AT HOME IN THE WILDERNESS PART V: EDIBLE PLANTS

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To collect seeds, tie a shirt in the form of a bag (wrapping the sleeves around the neck hole to close it) ... place the seed heads in the sack . . . and shake the kernels loose. Or, you might want to make a willow hoop out of a flexible sapling and place the shirt over it to form a shallow tray into which seeds can be knocked off.

Finally, keep in mind that plants are living entities and—many people believe—have their own spirits. Whenever I pick one, I thank it for giving its life to keep me alive. And, of course, we must all be very careful not to wipe out a species in any one area.

THE BIG FOUR . . .
These food sources are both familiar to most folks and—across much of North America—abundant!

Oaks. All acorns ( Quercus species) are edible, though some are a good bit sweeter than others. However, if you simply shell one of the seeds and take a bite, it's likely that you'll immediately be turned off by the very astringent, burning quality typical of most oak nuts. Fortunately, you can leach out the tannic acid that makes them bitter, and the easiest way to do so is to shell the acorns, smash them (you'll want to break them up but not pulverize them), wrap the pieces in a cloth, and place them in a stream for about half a day (longer, if they haven't lost their unpleasant taste by that time). Another method is to boil the nuts, changing the water frequently, until the flavor appeals to you.

Once they're leached, the acorns can be eaten raw, toasted, added to stews, or pounded fine and mixed with wild-grain flours to make bread. They're a valuable source of proteins and carbohydrates that's available from early fall until well into the next spring. And acorn sprouts can be prepared in the same ways as the nuts themselves, or—in the case of most white oak species—can be eaten right off the ground.

Grasses. Of the many grasses found in North America, all but a few are edible, with their seeds being the most palatable part. However, it's best to select grasses with large seed heads or clusters, since trying to collect small ones would likely be a waste of vital energy.

The seeds should be dried and parched, then winnowed to remove the chaff. The kernels can then be toasted and eaten plain, added to stews, or ground into flour for bread. Some of the best, safest, and most widely available grasses are crab, goose, foxtail, blue, rye, and orchard, plus wild oats and millet. Eat the Weeds by Ben Harris (Keats, 1973, $1.50) and Handbook of Edible Wild Plants by Euell Gibbons and Gordon Tucker (Donning Company, 1979, $4.95) are both good sources of information on edible grasses.

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