Advice for Trying New Wild Edibles: Test and Wait
How to Test New Wild Edibles and Not get Sick
Testing new wild edibles is always a tricky business. Even if a wild edible is "safe", there is no telling what you might be allergic to. Additionally, unlike domesticated crops which have had aggravating properties bred out of them over generations, wild edibles still have a number of compounds in them that can be upsetting to some stomachs and not others.
A personal example is Crown Tipped Coral: A beautiful mushroom that is safe and enjoyed by many, but when put me on the toilet for hours after the first time I ate a large serving of it.
There is a tried and true test, and age old process to follow, to give any new wild edible a trial run. It's as simple as can be. Touch the plant, as you typically will while harvesting it, and give it a few hours to see if a rash develops. If not, then cook and eat a small serving of it, no more than one good sized bite, then wait. Give it overnight. If you make it to the next morning with no gastric distress, then you have a reasonable assurance that the new edible agrees with you, and you may feast with abandon.
I know it can be hard to force yourself to try only a bite and wait a whole day to eat more when you are excited about a new wild edible, but if it saves you hours of cramping and being stuck on a toilet, it will be worth it. Trust me.
Words of wisdom!!! I've also heard of people sleeping with plants under their pillows in rder to try to communicate with them during their dreams, to learn more about their potential uses. Does that count as a way of empirical auto-learning about new edibles?? ;)
This is so true! resteeming and upvoted!
Good information brother. I am trying to expand my knowledge about wild edibles. I am just not very good at plant recognition.
I always recommend to start with the easy ones and progress to the limits of your comfort zone. Easy plants are things alike Cattails, Dandelions, Sassafras, Water Cress, Wood Sorrel, Black Berries, Dew Berries, Mulberries. These are all plants that have very clear indicators and are hard to mistake for other things.
It would be interesting to try the crown-tipped coral again to see if that one bite would have given you enough warning.
That's too bad about your troubles with the crown-tipped coral mushrooms!
This is pretty safe and true for anything but mushrooms. I have been doing it for years with good results.
I just had a family member poisoned by mushrooms so have been doing lots of research. There are actually mushroom which can be deadly that don't cause any symptoms for 3-30 days. So what happens is you wind up eating them for day and days in a row because there are no symptoms then the toxins build up in your body and you die.