New Foods I Now Eat Since Embracing Permaculture

I thought it might be interesting to see how peoples’ food choices have changed since being introduced to the concept of permaculture. I’m not 100% a permaculturalist myself, but permaculture concepts have changed my lifestyle. I’ve changed our daily diet quite a bit, and what I feel is neat is that i learned about a lot of new food options right here on permits.com.  And then things snowballed ——I tried several locally grown/available foods some of which have become regulars in my kitchen.

From Rufaro I learned that the greens of sweet potato and pumpkin/gourd were edible. From others who I can’t recall right now, I got introduced to Okinawan spinach, cholesterol spinach, Tongan spinach, water spinach, yacon, cassava, plantains. And I now cook the tender innards of broccoli stems.

Since moving to Hawaii , I’ve learned about and eat when available : breadfruit, mango, guava, papaya, taro, dragon fruit, jackfruit, mamaki (for tea), jackfruit, angle gourds, passion fruit (called Lilikoi here), tomatillos, New Zealand spinach, yard long beans, malabar spinach, sapote, mangosteen, soursop, ……and maybe more, but I can’t recall just now. Also gracing my table, when available, it feral pig, doves, and Kalije pheasants.

So how about it?  Anybody eating something new?

Lambs Quarters and Plantain have been added to my menu.  

Can't think of much I have added. But I am more aware of details of what I am eating.
I have more changed how I garden, than what I grow.

Lambs quarters, persimmon, purslane, redbud tea, woodear mushrooms, lamb

Lambsquarters, garlic mustard, catnip (tea), nettles, thimbleberry, crabapples (occasionally ate big ones before, eat more now), dandelion, hablitzia, good king henry, sheep sorrel, potato onions, birch and maple syrup, anise hyssop, stropharia, wild strawberries, violets, ditch lilies, milkweed pods, rosehips...

I can't remember a time in my life that I was not a forager, but it was almost completely not on the lot I lived on.  Now I forage almost exclusively in my food forests.  One big change to my eating habits is with the pulses of new foods.  I end up heavy grazing on whatever is ripening.  Lots of spontaneous fruit gorging.  Just wrapping up now on kiwis and apples.  Sunroom is drying up herbs and a batch of chestnuts for flour making.  I need to process a mound of pawpaws and another of flowering quinces.  Autumn olives are begging to be made into fruit leather.  Besides so many new foods, the way I eat now has been strongly influenced by what is ready outside my door.  Less planning and more reacting.  More off the cuff cooking.

I do still eat from the store.  Currently dealing with mild food poisoning from a recall that was a day too late for me.  Hmmm.  Maybe my next permaculture food change is to give up on our food distribution system.  My food forest has never made me sick.

To the best of my knowledge I have not tried any new foods.

What I have done is to add plants I have not grown before that I have eaten not grown.

I also have learned about the medicinal value of plants.

I understand that almost any leaf can be eaten if the plant is edible.  Even tomato leaves.

I'd avoid eating any greens from tomato family plants ..

"The steroidal glycoalkaloids  (SGAs) produced in Solanaceae crops, including tomato, are antinutritional because of their cellular toxicity and resultant bitter taste to humans."

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads9601

Peach leaves are poisonous too... Although I will admit these plants are probably the exception and not the rule.  From North Carolina Extension Gardener Toolbox:

While the fruit is edible the seeds and wilted leaves are poisonous especially if eaten in quantity

Anyways I don't think I've seen chickweed mentioned and I suddenly eat a bunch of that in the spring. Then of course there's Lamb's quarters, purslane, and dandelion flowers. I'll sometimes put them in a quick bread recipe I like. I do not like dandelion leaves or roots.

I'm tempted to try my daylily roots after we've had more cold weather.  It's just the orangy red one that I think is the species so it should be edible.

I've been interested in permaculture most of my adult life, so changes in my diet have been pretty gradual. More foraged greens and more perennial plants. Not the sort of things you can buy!

foraged ingredients

source

As Anne mentioned, I've also become more aware of the medicinal value of foods and herbs particularly since joining this forum.

Anna Hutchins wrote:Peach leaves are poisonous too... Although I will admit these plants are probably the exception and not the rule.  From North Carolina Extension Gardener Toolbox:

While the fruit is edible the seeds and wilted leaves are poisonous especially if eaten in quantity

Anyways I don't think I've seen chickweed mentioned and I suddenly eat a bunch of that in the spring. Then of course there's Lamb's quarters, purslane, and dandelion flowers. I'll sometimes put them in a quick bread recipe I like. I do not like dandelion leaves or roots.

I'm tempted to try my daylily roots after we've had more cold weather.  It's just the orangy red one that I think is the species so it should be edible.

Peach leaves are medicinal and beneficial, but typically used as a tea/tisane, rather than as a veg.

https://nutritiveblog.com/peach-leaf-tea-benefits-and-how-to-prepare/

More wild greens— lamb’s quarters, purslane, goldenrod, wild lettuce. And eating more parts of plants through the season. E.g. the sprouts, buds,, flowers and leaves of radishes. Beans as green, shell, and dry forms. Corn silks chopped up with the kernels. Cores and trimmings used for soup stock.

Chickweed is one I only started eating a few years back, went from pulling it out as a weed to actually leaving patches of it. Just eat it raw, nice in salads while it lasts. Feels a bit ridiculous that I was removing it all those years.

Joao Winckler wrote:Feels a bit ridiculous that I was removing it all those years.

and if it doesn't come in my new polytunnel of it's own accord, I'll be looking for seed from it

Joao Winckler wrote:Chickweed .. Feels a bit ridiculous that I was removing it all those years.

Don't feel too bad.  I'm always surprised by how many "keen gardeners" have no ideal how many edible & tasty plants they just call "weeds".

Since permaculture?  Not since gardening, or organic gardening, or simple sustainable living....but since permaculture proper.....well, to be honest the biggest dietary breakthroughs have been dumpster diving and roadkill.  Right now I'm less than a quarter way through 100 pints of venison thanks to two deer that presented themselves in fresh condition on the way to town last winter.  And in said town, just one grocery store dumpster feeds me exotica almost every time I go...exotic fruits, sometimes in winemakeing quantities, meat, fish, cheeses, breads....sometimes so much as to pass up for lack of a plan or ways to share it....this will change when I get chickens again....

The changes have been 2-fold and both involve plants.  Getting serious about growing things and learning about permaculture have come in tandom for me.  Like I decided to become a gardener and within six months of "getting serious" about it I started learning about permaculture through permies here, and now from podcasts too.  So one thing is realizing and utilizing the healthful and resourcefulness of yard greens (here its usually mallow, dandylions, deadnettle, perslane, sorrel, clovers).  The second big one is utilizing more of each plant, not just the well-known parts that one eats when one buys fruit or veg. in the store.  Carrot tops, radish leaves, etc.

Re. tomato leaves yes they're poisonous if eaten raw, but if one boils them they can be eaten from what I've heard and seen.  I'd like to try, but my tomatoes were volunteers so needed their sweet little leaves this year, the leaves weren't abundant.

Most of the trees and bushes I'd planted were things I'd never tasted before; some have yet to come to fruition, but I'll be excited to see them.  One of my American persimmons started fruiting this year.  The paw paw flowered and I didn't brush any pollen, so no fruit yet. Kiwi berries have been a wonderful treat, I've had Concord grapes growing here for about 40 years, but if I didn't grow it, I'd never know the sweetness a grape could possess. Goumis, mulberries, hazelnuts, medlars, Asian pears, quince, rhubarb, currants, gooseberries, elderberries, fresh figs, serviceberries, Cornus Kousa, ground cherries, bush cherries, Winecap mushrooms are all new flavors that I've embraced...the list could go on and on. Yes, all the "weeds" like purslane, chickweed, etc.  The medicinal usage of plants has been staggering.

I truly love all of it.  I love the new flavors, trees and bushes in all seasons, but especially in spring bloom (and of course at harvest time), eating seasonally, sharing with friends, neighbors and the food shelf, the learning of new skills and knowledge like canning, wine and medicine making.  I love the reciprocity of plants: give them a little care and they will give back so much more. I love the ecology of it when the leaves break down to re-nourish its parent plant and help it to stay hydrated, but also allow for soft landings and a winter's refuge for insects and small creatures.  I love watching the wildlife and cyclical nature of the seasons and web of life that lives in my garden.  I even appreciate the daily exercise that I must do year round to keep things right.  I love that it gets me outside for hours every day

I feel my heart almost hurt when I look at all the beauty offered to me in the garden.  I love watching creatures doing what they do, going about their lives: bumblebees climbing into hosta flowers buzzing all the while or just climbing in to go to sleep, or birds pulling at the serviceberries or a catbird scolding me when I go to pick the pie cherries, hopping mad until I toss it a few of the damaged ones, bunnies eating the clover that I planted throughout the lawn, or frogs hiding out under cover from the sun and dragonflies darting about in speed racing circles gathering insects with every round. Looking up and seeing hummingbirds resting on the wire above the garden or the lightning bugs that give me a fireworks show every evening in the summer. Wing prints of an owl in the snow was a sight that held me in awe as was the fox that trotted out in front of me as I walked out back.  It stopped and looked back at me as if to say, "Are you coming?!" and then trotted on its way.

I guess I got a little far afield from the original topic of new foods, but it's these new foods that has brought me so much more.  Certainly, there are things that frustrate me; I've written about a skunk that had become my nemesis for over a year, but at the end of the day, I understand that it is just trying to survive in a very difficult world.  I think I've solved the problem of it entering the crawlspace, and I don't mind it finding a home somewhere outside on the property, just not under any of the buildings.  I'm thrilled that they eat grubs and ticks and if it gets a little fruit, I'm okay with that, too.  After all, permaculture is all about Earthcare, people care and fair share!

I got allot of cross over from foraging, but I have been eating crab apples, lambs quarters, stinging nettle, wine cap mushroom, wood sorrel, ground cherries, black locust flowers, autumn olive, dew berries, blackberries, assorted raspberries, mystery melons and squashes that pop up

Mostly it’s been wild foods, and getting creative with adapting recipes to whatever is on hand. Rather than thinking “I need spinach for this recipe” and trying to grow that year-round, there are different wild greens to pick, or other easier-to-grow greens, and it all depends on the seasons.

Working with nature to eat what is growing naturally, rather than trying to force nature to grow what I want it to grow.

We have added a bunch of new foods to our diet since we now have them growing in the yard.  
American Hazelnuts
Wine Cap Mushrooms
Hardy Kiwi
Highbush Cranberries
Concord Grapes
Celeriac
Walking Onions
Nasturtiums
Borage Flowers
Winter Savory
Lovage  
Garlic Chives
Sour Cherries
Beaver Dam Peppers
Sweet Potato Leaves
Good King Henry
Horseradish
Perpetual Spinach Chard
Sunchokes
Gooseberries