We are trying this again, or, why I was away from this project for so long.

The summer of 2023 was terrible. He had half the amount of rain we were supposed to at about 8 inches for my area. Only a few specific things grew with any abundance. the hard freeze in April 2023 killed off a lot of early growth and affected just about everything including my mulberry trees and my Tree of Heavens. I'm not going to do an organized planting this year. Last year's yield was abysmal. I planted 50 corn plants, 4 grew to fruit, and I got 9 kernels of corn. This year will hopefully be better.

I plan on banging out some more IMEFs focusing on plants that are abundant in my area versus tackling the list of 150 plants alphabetically. I'm going to do them on plants I actually harvested and ate versus plants that are supposed to grow here but I haven't actually found yet.

I lost my job on the 23rd so I have time and I'll try to get another IMEF banged out here soon.

Thanks for staying tuned!

Bought A Tool From Ace For $14. Broke On First Use.

 I am pissed, Foragers.

I am not a rich man, nor am I an intelligent man. I have been looking for a few tools, like a weed puller fork and a trowel. Just something small to help me dig out some roots when the occasion calls for it.

Walmart had some, but at that time $15 seemed steep. Well, everyone ran out of them. I looked at thrift stores and discount stores. I checked harbor freight and they had a minimal supply. Since Ace was next door, I wanted to see what they had. They had three levels of quality. White painted pot metal barely set into a green plastic handle for $3. I could feel it almost breaking just by holding it. No thanks. The premium line looked nice, but $15? The middle line seemed ok. Then I noticed a combo tool. It had the weed fork on the end, it had a special angle for getting into the root and popping it out of the ground, and it had a cutting edge on the side. Three tools in one for $14! The blade was double-welded to the heavy shank. I also grabbed a set of cutters for $13. I have a pair, but they are low quality and will break soon. These cutters are all metal with a nice cushiony silicone covering. The set included light floral and heavier curved cutters for stems and branches.

It's time to start harvesting some Lactuca Seriola plants. Since I let them grow wild, when I harvest I choose the plants making my yard crappy first. I start using my new tool but the mature plant isn't coming up. I reposition and try again. The plant moves but it isn't coming up. What the hell? I pull my tool out and the end is all bent to heck. WHAT!!!??? It's a small plant, about two feet high! I'm not using it on an oak tree! I banged it on the ground to try and straighten it and the blade pops off the shank! WHWHHHHHHAAAATTTTDAAAAAAAA?

Thank God, I kept the receipt. I am not buying the more expensive one. I will just keep looking for used or finally make a real digging stick.

I used my regular had it so long I can't remember where or when I bought it shovel to finish harvesting that plant and seven others. 

IMEF Profile for Lactuca Serriola - Prickly Lettuce

Hello again Foragers,

It's time for another plant profile.

This week, I am covering Lactuca Serriola, Prickly Lettuce. This plant possesses a property rarely seen in strength in the herbal world.

Pain relief. 

This plant acts similar to opium, but is chemically different and is non-addictive. It has a strong but gentle analgesic effect and can be mildly sedating to treat anxiety and insomnia. It also treats asthma and cough through bronchial dilatation.  

This plant and its sisters, L. Canadensis and L. Virosa, grow almost everywhere once winter breaks. Most areas have at least one species in abundance. In Cochise County Lactuca Sierriola appears as early as February and can be found blooming as early as April, but usually mid to late May. 

Small early green leaves are mild and great in salads, but grow bitter as they age.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l8v8kzywPCBK6waHh3reWyU4TmOy6Zhd45u6DiUXuD4/edit?usp=drivesdk click

Foraging equipment.

Greetings Foragers!

What equipment do I use when foraging wild edibles and medicinals?

First you need a good gathering bag. Or Bag of Gathering for you DnD folks. This can be anything from a reused shopping bag to a pillow case. What I use is a burlap 20lbs rice bag that came with 20 lbs of free rice. It has a zippered top and handles. I added a long strap of burlap sewn to the bag along the edges from bottom to top with strong hemp thread about two stitches per inch. I adjust the strap using two homemade Scottish cloak pins. I wear it with the strap across my chest with the bag on my left hip. The top is even with my belt line. A back pack seemed like it would be very awkward, having to take it on and off a lot. 

Second you need a good CamelBak backpack for water and supplies. You can store snacks and bandaids in the pockets. I also recommend carrying three extra bottles of water. Refill your CamelBak during a break. When water bottles are gone, begin your return trip.

Thirdly you need a good knife. A good knife in this case isn't a $600 limited edition Randall. This knife is going to see some hard use and will show it. I carry a cheap but capable carbon steel, not stainless, Morakniv with a ceramic rod taped to the sheath for touching up the edge. This is the tool you will use if the plant you're harvesting is too tough to cut with your thumbnail.

The fourth item is a good wide brimmed hat. I prefer a military issue boonie cap in ACU pattern. Why? It's the hat I wore for a year in Iraq. It provides good protection from the sun and absorbs a lot of sweat. It also keeps you cool by allowing this sweat to evaporate in a controlled manner. You can also use this hat as a mini gathering basket. 

The fifth item is a good pair of sturdy comfortable boots. I wear a pair of Doc Marten's from the 1990s that feel like socks they are so broken in. I have hiked mountains in these boots. 

The sixth item is a damn good pair of pants. I have firehouse pants, nylon pants, jeans, etc. The only pants I own that can stop all the stickers and pokies I encounter are military issue ACU pants. Tuck them into your boots. They have large cargo pockets for tools and snacks. 

The seventh Item is a good walking stick about six feet long. This should be sturdy enough to support your weight and possibly wack something a few times to get its attention. One end can be sharpened to a dull conical point to assist in digging up plants. You will also use this stick to poke in thick bushes and under trees and bushes to check for snakes. This is your foraging stick. 

Those are the must haves. The following are extra things I carry. 

Heavy scissors for cutting plants. I keep these in my gathering bag or in my CamelBak.

A pie spatula. This works great for popping small plants from the ground. Mine is stainless steel and very springy. I have a loop I made of very stiff wire that holds this tool on my belt within easy reach. Never set down a tool. You will lose it. 

Half a dozen reused shopping bags, neatly folded and rubber banded. I prefer to keep my harvested plants separated by species. It also keeps sap and juices from gunking up my gathering bag. It also keeps any bugs isolated and not on me. These are carried in my gathering bag.

Small zip seal sandwich bags for collecting samples of unidentified plants for later identification or for seed collection. Rubber band them together and keep in your gathering bag. 

A second knife. This is a cheap chinesium copy of my Morakniv that cost $3 at Walmart. It has a hard plastic sheath. The blade is cheap stainless steel and takes a new edge easily. This is what I would use if I had to really get down on something or dig something out. If I break this knife, oh well. If I mess up the edge pretty bad, oh well. A few minutes on a coarse stone, and some finishing up on a medium and fine stone and it's back to functionality. I use this knife for processing my harvest in the field to break down larger plant parts.

A far-looker device. I carry a pair of Nikon Monarch binoculars or a Brunton Macroscope. This aids in locating plants or likely harvesting areas and to scan for animals, fences, etc. I usually keep the far-looker in my gathering bag. I bend over a lot when foraging and a pair of binos smacking you in the face isn't much fun. 

A fully charged cell phone with an offline maps gps app with your car's location pinned to the map. I use Offline Maps for android. This is useful because you can record plant locations to find them later and you can see what's over that ridge without having to actually go there. This will also keep you from getting lost and you can call for help and provide your GPS coordinates so they can find you if you have a medical emergency.

The last thing you need is a plan. You need to choose your route before going out. Check the weather and dress for conditions. Do not forage in extreme weather. Tell someone where you are going and when to expect you back. If possible give them a map or gps coordinates of your starting point. Have a list of plants you are looking for. Better yet, have the guide I am creating so you can easily identify the plants you are finding. I use the PictureThis app and run the plant through it three times using a different plant of the same species each time just to make sure the identification is correct. 

As with all things the important part is to enjoy yourself in a safe manner. 

May the 4th be with you! IMEF Profile Plantago Patagonia -Wooly Plantain

I literally stumbled across this plant. I saw a few in the margin areas of the parking lot where I work but thought nothing of it. A few days later I found some along the roadside in my neighborhood. I whipped out my phone and ran a picture through PictureThis and Google lense.

 

Plantago Patagonica. Wooly Plantain. I thought plantains were bananas you had to cook. 

This plant had many benefits but has largely been overlooked in the herbal world for some reason. Take a look at the profile and decide for yourself if you should add it to your herbal medicine cabinet.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hjFLZN9rSKNKET5gz61D5La4O5vr1tx3bnFB8d2KVXc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Things changed...

I'm old, but not elderly. I was born in the late 1970s, but we were very poor. Everything was used and handed down. We weren't the first family to use whatever it was, and we weren't the last. Things were built to last. My crib had three of my older cousins in it before me, and God only knows how many after me. It was like living in the late 1950s or early 1960s. All my Aunts and Uncles were already in their late forties and early 50s when I was born. My mom was a late baby, her mom was over forty. Half of my aunts already had kids before my mother was born. My mom's cousins were more like siblings. They always saved the baby and child rearing gear. My highchair was a chrome steel deathtrap that taught me quickly to keep my hands on my head when my mom put the tray on.

We moved to Arizona in December of 1983. We were promised sunshine every day. It was never going to get cold and it never rained. Lies! Up until about 1990 I remember flooding in Glendale. I remember the monsoons were wild! We would all lay on my mom's bed and watch the light show through her large picture window that overlooked farmer's fields. In Glendale, the storms would always sweep in from the east. We would watch central and west Phoenix being hammered for hours before the storm reached us. 

I was prime age for choring which I why I remember this. One of my chores was to pull weeds. It took me all day to pull one side of our gravel yard. I wasn't allowed to use tools or gloves. Well, more like there weren't any tools or gloves for me to use. I'd often make due with something makeshift like a screwdriver or a sturdy spoon. I remember the volume of weeds was unreal. Looking back I know there were huge stands of enormous Prickly Lettuce, not the pitiful less than a foot tall specimens I've seen the past 30 years. 

I had to finally sneak the hatchet out of the camping box because you couldn't pull them out because they are named prickly for a reason. I had to chop them down and they were taller than me, even years later when I was 13 years old. I'd chop one down and toss it over the block wall into the farmer's field like I was tossing an old Christmas tree into a dumpster. We had these little green paper covered tomatoes things everywhere. Huge orange daisies would just blanket every yard in the neighborhood.

Us kids made good money, $2 a yard hand pulling weeds. We'd gang up three or four of us. The two boys would pull the weeds and the girls would pick up leaves, twigs, and trash. We'd all walk to the mile to the 7-11 as the sweat dried on our sun tender skin. We'd walk the mile back sucking on our extra megasized slurpies clutching paper sacks of Bazooka Joe bubble gum, atomic fireballs, Jolly Ranchers, and various flavors of now and later taffy. 

Looking back I can see in my minds eye that the weeds grew smaller and there were less of them every year. I'd say 1985-86 was the wettest year. We lost a shed and both awnings on our trailer to a storm. My mom and the guy she hired to replace them drove around the entire next day looking for them in the hopes they could be repaired and reinstalled. They never found them. We got a slightly scorched set from a trailer that burned down and I guess my mom pocketed the bulk of the insurance money. We certainly needed it. The shed was repaired with much hammering by my grandfather. 

We were out and it took forever to get home because so many roads were flooded. By 1990 there was a definite decline in the weeds. I could weed the whole yard in 2 hours. Sometimes Id only do it twice a season. Yard jobs dropped off so we'd collect cans for candy money. Then I stopped noticing weeds because we moved into apartments and I found guitar and books, and a girl or two.

The last big monsoon season was 1995. We were now in a manufactured home, but still in Glendale. It was like news footage of a hurricane. I don't know how me and the young girl that would later become my wife got home alive but we did. Huge trees were downed. Power lines were downed. I watched Spanish tile roofs blow off like playing cards in front of a fan. We didn't have power for two weeks. Many houses in my mom's neighborhood took major roof damage. Some of my friends spent months in a hotel while their houses were being fixed.

1996 was a very dry year. The first of nearly thirty years now that we have been in a drought. Imagine having to depend on the rain to nourish the food you required to live on for the entire year. Droughts of this length are not uncommon. They think it was something like this that caused the Anasazi to abandon their cliffside fortresses for riparian areas along the Salt and Gila rivers. Eventually they made their way to the Babocamari and San Pedro rivers. They called themselves Tohono Odahm, Sabopouri, and Pima. When the drought ended they stayed and when a drought started they moved. Water is life. 

People have been inhabiting this valley for the last 15,000 years. I wonder if that's why out of the 130 plants I have identified so far that maybe four or five are poisonous. This soil is poor and you might get two or three years of crops with intensive agriculture before you just couldn't grow anything and have to move up or down the river a bit to fresh crop land. That lean year I guess they learned what was safe to eat as wild forage goes and spread those seeds as a kind of back up.

These plants do not informally blanket our valley. It would be interesting to get funding and access to some satellite imagery and do a good study. I bet that you would find a direct correlation between the presence of a certain density of edible wild plants and historic village areas that can't be explained by soil type and the amount of rain that area gets. I have some anecdotal evidence that Whetstone is not the first village that existed on this piece of the map.

We have large washes that once may have flowed year round or for most of the year. We have seasonal tanks or ponds that we didn't make. Villages are always near water sources for two reasons, drinking water for people and livestock, and water for crops, even if it had to be hauled from the source. 

Just my pondering on how things change. 

IMEF Profile Capella Bursa-Pastoris - Shepherd's Purse

AKA Witch's Hat, Mother's Heart.

It's my first Official Thursday Post!

I have only found this beneficial plant growing on the grounds of Fort Huachuca. Please don't harvest any plants from Fort Huachuca, you'll probably get a huge fine for disturbing the spotted owl tree frog tortoise breeding areas. I have some seeds I am currently cold stratifying if you want some. Have something to trade like a beneficial plant or some good growing dirt, or even permission to survey and harvest your yard. If you see this plant, let me know. It's easily confused for Western Tansy, but look at the seed pods. Shepherd's Purse has heart shaped seed pods. Western Tansey is edible but not as beneficial as Shepherd's Purse. As they like similar conditions, I am wondering if the oceans of tansey I am finding have suppressed any Shepherd's Purse. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DK748d_8sT8I3EgsFgsJb8MjxTdsv2N__-cv3UScUD8/edit?usp=sharing