Welcome to the 2024 edition of the LITFM blog. This blog is the text-based complement to my weekly posts on Nextdoor.com and the gardening channel on YouTube. In 2023, this blog took on a more formal instructional tone with jokes dispersed within to serve as a hub for conveying information that might not work in a video or weekly update format. The subject matter here is always the wide variety of plant-based foods that you can find growing around you in nature or as some call it ‘Forage Foods’. This ties in with local bartering, and indirectly now we will be including mycology. The primary reason for the change in the blog’s tone and topic came about due to the events of the pandemic, the resulting 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. There is no reason not to be educated in what is and is not safe and how to prepare it into a nutritious meal. With that said I also realized that in my own way by keeping this blog running I might be butting heads with a billion-dollar pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer industry at times. 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 2024, 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. Thank you for sticking with LITFM and stay tuned for a year of forage foods.
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| These perennial plants can spread and take over areas quickly if you let them. But the fruit while being bland at least has vitamin C content. |
Common Name: Indian Mockstrawberry
Other Common Names: Mock Strawberry, Indian-strawberry, False Strawberry, Backyard Strawberry.
Botanical Family: Rosaceae (The Rose Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Potentilla indica (Aka Duchesnea indica)
Description & Habitat: This plant is native to eastern and southeastern Asia, and is considered invasive in some parts of the United States. It prefers to grow in places with shade and can often be found growing under larger shrubs and taller plants. It is also known for appearing in vacant lots, fields, in garden beds and places that tend not to have a lot of foot traffic. Generally speaking this plant can be distinguished from similar plants such as actual Strawberries (Fragraria sp.) and Oldfield Cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex) by easy to identify physical features. In the case of telling it from real strawberries, on Indian Mockstrawberry the berries always point upwards, on true strawberries they point downwards. Additionally the flowers on Indian Mockstrawberry are yellow, True strawberries have white or pink flowers. Compared to its cousin Oldfield Cinquefoil, Indian Mockstrawberry will have three leaflets while Cinquefoil will have up to five leaflets. Additionally the flowers of Cinquefoil tend to have fuller petals that often touch whereas on Indian Mockstrawberry the petals are smaller and there may be noticeable gaps between the petals.
When & What to Harvest: Fortunately this plant has a bunch of uses but a lot of them are folk medicine oriented so that leaves the fruit. The tiny berries are edible but quite bland; some have likened them to tasting like a watermelon close to the rind, other say it’s like thin cucumbers with a touch of tartness. The berries are safe to eat and contain some amount of Vitamin C. The leaves are also edible and can be used as a cooking herb.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.
Related Edible Species: None known
Recipe: One of the safest recipes I’ve found for this a beverage that can relieve an upset stomach, but also is a good way of getting vitamin C in a survival situation.
Ingredients:
1 Cup (8oz) of water.
¼ Cup of Indian Mockstrawberries
Sweetener (sugar, honey stevia ect)
Flavoring additive (Vanilla, Mint, Additional fruit)
1. Mix 1 8oz cup of water and ¼ of a cup of Indian Mockstrawberries.
2. Run the water and berries through a blender to pulverize the berries or mash them with a potato masher to get drinkable pulp.
3. Sweeten the mixture to taste using a sweetener of your preference.
4. Add flavorings such as vanilla, citrus or mint to round out the flavor.
5. Serve the resulting beverage with ice.
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 Food:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kits – Parsnip
Soup Kits – Turnip
House Plants
>All house plants are on sale!<
Arrowhead Plant ‘Regina Red’
Ficus ‘Yellow Gem’
Haworthia ‘Chocolate’
Miniature Cyclamen
Miniature Ox-Tongue
Begonia – ‘Sindbad’
Cuban Oregano – Large Leaf
Hoan Ngoc
Coming Soon:
More stuff 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.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (0): New Videos Coming soon.
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 February 15th 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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