Eat The Weeds Newsletter 1 April 2014
by Green Deane
A squall stripped the edibles flowers from the Tropical Chestnut.
Fellow Mainer H.W. Longfellow never wrote “under the spreading Pachia tree the village smithy stands.” That well-known poem says “chestnut tree” once common but now rare in North America because of an imported disease. The Tropical Chestnut tree, however, still stands, where it is warm.
Eastern Redbud blossoms are also edible.
Last week the Tropical Chestnut tree in Dreher Park, West Palm Beach, was putting on part of a show. Still leafless its frilly pink blossoms were raining from the bare limbs. The Pachiaaquatica is not the only tree to dress up in springtime blossoms without leaves. The edible Eastern Redbud does as well though its blossoms are small, the size of a fingernail. Quite a few plums also blossom out in white before setting on leaves.
The Tropical Chestnut Blossoms peels like a banana. Photo by Green Deane
Restricted to Florida, the gulf coast, and southern California, the Tropical Chestnut tree has edible seeds — raw or cooked — and edible leaves and blossoms cooked. For such a huge tree it took me a while to identify the Pachiaaquatica because I was in the area irregularly so never got to catch it at a particular good time to identify it. As for the Redbud, its blossoms are edlible raw or cooked as are the young pea pods it produces. Young leave can be eaten cooked, too. To read more about the Tropical Chestnut go here, the Eastern Redbud here.
Miner’s Lettuce as a garden crop.Photo by Rock Farmer.
Across the country in parts of California Miner’ Lettuce is making its spring run and will be blooming through May. Dry, summer heat ends its season. This delectable comes from a family of other edibles — Claytonia — and was once lumped in with the purslane group. It doesn’t naturally get anywhere near Florida. The most distinctive feature of the Miner’s Lettuce is the leaf structure. Shaped like a saucer or cup the flower stalk pushes through the middle of the upper leaf. Difficult to mis-identify. It’s a resident of western North America with token populations in Georgia and northern New Hampshire.
I have been unable to find any reference to it growing in Georgia in modern times. Miner’s Lettuce — which is high in vitamin C — is particularly common along the Pacific coast in shady spots and canyons. Its name comes from 1849 Gold Rush miners who ate it to stave off scurvy.