Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out. Just as a heads up this post is a few days late.
Young leaves are bright green like this and very tender, the new growth here was photographed in early-April.
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| Older leaves start to get these mottled variegation which is a good way to tell that they are probably not useful for forage. |
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| These lumpy tubers can be cut up and bashed a bit to get the fibrous materials out while leaving a substance that once dried can be used as a thickener or to make drinks. |
Common Name: Greenbrier
Other Common Names: Common Greenbriar, Catbrier, Chaineybriar,
Botanical Family: Smilacaceae (The Greenbrier Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Smilax rotundifolia
Season to Harvest: Greenbrier can be harvested in the spring and summer.
Habitat: Greenbrier can be easily found at the roadside, in garden beds, woodlands, woodland clearings, beside streams, and in dense thickets.
Parts to Harvest: New lighter green growth can be harvested and eaten raw as immediate trail forage food. Slightly older tips and foliage can be boiled enough o be edible also however avoid the older hardened parts. The bulbous roots can be ground up and added to flower to make a thickening agent or diluted in water to make a cooling beverage. Additionally the black berries are edible and can be made into reserves or a jam.
Poisonous
Lookalikes: None known in the continental USA, but do not try to ID this plant only by it's berries. A sure way to verify that you are dealing with Common Greenbrier is that it is one of the only vining plants with thorns and curling tendrils.
Related Edible Species: There are several relatives of Common Greenbrier that can be found in North America including Bullbrier (Smilax bona-nox), Carrion Flower (Smilax herbacea), Lance-Leaf Greenbrier (Smilax smallii) and, Laurel Greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia).
Description: Greenbrier is a climbing perennial vine that has stems covered in sharp thorns that can penetrate protective clothing. The stems themselves can be quite tough and will often bear four-sided green tendrils to hold onto other plants as Greenbrier climbs. The alternately placed leaves are often shaped like wide ovals hence the ‘rotundifolia’ part of the Latin name.
How to Harvest: Simply pick the parts you need.
Recipe: The following is intended as directions for processing somewhat older stems and foliage. Greenbrier foliage and stems of intermediate age are edible just as long as the spines have not completely hardened (if present). The foliage should be boiled for two to five minutes depending on how flexible the stems were at the time of harvest (cook more to soften harder foliage). You do not want to harvest anything that is too rigid as this will not yield as much edible material. Once you have cooked the Greenbrier foliage to a desired tenderness drain and allow the greens to cool than top with your preferred dressing or sauce.
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 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.
Special Stuff:
Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’ - $4.00
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Tomato – Glacier
Tomato – Sungold
Tomato – Purple Cherokee
Tomato – Black Krim
Tomato – Mountain Pride
Peppers – Ghost
Peppers – Anaheim
Peppers – Cayenne
Elephant Garlic
Softneck Garlic
Mustard – Red Giant
Kale – Dinosaur
Kale – Redbor
Kale – Ragged Jack
Kale – Tronchuda
Coming Soon:
Armenian Cucumber
Lemon Cucumber
Space Master Cucumber
Marsh Mallow
Zanzibar Castor Bean
Roselle
More TBA!
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.
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (-): - Currently Filming New Episodes, stay tuned.
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on May 5th 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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