Melinda Oosthuysen

Phil Stevens wrote:Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) is one of our most common introduced "weeds" here. Evidently there's a complex of closely related species with edible ripe berries and leaves, many of which are cultivated. I took a group of cub scouts on a foraging walk last week and introduced them to the fruit and got responses from "meh" to "those are yum."

They can be confused with deadly nightshade, so be careful, and apparently even the safe species are capable of producing toxic alkaloids under certain conditions, probably related to soil types and stress. The Wikipedia entries go into more detail about this, so all I would advise is to limit how many you eat unless you know more about the strain you're picking.

I did research it before tasting it but what you say about strains and soil makes good sense.  Thank you.  

I've just discovered this wonderful little berry.  I've never encountered this plant before.  It planted itself in my garden and I let it grow, waiting to see what it was.  I get such a kick out of discovering plants for food that are not cultivated.  And the happy little berries are delicious, tasting like a cross between a tomato and a cherry.  Now I need to learn how to propagate it

Your hair is pretty much the same as mine in terms of curl and texture.  What I struggle with is waking up with bed hair that's all knotted and frizzed.  I know I should only use a comb but it still looks messy so I end up using a brush but then it brushes all the curl/wave out.  I suppose I should tie my hair up to sleep.

I took a stroll in my fairly wild little cul-de-sac street and spotted some rotting things on the ground under a large tree.  I looked up and couldn't believe my eyes at all the dragon fruit.  I'm feasting.

I'm new to foraging and new to this excellent site.  I live in suburban South Africa in a sub-tropical climate.  We have small patches of bush every now and again between the houses but they are far to dangerous to explore.  In my tiny little cul de sac road, I have found an abundance.  Gotu kola, gallant soldier, nasturtium, wild ginger, mulberry, black jack, amaranth, spekboom, amatingulu, dandelions, black eyed susan and that's just the tiny 7m x 2m patch and other smaller patches opposite my house and along my short road.  I'm guerilla gardening along my road with nasturtium at the moment.  At the moment I am settling down to a cup of lemon grass tea harvested from within my property and will later enjoy the impatiens cordial I prepared last night sprinkled with elderberry flowers.  Hibiscus or Turk's cap tea is also an option.  And then there's my purslane, jasmine, granadilla, surinam cherries, amatingulu, hostas, sorrel, waterberry and fleabane.  I have potatoes, gem squash and butternut sprouting from my kitchen scraps and am about to nibble on a few male butternut/gem flowers and drymaria cordata.  I know where to go to find pepper and pine trees.  This is just the beginning and I'm so looking forward to learning more about the plant life around me.  I'm in eden.  Life is good.  

lemongrass for tea