Welcome! If you are here, you probably want to learn about edible and medicinal plants.

You're probably here from a social media post.

You probably live in Cochise county, or at least Arizona. You're probably interested in learning to properly identify and utilize plants that grow in southeastern Arizona. 

Three years ago I started noticing things that made me worry for the food security and healthcare availability for my family. I worked at Walmart as an Online Shopper. I watched products vanish forever. I watched product take weeks to replenish, basic things like crackers. We were out of every type of pasta for weeks. EGGS! Shopping was starting to become less about getting exactly what you want, through settling for a different brand of the same product, to praying that anything close to that product is in stock. What compounded the issue was when the item came back into stock, people bought three times what they normally would so they wouldn't run out and not be able to get more. I'm starting to feel like I'm living in the 1970s Soviet Union.

At the same time products that are on the shelves are shrinking in size and increasing in price and the manufacturers are acting like we don't know what they're doing. They're acting like we're too stupid to notice. Look at a half gallon of orange juice next time you get groceries. It's not a half gallon anymore! My income hasn't gone up in the last six months. My grocery bill has increased dramatically and we aren't buying top shelf or unnecessary extras. Real inflation is at about 40%.

That's what started it. I knew in a basic way we had some edibles food plants, but I wasn't sure which ones. So I started looking at some edibles plant books and they all sucked. They were all lacking vital information of some sort. Crappy pictures or no pictures, vague information or conflicting information. I had to research each plant myself to accumulate the information I wanted to the level of accuracy I wanted. Why can't someone put all this into one gahldanged book!?

I had been keeping my notes in an organized fashion like I learned in the Army, like info with like, write down your sources in case you need to recheck, and rewrite your notes more coherently once research is done. I was about a dozen plants in before I realized I was writing the book I wanted.

Three years later I am still not finished. However, I have a list of 116 plants with either edible, medicinal, or both properties. I have found four plants that are inedible. Two are poisonous, Datura and Silverleaf Nightshade. One is just pretty and smells like Hershey kisses, the Chocolate Flower. The last one has very minor medicinal qualities that aren't worth the effort, Peppered. You basically have a 98% chance of being OK if you eat a random plant here in the wilds of Cochise county. We are literally surrounded by food! Let's be honest, it's not going to be as good as Pizza Hut or Red Lobster, but you'll survive, and improve your health. 

I will be posting my research results here as I finish them or based upon what should be emerging or maturing so you can take advantage of nature's bounty. I just have to decide on the day to post.

Stay tuned,

I.Leeper