Homegrown Goodness - Stealth crops

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May 18, 2013, 7:32am

Homegrown Goodness :: What's Growing on in your garden? :: Alternative Agriculture Practices :: Stealth crops

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Topic: Stealth crops (Read 1,632 times)

steev
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #30 on Jun 5, 2012, 10:56am »

Might just have been relative ease of growing other things. Patience dock is one of my stealth crops.

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caledonian
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #31 on Jun 10, 2012, 6:11pm »

Purslane, yellow dock, wild grapes, and amaranth. White goosefoot (lamb's quarters). Basswood.

Most especially the basswood. People think I'm crazy when they see me picking leaves off the tree and eating them.

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castanea
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #32 on Jun 10, 2012, 6:29pm »

Basswood is a good one. Also the leaves of Toona sinensis.

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mnjrutherford
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #33 on Jun 11, 2012, 6:52am »

What the heck is basswood?

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caledonian
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #34 on Jun 11, 2012, 12:55pm »

Tilia. Otherwise known as linden. The young leaves are edible and tasty. Older leaves are sufficiently woody and tough that they're not considered worth eating (it may still be possible in theory).

It's like eating a slightly fuzzy lettuce.

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mnjrutherford
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #35 on Jun 12, 2012, 10:00am »

Really? Interesting. I'll look into that... Meanwhile... I've found a whole box of sweet taters with all kinds of slips growing off them. Anybody want some? If not I'm going to plant them in the empty field next door.

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benboo
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #36 on Jun 12, 2012, 11:54am »

Are the American Basswoods as good as the others? There are a few seedlings of some basswoods outside... I have to go plant those somewhere better.

Yams might also work. Dioscorea bulbifera or batatas for aerial tubers.

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caledonian
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #37 on Jun 12, 2012, 2:05pm »

Yes. The basswood considered most esculent is Little-Leaved Linden, which is European. It's also growing endangered in the wild.

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blueadzuki
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #38 on Jun 12, 2012, 2:56pm »

The S. American market near my sells something they claim is basswood (Tilo) in the botanica section. However that one may in fact not be, as the fruits (which are not used as far as I can see, but are pretty common inclusions in the packets nonetheless) don't look right. Linden fruits are usually small round (or pentagonal, depending on species) fuzzy green capsules with one seed. These look more like barberries, wrinky reddish brown, with two flat bony domed seeds. I assume that waht they are selling is some sort of south american plant that is analgous to basswood (there are at least two tropical plants also called Tilo, but one is an herb and the other, while a tree, is a laurel whose seeds resemble acorns). If I ever get any of the seeds to germinate, I will try to confirm.
Speaking of edible common trees, I understand Redbud/Judas Tree (Celtis) is also one, the pods it makes are supposed to taste like green beans.

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steev
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #39 on Jun 12, 2012, 10:56pm »

Redbud seeds are said to be cookable like lentils. I'll try to give the pods a try for starters.

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ottawagardener
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #40 on Jun 13, 2012, 6:09am »

I'm happy to say that my Redbud made it through its first winter so hoping to one day have a big true. My kids like Linden leaves.

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stone
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #41 on Jun 15, 2012, 6:53am »

The problem with stealth gardening, is that the deer and rabbits and voles eat everything that we want.

I just found that I should be cooking up the roots of Cnidolscolus Stimulosus. The roots certainly look like vegetables.

I've cooked the evening primrose roots and leaves when it was in rosette form, they tasted like greens and taters.
I grow magenta spreen lambs quarter, but I have to fence it in... bambi loves chenopodium.

I have a bunch of red bud pods, who has a recipe?
There's so many poison legumes, it hadn't occurred to me that red bud 'peas' might be edible...

« Last Edit: Jun 15, 2012, 7:01am by stone »

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steev
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #42 on Jun 20, 2012, 9:41pm »

That's where the "stealth" comes in; you sneak up on the foraging critters and harvest them.

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Creation has provided us with Being and the capacity to contemplate Doing; shall we not get on with it; is it not that for which we are fit and purposed?

mountaindweller
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #43 on Jun 21, 2012, 1:55am »

Have you ever tried to cook skirret? I was a bit deterred by the picture, imagining I would have to clean that stuff. I would add Globe Artichocke for sunny places. Looks stunning with roses. Yields are pretty good easy care plant but I from the two varieties available here I prefer the purple one the leaves are very succulent. Rhubarb too grows in shade here. Lebanese cress needs moisture.

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circumspice
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Re: Stealth crops
« Reply #44 on Jun 21, 2012, 10:49am »

Another sort of stealth crop: Feral swine. If you have woodlands, you could 'encourage' the feral swine to take up residence in your woods... Domestic swine were once routinely kept in forests in Europe. They were fattened off of the various plants they could eat in the woods & then they were turned loose in the fields after the crops were harvested. Seems to be a sensible way to raise a little extra protein...

« Last Edit: Jun 21, 2012, 11:38pm by circumspice »

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