Plantains

[sidelock]

Anyone else ever eat plantain????? I have eaten a bunch in spring when I was a kid.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yep my area has a large El Salvadoran immigrant population, West African too, as well as Peruvian, so we can get fried plantain, fried plantain chips, as well as fried Yucca. They're pretty good, but not nearly as nice as hush-puppies.

:thumbsup:

LD

 

[George]

I assumed sidelock was talking about weed plantain, not the faux banana. It grows much like dandelion in your lawn, and is edible in salads, sautéed, etc.

I had that as a kid in mixed greens salads, it's good.

Spence

 

[sidelock]

Exactly right Spence. We would pick all kinds of green stuff including dandelion, young shoots of black berry and polk for cooked salad when I was a kid about your age then living not very far from you.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Ate a lot of dandelion in the spring. I think plantains are the weeds. That we call pig ears. But in these parts, folks don't eat cooked greens, except spinach. I once had a book about edible plants of eastern north amEric and it seemed like nearly everything could be cooked and consumed with only a few exceptions

 

[Black Hand]

Most of the weeds people try to eradicate in their lawn are edible while the grass isn't nearly as palatable or digestible (unless you have a rumen). Go figure...

 

[coloradoclyde]

In the summer I can cut grass and my rabbits won't eat it.....but they love dandelions and will also eat plantain... Dandelions make up a large part of their diet.

Lawn grass is a working man's "hell". Grass is a monocot, The shorter and more you mow it the faster it grows. Then if you fertilize it will grow even faster....Mow, Mow, Mow.... What a way to waste beautiful summer weather.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Most of the weeds people try to eradicate in their lawn are edible while the grass isn't nearly as palatable or digestible (unless you have a rumen). Go figure...

Yep you walk the edges of a city park here and you'll find mallow, dandelion, and 3 or 4 others. Cat tails at the waters edge it's all there for the seeing just so few know to look any more.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Plantain does work well for treating Bee stings...I tried it this summer and it worked surprisingly well.

 

[Black Hand]

Plantain does work well for treating Bee stings...I tried it this summer and it worked surprisingly well.

I've not used Plantain, but Yarrow works very well...

 

[sidelock]

I don't think I have eaten cat tails. How are they prepaired ?

 

[Black Hand]

Depends on which part - The heads, leaves or roots? Heads can be used as a source of pollen (to add to flour) or boiled and eaten like corn (when immature). The heart of the leaves can be eaten raw and resemble heart-of-palm. The roots are a source of a starchy flour.

I've eaten the heart of the leaves - crisp, tender and mild-flavored. I've dabbled in extracting the flour from the roots.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I assumed sidelock was talking about weed plantain

The problem I have with the greens called plantain, as well as dandelion and clover, (and chickory root for coffee, and chickweed) is finding a field where I can harvest it. Eating it from a lawn is not very smart in a townhouse community, as most folks that treat their lawns do so with chemicals that are meant to kill those edibles. In fact if you read a sack of weed-n-feed you will find a laundry-list of edible "weeds". Even if you don't treat your lawn..., if the neighbor does, you should lay off (imho). That's why I don't trap the bunnies in my neighborhood....they eat from the lawns and I'm worried about those chemicals. (Too many of the neighborhood dogs get cancer, and all they do is walk on the treated lawns and lick their paws.)

I have the same problem with cattails. I have lots of sources for them BUT they are always in water areas where there is too much suburban lawn runoff... so they likely will have taken up some of those chemicals. I would like to get me some tubers though.

LD

 

[nhmoose]

I assumed sidelock was talking about weed plantain

The problem I have with the greens called plantain, as well as dandelion and clover, (and chickory root for coffee, and chickweed) is finding a field where I can harvest it. Eating it from a lawn is not very smart in a townhouse community, as most folks that treat their lawns do so with chemicals that are meant to kill those edibles. In fact if you read a sack of weed-n-feed you will find a laundry-list of edible "weeds". Even if you don't treat your lawn..., if the neighbor does, you should lay off (imho). That's why I don't trap the bunnies in my neighborhood....they eat from the lawns and I'm worried about those chemicals. (Too many of the neighborhood dogs get cancer, and all they do is walk on the treated lawns and lick their paws.)

I have the same problem with cattails. I have lots of sources for them BUT they are always in water areas where there is too much suburban lawn runoff... so they likely will have taken up some of those chemicals. I would like to get me some tubers though.

LD

Never mind the dog and cat Poo!

 

[Grumpa]

Exactly. In my area, cattails are used to eliminate mine acid drainage from wetlands, which they do rather well.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[sidelock]

"Country" folk don't need to worry about all that,,,,, but city boys may need to.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

I don't think I have eaten cat tails. How are they prepaired ?

As it was explained to me the starch (like in a potato) is stored in the roots that run Between two stocks not so much in the roots that run down from each stock. I think that roasted or steamed is the norm. In both cases you can get the outer stringy part of the root to come away, letting you get to the starchy core.

 

[Black Hand]

The entire root is stringy (from my recollection), with pockets of starch between the fibers.