Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market Blog. At the current time we have a long-running series that covers useful, edible and medicinal ‘weeds’ that you can commonly find in the southeastern states of the United States. While our survey area is just within Cumberland County North Carolina it’ is possible you can find some of these forage plants in other places. This series was begun to give folks a detailed look into the resources they might not have known were right there in their lawn. Given that the world situation is not that great and there are already shortages of critical grains and fertilizers forage foods may be the most useful answer on a local level. LITFM will keep this series going as long as we keep finding wild resources to photograph and write about. If you have any questions or comments about our articles please leave a comment either here or on our YouTube Channel (The link is at the end of the article). Thank you for reading, and remember just one thing, you can’t eat lawn grass.
This specimen is showing a mutation which produces unusual coloration, it might be a virus driven mutation. 
This is typically what you might find in the field. 
These plants are found wherever there is sand.
Common Name: Pusley
Other Common Names: Florida Pusley, Rough Mexican Clover
Botanical Family: Rubiaceae (The Coffee Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Richardia scabra
Season to Harvest: Summer.
Habitat: Pusley prefers sandy soils and can be found in cultivated fields, sandy savannahs, grasslands, on roadsides and in lawns as well as in waste areas.
Parts to Harvest: The root and the, leaves.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None Known.
Related Edible Species: Richardia grandiflora, Largeflower Pusley.
Description: Pusley is a prostrate spreading summer annual with branching but hair stems and semi-succulent leaves. Pusley leaves are borne in a opposite pather and are usually oval to elliptical shaped. Its flowers are tubular, white and have six petals. Pusley flowers are clustered at the tips of branches.
Recipe: Pusley is not edible in a food sense but it is useful in two other ways. The root of this plant has been used as a substitute for Ipecac. It is referred to as ‘white’ ipecac, it does not contain more than 6% of the active ingredient needed to induce vomiting. It is known that these compounds can have a potentially violent irritant action on the gastric and bronchial systems possibly lowering fevers and preventing cyst formation in amoebic dysentery.
If that doesn’t suit your fancy, these plants are pretty good at holding soil in place and their leaves make for an excellent green manure if chopped up.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 8:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Fresh Produce:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Brussel Sprouts - Redarling
Cauliflower – Snow Crown
Cauliflower – Flame Star
Cauliflower – Veronica
Celery - Tango
Cilantro – Vietnamese
Collards – Green Glaze
Kale – Ragged Jack
Kale - Redbor
Hoan Ngoc
Mustard – Japanese Red Giant
Pak Choi – Rose’
Coming Soon:
House Plants (November-ish)
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (2): Dragon’s Breath Celosia (Before), Dragon’s Breath Celosia (After).
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on November 17th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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