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.
Wisteria is awfully pretty in the spring, but as you can see with this unfortunate tree the vine is very good at strangling it's host to death leaving a pretty corpse. 
Here is a close up of the foliage and fuzzy seed pods.
Common Name: Chinese Wisteria
Other Common Names: “That Damned Vine!” (lol)
Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Legume Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Wisteria sinensis
Description & Habitat: Found in the wild extensively in the eastern United States, Chinese Wisteria has been classified invasive in at least 19 states. According to the North Carolina State University it is classed as an invasive in North Carolina.
When & What to Harvest: Do not harvest this plant as most parts of it contain a glycoside called wisterin which is toxic if ingested and may cause nausea, vomiting stomach pains and diarrhea. However according to PFAF.org;
“Flowers - cooked. They are thoroughly washed and then boiled or made into fritters[105, 177, 179, 183]. The flowers are also cured in sugar then mixed with flour and made into a famous local delicacy called 'Teng Lo'[249].”
So, apparently the flowers can be used in cooking but require specific preparation, I do not recommend this.
Poisonous Lookalikes: Japanese Wisteria, (Wisteria floribunda), also contains wisterin.
Related Edible Species: None.
Recipe: Given the high risk with this plant I’m going to pass on posting any of the recipes I found in my research here. As few as eating two seeds can kill a child, and the bark and foliage holds their own levels of risk.
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:
Broccoli, Imperial
Collards, Variegated
Kale, Beira
Kale, Lacinato ‘Black Magic’
Kale, Redbor
Mustard, Japanese Red Giant
Sorrel, Raspberry Dressing
Spring Herbs:
Hoan Ngoc
Warm-Season Vegetables:
Peppers, Ghost
Tomato, Sweet 100
Tomato, San Marzano
Coming Soon:
Celery, Pink
Marshmallow
Milkweed, (Three types!)
Molokhia
Okra, Jing Orange
Okra, Baby Bubba
Okra, Burgundy
Orach, Red
Pepper, Orange Fatalii
Pepper, Lemon Drop
Tomato, Chocolate Cherry
Tomato, Lemon Drop
Tomato, Paul Robeson
Wonderberry
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 (3): - Cotton Processing, Lamb’s Ear Clean up, Hoan Ngok update (Short videos)
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 April 20th 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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