What is the strangest old timey vegetable you have eaten

[Einsiedler]

Kohlrabi is pretty good sliced in about 1/4” thick steaks and fried in bacon grease. Mom always took advantage of lambs quarters or iron weed. A wilted dandelion salad is pretty good also.

I believe I am descended from itenerate kohlrabi mongers from Baden-Württemberg. The other side of the family were all pork miners.

 

[Stony Broke]

On a whim once...as I do most things, I wrote some songs just for fun. I am not a singer, and can strum a guitar a little, so it was a project. I called this one "The Original Genuine Okra Blues". The words sort of went like this, with the chorus missing and stuff like that:
I've got the original, genuine okra blues
You drop it in your mouth, and it don't stop till it hits your shoes.
You fry it in a pan...it's just crispy and fine
But you boil it up, and it just turns into slime
Gimme some beans, either navy, pinto or greens
cause that okra sorta leave me leaking at the seams
If you eat pinto beans, you can make some bubbles in the tub
It'll keep you laughing, while you're trying to scrub
Take my advice and don't eat anything blue
And don't order anything called a number two
Be careful what you eat and you'll live a long, long time
Just don't ever eat that nasty old okra slime....

Without the chorus and some repeated verses and stuff like that, it probably loses some of what I was trying to get across, but it might give you some idea of it....

 

[nhmoose]

I've always liked a nice mess of fiddleheads. Folks up in the nor'east make some spending money from them every spring

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

A friend of mine once grew some kind of original heirloom breed of Maize. It was strange looking and only vaguely resembles corn. He dried it and ground it into meal and made some tacos and tortillas from it. We had a good meal.

 

[Carbon 6]

A friend of mine once grew some kind of original heirloom breed of Maize. It was strange looking and only vaguely resembles corn. He dried it and ground it into meal and made some tacos and tortillas from it. We had a good meal.

Was it pod corn ?
Each kernel has it's own husk.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

A friend of mine once grew some kind of original heirloom breed of Maize. It was strange looking and only vaguely resembles corn. He dried it and ground it into meal and made some tacos and tortillas from it. We had a good meal.

I grow Seneca white corn (One'oh) for meal and use it to make a starter for salt rising bread.

 

[dave61965]

Poke with onions fried in bacon grease with eggs scrambled in, good eatin, haven’t had it since my grandma died back in the eighties, she knew every weed and root in the woods and how to cook it, make a tea, or make a salve out of it.

 

[tenngun]

Anasazi beans. Grown from old seed found in an Anasazi site. Tasty.
Whipper will peas. Local old bean tasted much like black eyed peas.

 

[Atticus69]

Poke with onions fried in bacon grease with eggs scrambled in, good eatin, haven’t had it since my grandma died back in the eighties, she knew every weed and root in the woods and how to cook it, make a tea, or make a salve out of it.

Ahhh, poke fixed up in beacon grease or butter-----now you're talkin'!

 

[Sean Adams]

I love to forage here in New England, purslane, cattail sprouts, fiddleheads, nettles, burdock, dandelion, and seaweed, are all a short walk out my door.

 

[Atticus69]

I love to forage here in New England, purslane, cattail sprouts, fiddleheads, nettles, burdock, dandelion, and seaweed, are all a short walk out my door.

Made purslane like sauerkrout this year as an experiment and also jars of the 2 mixed. Haven't tried it yet. Purslane is probably THE most healthy plant that you can eat.

 

[Carbon 6]

Made purslane like sauerkrout this year as an experiment and also jars of the 2 mixed. Haven't tried it yet. Purslane is probably THE most healthy plant that you can eat.

Purslane sauerkraut ?
If this is a contest, I think you just took the lead.
In my book anyway. Can't wait to see a picture and hear how it tasted.

I made pickles this year out of kohlrabies, They were excellent.

 

[Mad Irish Jack]

Didn't see it listed; My Dad used to make rhubarb everything, (Pies, jams, jelly and mixed with berries to also make deserts and pick foods). He learned from his mom, my grandma. Dad was a mess Sgt in the 9th AA out of PA, stationed in England in WWII. He pick the wild plants in the fields in his free time and make snacks for his staff.

 

[Erwan]

Mint and kiwi jelly ...

 

[jimmiejack55]

If anyone down in the SE US knows what rattlesnake weed is, give it a try. It's has a starchy tuber, which somewhat resembles a rattlesnakes tail. I put some in a batch of saurkraut once, dang it was good!

 

[Eterry]

As kids we ate lambs quarter, poke salet cooked in bacon grease with eggs and ground beef, dandelions, nettles, and once a friend brought dad 2 big grocery sacks of ramps.

My old friend was native American and every spring we'd go to the river and gather Morel mushrooms. One time we picked over 10lbs, he gave his half to me. I saw a friend who's an executive chef at the country club, he tells me he'll buy them. I think... What can i get for mushrooms? And i cooked them over the next few days.
He later told me he was gonna give me $20 a lb!!
Guess i need to go back to the river.

 

[Sean Adams]

I forgot to mention ramps, which where the inspiration for a Wild Food Festival I put together in Vermont about 8 years ago. I have sold ramps, as well as chanterelle and oyster mushroom to restaurants in the past. Jerusalem artichokes are an other favorite , which i forgot to mention before. There is such a bountiful harvest in the wild if you know what to look for.

 

[Eterry]

My old buddy George could go in the woods and live a week on nothing but picked greens and morels.
If you look at the old foxfire book most of the "Weeds" folks spray top get removed are edible.
Lamb's quarter, purslane, dock, nettles, dandelion to name a few.

 

[nhmoose]

Anyone who wants Purslane contact me. We are infested in the garden and the driveway with it. We do add some to salads and it is a peppery flavor to me

 

[Erwan]

Anyone who wants Purslane contact me. We are infested in the garden and the driveway with it. We do add some to salads and it is a peppery flavor to me

You are an happy guy:
The purslane is widely consumed in Crete; it is part of the Cretan diet. Crete is home to a large number of purslane varieties that grow naturally in the hollow of wet ravines. The Greeks, who call it andrakla or glystrida, fry the leaves and stems in olive oil, with feta (curdled cheese in brine), tomatoes, garlic and marjoram. The young purslane stems and leaves are eaten in salads, and their slightly sour taste gives an original touch. In Turkey it is consumed in salads but especially tends to replace spinach because it is easier to prepare.
For vegetable cultivation, there is a large-leaf shape, including a variety with golden leaves and varieties with pink or white flowers grown for ornamental purposes.
It can also be cooked in a soup or omelette.
The purslane is laxative, diuretic and beneficial in case of irritation of the mucous membranes.
Its seeds were one of the components of the solutive diaprun of the Western maritime pharmacopoeia in the 18th century.
It is still used in herbal medicine to prevent cardiovascular disorders and, in external use, to fight muscle contractures.

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