Bidens alba, From Worthless to Wonderful

Uses : Wildlife, Forage, Xeriscaping, Edible, Medicinal. Native to : Unknown, found throughout the tropics and subtropics.
     It wasn't very long ago that I used to detest this very prolific weed. It is a plant sexaholic, constantly spreading its genetic information all over my grass. I'm not a huge fan of grass, but I'm also not a fan of the place looking untidy, which is what Beggarticks does for you. It's a perennial that freezes to the ground every year and will spring up from its roots to shower your lawn, your neighbor's lawn, and the family down the street's lawn with seeds.
     In the past I removed this plant with impunity. It has a tiny shallow root system which makes it easy to pull out. Once removed, I hoped that a more beautiful or useful plant would find its way into that empty space, and within two seasons was somewhat successful. Four O' Clocks found their way into the entire front yard, covering the place with pink fragrance. But how I wish I had known that Spanish Needle would have been better to leave in place...
     Why the change of mind, you ask? This weedy herb is a favorite of butterflies and bees, but more importantly, rabbits love it. They eat Beggarticks before they eat the grass mixture, long before they go for the boring pellets. And if a plant is useful and invasive, please invade!
     It's edible by humans, too. Eat the leaves raw or cook away, and you'll have a nice green for the dinner table. Or add to smoothies, as I do.
     Medicinally it, and its cousin Bidens pilosa, are used in Peru to reduce inflammation and protect the liver. A study done in 2011 confirmed the hepatoprotective effects of Bidens pilosa in mice.
     A study done in 2011 in South Africa states that the crude protein content for Bidens pilosa is 19%, making it an excellent herb for growing rabbits to nosh on. It is also high in vitamins and antioxidants. They recommend it be eaten more and used more medicinally by humans.
     These plants were sustainably harvested early in the morning from above a storm water drain down the street. A lot of organic matter catches near the drains, and people tend not to try to hard to mow down into the mouth of the drain. Sustainable harvest implies that most of the plants were left to reproduce, and only a small fraction were taken. The whole time I was convinced someone was going to yell at me or at least question why I was carrying around weeds, but thankfully, I escaped un-reprimanded.

Harvesting Turtle

Gopher Tortoise, illegal to capture except by special permit, common is sandy long-leaf pine savannas, spend most of their time in long, deep burrows which provide habitat for other creatures and enable them to thermoregulate and avoid forest fires.

     The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) closely regulates the types and number of turtles that can be harvested from the wild for different purposes, including personal use (i.e. eating) or raising on your own land for later personal use. It is illegal to sell turtles taken from the wild in Florida, and that rule may apply to their meat as well so do be careful. 

 "Freshwater turtles can only be taken by hand, dip net, minnow seine or baited hook. Most freshwater turtles may be taken year-round. Taking turtles with bucket traps, snares, or shooting with firearms is prohibited. Softshell turtles may not be taken from the wild from May 1 to July 31. In addition, collecting of freshwater turtle eggs is prohibited.
    Some turtle farms depend on collection of wild freshwater turtles. With the new rule, certified turtle aquaculture facilities, under a tightly controlled permitting system, will be allowed to collect turtles to establish reproduction in captivity so that farms can become self-sustaining to lessen their dependence on collection of turtles from the wild.
Possession limits for the following turtle species and their eggs are as follows:

• Loggerhead musk turtles - two

• Box turtles - two

• Escambia map turtles - two

• Diamondback terrapins - two"

     Information on sea turtle harvesting is not listed on the FWC official site, which leads me to believe that it is illegal in Florida waters. Interestingly, Gator-Woman claims that the largest threat to Florida's indigenous turtle population is that Chinese, a blatantly racist remark. She claims their love of turtle is skyrocketing the price of domestic turtle meat.
     Once you acquire the turtle you can butcher immediately, or some would recommend storing the captive turtle securely in clean water for a day or more, providing feed for the turtle as well. This is to lessen the supposed "muddy" flavor of the meat.
     The proper way to clean a carcass would involve enticing the turtle to bite a stick, then pulling its neck out as far as possible before slicing through as quickly and close to the base as possible, then hang by the tail to drain the blood. Next slice off the legs, tail, and shoulders for the meat. Remove the head from the neck and use the neck meat as well. Some open the shell to remove the fatty lining near the vertebra, or strap, as it is sometimes called. Frequently that step is omitted as opening the shell may not always be worth the mess or hassle. Care should be taken to avoid reflexive movement of jaws and legs which persist long after the turtle is decapitated.
     Most recipes for preparing turtle meat call for creating a soup, stew, or possible deep-frying. Some cook with the bones, some remove the bones before cooking.
     

Black (Turtle) Bean and Rice Soup with Lime and Cilantro

     This is a simple Latin American soup made with readily available ingredients that store well for the long term. Black beans and cilantro can be grown fresh in your garden, and limes may be grown. Lemon could be substituted, and Meyer Lemon is a variety that can handle the temperatures in central Florida very well. Or what about sour orange? or unripe tangerines?
     If you are cooking the beans from dried stores, about half a cup of dried beans is all this recipe calls for, give or take a few.

Black Bean and Rice Soup with Lime and Cilantro(makes 6 servings, can be doubled for larger Crockpot or stovetop cooking, recipe created by Kalyn)

Ingredients:
2 cans black beans with liquid
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
(use 2 cups for stovetop cooking)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic (or more)
1 T ground cumin
1 T dried oregano
1 1/4 tsp. ground chile powder
1/4 cup white long-grain rice (not more!)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (2 limes)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or more)

Instructions:

In small Crockpot or 3 quart sauce pan, combine beans, tomatoes, chicken stock, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, Ancho chile powder and Chipotle chile powder. Cook on low for 6-8 hours in Crockpot or 1-2 hours on stove, until tomatoes are disintegrating and beans are starting to fall apart. On stovetop, you might need to add a little water during the cooking time.

When soup has reached the consistency you want, raise heat slightly or turn Crockpot to high. Add 1/4 cup rice and cook until rice is done, about 30 minutes for either Crockpot or stove.

Lower heat again, add fresh lime juice and cilantro and cook 5 minutes. Serve hot, with additional fresh lime pieces for each person to squeeze into soup.

Simple Cooking at Home

"Each woman should feel herself to be a hostess to her family. This is the grand climax of a procession of achievements. A woman who is a good planner, a wise purchaser, an excellent cook and a gracious hostess to her family is truly a MASTER HOME BUILDER."
-Meta Given, The Modern Family Cook Book, 1942.

     Our world has changed a great deal since Ms. Givens wrote that anti-feminist statement in the 1940s. Since then we've seen the rise of our great economy. Oil, plastics, refrigeration, transportation, and feminism leading to a changing workforce have modified our way of life. Many a young and old person no longer have the skills or desire to cook at home.
     I think the best reason for cooking at all is so that you can control exactly what goes in to your own food. In the world of peanut, gluten, and iodine allergies this is important, but also from the chemical and preservative perspective as well. You can actively control how much sodium, fat, and oil goes in the meals. You can actively exclude high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, MSG, sorbitol/xylitol, and other irritants. You can choose between organic or genetically modified, a choice somewhat lacking in most restaurants. Local versus imported. Food colored or irradiated. Fresh or canned or frozen.
     My mother likes to cook at home to save money, but she also likes all of her recipes to be easy to make, so she tends to have a handful of raw ingredients and some pre-made ingredients in her recipes. Pancakes from mixes. Pies from canned, pre-sugared filling. Corned beef and cabbage made with canned meat. Store-bought ice cream.
     I don't necessarily disagree with her philosophy in that it works for her and she likes doing things that way. It looks to me to be a generational issue, as lots of young women returned to the workforce they wanted to have their boxed cake batter and eat it too. I just think its a bit of a consumerist mindset, or lack of mindset, to think we need to have pancake batter to make pancakes is just silly. (Make babies and go shopping!)
     It has been proven the nutritional content of every food declines with time and processing, except in the special case of fermenting. Freezing, canning, cooking, storing, dehydrating; all suffer some loss of quality over fresh.
     The solution of the perpetual question of what are we to eat is simple. It's all about pairing foods to create a balance, then sprinkle a little bit of your preferences on top. Eat a variety of foods every day, it doesnt have to be expensive if you're careful.
     Beans pair with grains, whole are more beneficial than processed.
     Meat pairs with vegetables.
     Dairy pair with grains.
     Fruit in moderation.
     It is almost always cheaper to buy unprocessed simple ingredients, like sugar and flour, in bulk.

Four o'Clocks, Mirabilis jalapa

Uses : Xeriscaping, Medicinal. Native to : Tropical South America
Although it may be called 4 o'Clock because it is said to bloom in the afternoon at that time, it blooms in the early morning and closes its' flowers in the heat of the afternoon. 4 o'Clocks are perennials that freeze to the ground every year here in West Florida, then in the spring new vigorous plants emerge from tubers underground.
     They grow well in poor soil but appreciate the protection of shade during the dry season. They do very well in shade, but can tolerate full sun with plenty of water.
     The fragrant little flowers bloom for months, and make tiny black seeds that may reseed in other parts of the garden. People have used the flowers as an edible crimson food coloring for cakes and jellies.
    The tender young leaves can be eaten as cooked greens.
    The root was used as a treatment for dropsy (CHF) and as some kind of hallucinogen.
     Not a lot of information can be found on whether 4 o'Clocks can be used as a fodder source.

Sweet Potato

Uses : Edible, Forage, Xeriscaping, Polyculture. Native to : Central South America
     I find that the sweet potato has a lot more to offer southerners than the white potato. White potatoes have been hybridized over centuries to be able to produce a great deal of starch in a short growing season. White potatoes grow very well in the North, but in the South, the sweet potato is king. Sweet potatoes require longer seasons but are able to thrive in the additional heat and humidity that white potatoes as we know them cannot. Known to be a super-food, it is an important source of Vitamin A (carotene) and other B vitamins.
    Sweet potatoes are a staple of permaculture in the South, nothing screams ease of growth and abundance like the big orange spud. The potato itself is edible after cooking, and lower in carbohydrates but with plenty of vitamins and starches than white potatoes. The vines can be used as a fodder for livestock or cooked as a green for your table.
     A study done in 2004 in Vietnam shows the crude protein content for sweet potato leaves to be between 25 - 30%, much higher than most other greens. It suggests that sweet potato leaves be included into the diets of animals as an important additional protein source.
     Due to soil-borne plant diseases, it is recommended by IFAS not to plant sweet potatoes in the same place in consecutive years. Sweet potatoes are perennials if you neglect them, just be aware of the possibly of blights.
     My vines tend to sprawl all over the ground rather than bother with climbing. Maybe they are just a lazy variety. For that reason they are a great ground cover, an erosion prevention tool rather than a plant to be used in a plant guild like the three sister's garden.

Maypop Passionflower

Uses : Edible, Medicinal. Native to : Southeastern United States, possibly originally from Central America.
     This attractive flowering vine, which resembles a southern version of clematis, is a scourge of the southern landscape. It is banned in Hawaii and on the Florida Invasive list. I can't say it is as invasive as the non-native kudzu though, since passionflower doesn't seem to be taking over whole forests at the moment.
     A good deal of thought and research should be done before allowing this plant into your area. According to legend, about twenty years ago my mother wanted some passionflower vine for a side fence in our yard. Against my father's protestations (supposedly). Since that time the passion vine has never left our block, it comes up from seed in different places every year and in the neighbor's yards. Since the majority of my neighbors are retirees and renters, they just leave the vine to do as it will - spread and seed. The vine forms an underground tuber which goes quite deep for a vine, and if the foliage is removed it will be able to return.
     The best way to control passion vine is to pull out the young shoots every week in the spring. It is very easy to spot with its conspicuous triple-lobed or penta-lobed leaves. After the foliage is removed several times the tuber won't have energy to try again. This can be a bit labor intensive. Once the vine is larger later in the season it is nearly impossible to remove, so removing the flowers before seed setting can help.
     It does completely freeze to the ground every winter here in West Florida, even in mild winters. I usually pull out the shoots that come up in undesirable places in the spring and leave the ones that are hard to pull. If a passionflower wants to grow into the cherry laurel trees then good luck, it's not hurting anything there.
     The name 'maypop' comes from the sounds the fruits make when children throw them on the ground or jump on them. In late summer the fruit will set, making apricot-sized green globes with many seeds inside. The fruits are so seedy they are more like tiny pomegranates.    
     The 'passion' in the name comes from a symbolic representation of the Christian trinity some say they can see in the sex organs of the flower. In my opinion it should be renamed Maypop Zombie-flower as it has an unattractive smell and the plant returns from the dead every spring.
     When grown from seed passionflowers make beautiful houseplants. Their long, trailing vines and beautiful flowers are quite amazing. Vining plants tend to be forgiving in watering requirements as well. Do grow from seed in a pot if growing for indoor use as they do not take transplanting well and do not root in water as easily as many other vines.

     Much like the sweet potato, if properly trained the vines could make a very excellent natural privacy screen if you happen to live close to your neighbors. The vine does die down in the winter, which could make it useful for a shade-producing screen or for a pergola.
     The flowers are like bee and butterfly kryptonite. They are hopelessly attracted to the huge, smelly purple blossoms. I've personally seen the rare and mysterious zebra butterfly in my yard thanks to this vine.
     There are over 500 different varieties of passion vine available, the vines are able to hybridize with one another easily so proper identification of your cultivar can be intimidating.
     Passionflower is grown the world over in tropical areas. The most common eating variety comes from Peru and Central America. The fruit is eaten fresh, juiced, jammed, canned, fermented into wine, baked into desserts, etc.
     Remains of seeds have been found in Incan and Aztec ruins. After reading This Paper I have no doubts that the spread of passionflower throughout eastern North America was aided by human hands.
     Extractions from the plant are known to have sedative and analgesic properties. Native Americans made teas with the leaves to help treat insomnia. Since then it has been used to help with seizure disorders, substance abuse programs, and organic brain syndromes. The fruit is high in lycopene and Vitamin C.
     I was unable to find any research about whether it would be safe to use the foliage as a fodder, but I highly suspect it would not be safe in any significant quantities. After the first frost just remove the frozen vines and place in your compost heap.
     

Cavendish Banana

Uses : Edible, Forage. Native to : Southeast Asia
     Cavendish Bananas do not really grow well here in West Florida. Actually they grow very well with plenty of supplementary water during the dry period and protection from freezing in the winter. So I'm saying they need a lot of care to thrive this far north of the Caribbean. A truly beautiful plant, bananas are the idealization of the word 'tropical'. Cavendish bananas are a dwarf variety more suited to the home landscape. It should be planted in the wettest, warmest place in your property, sheltered from cold winds in the winter. It can handle full sun if receiving enough water. High winds will rip the leaves, but the 'trees' seem no worse for wear.
     My father thinks that they need to have two long growing seasons with a frost-free winter in between in order to have fruit. It sounds reasonable, as my bananas have never had a flower and neither have his. When I lived in Riverside, Jacksonville, one of my neighbors had a Cavendish that had flowers and then fruit, and it was beautiful. I can only guess that their yard had a very excellent micro climate.
       Because the fruits of the plant lack viable seeds, propagation is via the new shoots the plant creates like bamboo. It is said that you can tell a plant has been in cultivation for a long time when it can no longer reproduce sexually but requires humans to transplant. Like taro. Actually these bananas have a lot in common with taro as they are grown in similar parts of the world and prefer moist, humid conditions.
     Perhaps most people are pretty familiar with the banana, but did you know the skin/peel is edible as well? In Africa a banana wine is produced, for local consumption only, apparently, and is known for being one of the most nutritious of fermented foods as the wine contains most of the B vitamins and some of the potassium the original bananas had. Dehydrated banana chips are also very nutritious and have a long shelf life if made properly. Plantains, bananas' sister, are used in the same way potatoes are.
     Banana leaves are used in Africa to wrap foods in like a packaging, and as disposable plates. Some people wrap meats in banana leaves before baking for added tenderness and flavor. The leaves can be used for thatching and are frequently used as a natural umbrella. Leaves and pseudostems make a decent fodder for ruminants, but are not complete nutritionally. One source recommends banana pseudostems and sweet potato vines in combination, or urea. Ick.

IFAS - Bananas

Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Next Dilemma

Michael Pollan about Sustainable Agriculture

      Michael Pollan is one of the foremost speakers about the national food situation currently facing us. His non-threatening persona and charming eloquence make him a popular choice. Most importantly, he advocates many of the same ideals that I advocate, the least of which are that people need to get back to producing healthful food and eating locally.
     This video is an exerpt from a larger one that he made as a follow-up to his book and documentary, an Omnivore's Dilemma and the Botany of Desire. This interview piece specifically describes Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms, a sustainable protein production operation in Virginia. Please comment, criticize.

Slow Coffee

How to brew coffee without a coffeemaker
     It should be noted that I have a drip coffee maker and a diffuser, but I still prefer this method because it's so easy. And it uses no electricity. It creates very little mess. There's no heat or steam warming up my kitchen either.
     Simply take an old jar with a lid and add your coffee to it as you prefer. I usually use about four teaspoons for this size jelly jar. Then fill the jar all the way to the top with regular water from your tap or filter. Put the lid on securely, then give your mix a few shakes. Put the jar in the back of the fridge and ignore for two or more days. I usually leave it in for three or four.
     Then when you are ready to drink, grab a cheap coffee filter, filter basket, or heck even a piece of good cheesecloth will probably work. Place your filter into a food-grade funnel, place the drain of the funnel into a carafe or your cup. Shake the mix again, then pour into your filter/funnel contraption. The idea is to get all the grounds and coffee out of your jar and into your filter, then your cup. Take your filter and grounds outside and feed the plants with it.
     I would be cautious not to leave your coffee mix for too long in the refrigerator. Any chlorine in your municipal tapwater should inhibit some bacterial growth, in theory anyway. Coffee has natural oils and compounds which can and do go bad over time, and I'm sure it would be a displeasing ferment. I don't let ours sit back there more than a week, not that it would ever last that long around here.