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.
Although they do look a lot like Annual Ragweed, the flower is the dead giveaway.
Common Name: Bearded Beggar Ticks
Other Common Names: Long-Bracted Beggar-Ticks, Tickseed Sunflower, Swamp Marigold, Yankee Lice, Western Tickseed.
Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Bidens aristosa
Description & Habitat: Bearded Beggar-Ticks is a freely branching annual or biennial. The stems of this plant are usually hairless but in some populations it may be sparsely hairy. It is best identified by its bright yellow flower heads that are usually about 1 ¼ of an inch across but may have up to eight petals. Bearded Beggar-Ticks naturally appears in prairies, bottom land forests, along the margins of bodies of water, crop fields, fallow fields alongside railroads and in open and disturbed areas. The seeds of this plant attach to clothing readily which is how one might potentially bring this plant home to the garden by accident.
When & What to Harvest: In theory you can harvest the leaves any time the plant is growing, but they are said to have a strong taste regardless of cooking.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None that I can find.
Related Edible Species: Bidens alba.
Recipe: None that I can find. I some references it is said that the plant isn’t very nutritious but the that the leaves can be boiled and mixed with cornmeal as a lean survival food.
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.
Fresh Produce:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Coming Soon:
Spring Garden Plants are due in March 2023.
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): Adam’s Needle
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 February 16th 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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