The PFAF site is a must read.
At 07:27 AM 2/28/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>I often joke to my daughter when she objects to my tree cutting habits that
>the day she lives on acorns and pinecones is the day I will stop cutting
Acorns can be a very good source of food. Boiling them to get rid of the
tannins is a pain, so the best way to eat acorns in quantity is to feed
them to squirrels or pigs and eat meat.
>them and replacing them with fruit trees. Plants For a
>Future(http:www.scs.leeds.ac.uk./pfaf/index.html) states there are over
>20000 edible species worldwide including 6900 that grow in temperate zones
>though most are not what we are used to or would want to eat. They have
>1600 of the most promising and common types in trial gardens in England. In
>these parts the legendary year without a summer 1816 with a killing frost
>every month forced those who wanted to live into the woods for barks,
>roots, etc. A mister totally natural could cheaply, but probably not
>lazily live by foraging the forest, but I am putting my bets on a Forest
You can feed yourself for free in a forest, and if it's a typical natural
forest you'll have a lot of work to do and probably not the best diet.
It's almost impossible to get enough calories in a temperate forest
without a lot of hunting. If you design the forest it's much easier.
>Garden a la Robert Hart. Buying . planting, and caring for edible trees and
>shrubs I find quite enjoyable. More difficult is to learn the herbs and
>perenials for their companions and culinary use. Often while working ,
>planting and replanting lettuce beds all summer I wonder if there are not
>more perenials with edible leaves for my climate but find little
>information in that area. The few I have tried hardly substitute for a
>crisp romaine salad so I am left with my assortment of vegtable beds, and
>techniques. more and more trees until a balance comes of effort expended to
>needed return.
>JVH zone 4 southern NH
There are a large number of greens that should grow in your area that will
either already be native, or would be adaptable. Do any members of the
Smilax family grow in that area? I much prefer it's young leaves to any
lettuce. Greenbrier is the most common Smilax species here in Va and I
have it and one other (probably bullbrier) in Missouri. Young leaves of
green amaranth are good. Wild lettuce goes bitter quickly, but is a good
addition to a mixed salad. Thistles are great, but it's a bit of a pain
stripping the stalk and the leaves are usually not worth messing with.
Thistle is better as a cooked vegetable, but it can be used in salads too.
Garlic mustard is starting to make it's spring appearance here now. I
prefer it as a cooked green, but the young leaves are good raw. I was
going to plant some at my place, but it's considered a noxious weed and
displaces native mustards. It's pretty common on the east cost, so you
may have it in your area already. Mention one Brassica and a host of
others come to mind: watercress, wintercress, a variety of wild mustards,
domestic mustards will often reseed if left alone. I had a few more pop
into my mind while typing, but they seem to have popped back out.
Robert Hart's forest garden is one I should have mentioned. It is close
to my ideas too. His gardens are too well planned and too well structured
for my tastes and I think a bit more randomness will reduce the work required.
It will, I freely admit, likely reduce the yield per area as well.
==>paul
