Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market blog. As some of you have noticed the blog has taken on a more formal instructional tone to cover the wide variety of forage foods that you can find all around you. This change came about due to the events of the pandemic, economic turmoil and other factors. The reality is that we are surrounded with perfectly edible plants that can fill at least some of the void in our dietary needs but, there is a multi-million dollar herbicide industry that exists. It has always been in the interest of that industry to label certain things ‘weeds’ so they can sell you product that as time goes by we find out is worse for your health than the weeds are. Coupled with an Agricultural-Education system that peddles the myths of the industry and the old myth that if you can afford a nice lawn you must have wealth we have a population that has been fooled for a long time. So, here we are in 2023, and the forage foods series will continue. I hope all of you who read this blog find the information useful or at least thought provoking. The ‘weeds’ I am listing a certainly found in Zone 8A in North Carolina and should certainly be easy to find in the Southeast regions of America. Oh, and one funny thing discovered in last year’s blog, it turns out you can eat Crab Grass, and while it isn’t what most would call a lawn grass, I did state you can’t eat your lawn in last year’s intro. Detailed research is a funny thing since it has a way of proving even the experts wrong.
This picture was taken in the 2022 garden where this Black Nightshade sprung up in a pot with a Cuban Oregano
Common Name: Black Nightshade
Other Common Names: Common Nightshade, European Nightshade, Blackberry Nightshade
Botanical Family: Solanaceae (The Nightshade Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Solanum nigrum
Description & Habitat: Black Nightshade is a herb or a short-lived herbaceous perennial that is known for its pointy lobed leaves and its black-purple berries. It bears star shaped white flowers with yellow centers. Black Nightshade is commonly confused for it’s much more poisonous cousin Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna), you can tell them apart by how the berries grow, on Black Nightshade they are in bunches whereas in Deadly Nightshade they are singular. This plant is commonly found in sites with disturbed soil, fields, vacant lots, backyards, by the roadside and occasionally it will emerge in outdoor potted plants and in garden beds. Its seeds may be distributed by birds so do not be surprised where it can pop up.
When & What to Harvest: Unless you are growing a cultivated variety such as ‘Red Makoi’ it is for the best that you do not harvest anything from this plant as it contains potentially dangerous alkaloid compounds. However it would be remiss of men not to mention that the young leaves and shoots can be boiled in several changes of water to remove the toxins. Solanine is known to be water-soluble and can be destroyed by boiling however I do not recommend this.
Poisonous Lookalikes: Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna).
Related Edible Species: None.
Recipe: None this time, seriously I do not recommend eating this plant.
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 9:00 am and 2:00 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.
Spring Garden Plants:
Sorrel, Raspberry Dressing
Spring Herbs:
Hoan Ngoc
Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata
Milkweed, Asclepias curassivica
Yarrow
Warm-Season Vegetables:
Dahlia
Peppers, Ghost
Peppers, Sweet Banana
Tomato, Super Sweet 100
Tomato, Chocolate Cherry
Tomato, Lemon Drop
Tomato, Sungold
Tomato, San Marzano
Tomato, Black Krim
Tomato, Paul Robeson (Limited Supply)
Tomato, Purple Cherokee
Wonderberry
Coming Soon:
Celery, Pink
Marshmallow
Milkweed, (More to come)
Molokhia
Okra, Jing Orange
Okra, Baby Bubba
Okra, Burgundy
Orach, Red
Pepper, Orange Fatalii
Pepper, Lemon Drop
Coming Soon:
Celery, Pink
Marshmallow
Milkweed, (More to come)
Molokhia
Okra, Jing Orange
Okra, Baby Bubba
Okra, Burgundy
Orach, Red
Pepper, Orange Fatalii
Pepper, Lemon Drop
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 (1): Sweet Bay
Meetings are 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 May 4th 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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