black Drink” or Asi Yola. If fact, the Seminole warrior Osceola’s name meant “ Black drink singer”. As an added benefit, yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) does contain caffeine. It grows quickly, is evergreen, and thrives in poor soils with little care. I’ll be taking cuttings from some wild Yaupons and ornamental weeping Yaupons tomorrow that I hope will be rooted and ready in late spring or early summer. Get up with me later this year if the plant sound like a good fit for you. Either way, good luck.




I've never heard of it - probably because I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I wonder if there's any possibility of it growing decently up here. Sounds very interesting and I'd love to try it!
 
Janet Wolff
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Eino Kenttä wrote:One up for cleavers (Galium aparine) seeds! I tried once, just roasting the seeds, crushing and steeping. It tasted like coffee, plus... something. My ex thought it tasted like "coffee, with a slight addition of brown beans." I'm going to experiment further, got some seeds last autumn. Maybe soaking/fermenting prior to roasting might improve things, coffee beans are fermented I believe? Cleaver seeds, as mentioned, are also supposed to contain some caffeine, though way less than coffee.



Where do you find these?
 
Eino Kenttä
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Mainly places with disturbed soil, I believe. I found mine in the vegetable garden. It's an annual, unlike most of its relatives, so probably it disappears in later succession habitat, although its climbing habit might help it persist for a bit. It being an annual is probably also the reason it has relatively large and plentiful seeds. From what I understand, the seeds of other Galium species are usable in the same way, but the seeds of most of them are tiny.

Edit to say that it is native to Europe and Asia, and introduced (and/or native?) in North America.
 
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I looked up the Gallium.  I believe we have that growing here in the PNW. I'm currently studying to tell the difference between the healthy and more toxic varieties. The easy way, so far, seems to be the size of the flower and the leaves. The good Gallium seems to have leaves that are a little more varied in size all over the plant. I'm excited to learn more about this!
 
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Janet Wolff, we have cleavers that started showing up (as far as I noticed) only last year.  This year, they're popping up all over!  I'm thinking about making the "cold tea" recipe as on here:
"To create a cleavers cold water infusion, chop fresh cleavers plants and drop them into a tall mason jar. Cover with filtered water, screw on the lid, and allow water to steep in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, strain and serve."
http://www.journeywithhealthyme.com/2019/05/28/cleavers-cold-water-infusion/?msclkid=ff75e8acd08f11eca663e9e02882f3ee
but I didn't know there are "toxic varieties."  
Have you found any other info on what's toxic about it, and how to tell the good cleavers from toxic cleavers?  

btw, another link says cleavers can be used as a vegetable, another thing new to me!  
http://www.myhealthyhomemadelife.com/spring-foraging-5-ways-use-cleavers/?msclkid=ff7639ded08f11ec80cbc0b53bc34e0d
 
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by the way, I grew chicory, the kind with pretty blue flowers used in what I think of as "Cajun coffee."  There's a kind of coffee called "CDM," as in "Cafe du Monde" that has quite a bit of chicory in it and is delicious to me.  

When I grew chicory, I pulled the roots, cleaned them, and started chopping.  
Each root has a soft outer part and a harder inner part.  I tried saving only the soft part, (the hard inner part is like a narrow tube inside each root);  finally ended up with about a cup of the chopped soft part of the roots, which I proceeded to roast gently;  end result was absolutely DELICIOUS, the most delicious chicory I'd ever tasted mixed with coffee.  The bad part though, and what made me quit with the growing of chicory, was the huge amount of time and effort needed to separate the hard from the soft part of the roots.  I can only guess that the makers of the chicory we can buy don't separate hard from soft.  
 
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Other options not yet mentioned:

- burdock root (processing is similar to dandelion)
- California cofeeberry - probably not hardy for PNW winters, but coffeeberry seeds look and taste a lot like coffee beans. No caffeine though.
- acorn coffee. This requires a fair amount of processing, since acorns will need to be shelled, crushed, leached of tannins using several changes of water over hours-days, and then roasted -- but locally adapted species of oaks are widespread.

 
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I drink chicory every morning, and add just a touch of coffee and a touch of tea, and other herbs.  I love it.  I hope it’s not harming my retinas!

Chicory root is a rich source of inulin (I think ).

Inulin is supposed to be a favorite food for desirable gut micro biome.

I was wondering if you have considered growing tea.  Camellia sinensis is the tea plant.  I don’t know what it requires, but I think it tolerates some “frost”.  I also think it’s an understory evergreen, so it might be growable… a microhabitat under some evergreens, at the edge of the “forest” so that some sunlight shines in and warms things up…. Some dark stones to hold the heat. Maybe big dark rocks partly buried to warm the ground.  It might be a fun puzzle!

 
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I'm in Oregon (Zone 7) and coffee berry grows wild here.  
 
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:
Chicory root is a rich source of inulin (I think ).
Inulin is supposed to be a favorite food for desirable gut micro biome.



Yup. It is also the primary source of commercially available inulin.
 
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Janet Wolff wrote:I looked up the Gallium.  I believe we have that growing here in the PNW. I'm currently studying to tell the difference between the healthy and more toxic varieties. The easy way, so far, seems to be the size of the flower and the leaves. The good Gallium seems to have leaves that are a little more varied in size all over the plant. I'm excited to learn more about this!



One of the easiest ways to identify cleavers is by touch. It clings to everything like Velcro, even when the plant is green and growing. Cleavers exhibits this trait the most out of the galliums (and look alike gallums) that I've encountered. Once you know it, it's hard to mistake.

I've heard that cleavers seed could make a coffee substitute. Glad to hear someone is trying it out!

Personally, I stopped drinking coffee long ago and now love my herbal teas. But I do enjoy a good rich dark earthy brew now and then, especially in autumn. My favorite way to achieve a satisfying complexity of flavor and richness is with chaga tea, roasted dandelion and/or burdock root plus hickory nut milk.

I make the chaga tea separately and brew it on low in a crockpot for several hours (or all day). I leave the chaga chunks in the liquid while it cools overnight in the fridge. This is my lazy way to do a "double extraction" to get the most medicinal benefits out of the mushrooms. The process can be repeated with the same chaga chunks, but subsequent batches will be weaker and lighter in color. The first batch will be really dark, looking very much like coffee in appearance. This method makes a concentrated brew. I like to freeze it for later and use it in small amounts while cooking or mix it with other ingredients when I want a warm nourishing drink. We make hickory nut milk separately too, and quite often have some of that canned or in the freezer as well. Just chaga and hickory nut milk alone can make a very satisfying drink unique in flavor. It could rival coffee, in my opinion.
 
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According to this article yaupon has caffeine 👍

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210223-yaupon-the-rebirth-of-americas-forgotten-tea
 
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Chicory grows best in disturbed soil and on woodland edges.   Dig up roots in fall.  Here is my favorite way to roast.  And as the author says,  it is worth it for the way your house smells that day, like warm mocha,  mmmmm.
https://honest-food.net/because-i-can-vol-2-chicory-coffee/
 
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I think it was Chicorium endiva that my mom used during WWII, when there was no coffee to be had at any price in France.
It was dried, then roasted. I was too young to get any but mom reverted gleefully to coffee after the war, so I don't think it tastes much like the real thing.
A long time ago, it was grown as a coffee substitute: As the story goes, the root would be harvested in the fall and packed in storage. A farmer forgot to make coffee out of it. In the spring, he found it in his basement growing and tasted it as a salad, and the Belgian endive or "chicon" was born. In February, March, it fetches a high price as there is no bitterness that you sometime get with dandelions in the spring.
So during the first growth, the leaves look just like dandelion but just a bit wider [AKA lion's teeth, for those of you who don't speak French].
after being stored, usually in a bucket of sand] and forced (in darkness or it will grow green and bitter), the leaves are smooth and thicker. It looks like a shell you place in a cannon, but smaller, of course, or like a big ear of corn. I cut the whole thing crosswise. Because it is not in soil, it is very clean, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endive#:~:text=Endive%20(%2F%CB%88%C9%9Bnd,(also%20called%20common%20chicory).

I love it as a salad, with sliced, pickled beets.
I keep promising myself that one of these days, I will try and treat the bigger dandelions the same way just to see if maybe...
 
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All very instructive and interesting.  One plant that I have known as providing a coffee substitute is cattail.  It grows throughout the Northern Hemisphere and is a major wildcraft resource.  The root can be dug (preferably late in the year) with the root cleaned, chopped and roasted.  But, it is far more than just a coffee substitute.  I found this url on multiple uses:  https://www.survivalsullivan.com/cattail-uses/

This url provides a list of the nutrients found in various parts of the cattail: https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/cattail/

The pollen can be used to stretch flour, the post-pollen fluff for combustible material and insulation.  In fact, there is a process patented in Germany where cattail is prepared with magnesium and pressed to create a fine, insulative and potentially structural building material: https://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/2013/07/research-suggest-cattail-insulating-material/

Sorry for taking the thread off-subject, but it is a coffee substitute, and possibly a healthier substitute.
 
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