Eat the weeds A forager's guide to identifying and harvesting 274 wild foods

Yucca Yucca spp. Notable Nutrients or Uses: Potassium, vitamin E Safety Notes: Raw yucca blossoms and fruit can give you a stomachache, so try a little before eating a lot. Native Status: Yucca's natural distribution range covers a wide swath of the Americas, from Guatemala north through Mexico to the southwestern US and as far north as western Canada. Yucca is also native northward to the coastal lowlands and dry beach scrub of the southeastern US, along the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic States from coastal Texas to Maryland, and occasionally as far north as New England. Green Deane's Itemized Plant Profile Identification: Y. filamentosa, erect evergreen plant 4-25 feet tall, thick central stem, leaves long, dagger-like, sometimes branched, with shedding threads, flowers tulip-like, waxy, drooping. Fruit to 5 inches long, cylindrical, purple skin and pulp, many seeds. Y. gigantea, a desert species, can grow to 40 feet tall, is single- or multitrunked, and has erect spikes of pendant flowers followed by brown, fleshy fruits to 1 inch long. Y. glauca is a low-growing shrub with white-to-pale-green pendant flowers and shiny black seeds. Time of Year: Blossoms in late spring or early summer, fruits later in the year in northern climes Range: Y. filamentosa, as far west as Texas, north to Canada, and east to Massachusetts; also found in Florida. Y. gigantea, across the Desert Southwest from Texas to California and parts south. Y. glauca, from the Southwest north to Alberta Environment: Y. filamentosa, generally dry (but not arid) areas; other species prefer arid areas. Method of Preparation: Y. filamentosa, six-sided fruits edible raw or cooked, rubbery and bitter; cooking helps some. Flower petals raw in salads sparingly; may also be batter-dipped and fried, boiled, or roasted. Very young flower stalks peeled and boiled. Seeds roasted, ground, or boiled until tender Green Deane's Notes When isn't a yucca a yucca? When it's spelled with one C, as in yuca . What's the difference? A bellyache, maybe more. The yucca in the wild has several edible parts aboveground. The yuca in the grocery store is a cultivated cassava and has one edible part belowground. So what parts of the yucca are edible? The flower petals can be eaten raw or cooked, though raw they usually give me a stomachache, at best a throatache. Try eating just one petal--not the whole blossom--and wait 20 minutes. The taste is sweet at first, but if it becomes bitter or burns your throat, the flowers should be cooked; I recommend boiling them for 10 minutes or so. The young fruits are best roasted until tender; they're edible raw, but again, they tend to be very bitter. Scrape out the pulp and separate it from the seeds. The pulp, sweetened, can be used for pies, either boiled or dried in the oven. The seeds can be roasted (375°F) until dried, ground roughly, or boiled until tender. The young, short flower stalks are also edible, but well before they blossom. Cut into sections, boil for 30 minutes in plenty of water, and peel (you can also peel before cooking). For survivalists, the yucca provides more than food. Yucca wood--actually, the dried flower stalk--has the lowest kindling temperature of any wood, which is desirable for starting fires, especially if you're using a bow and drill. (Use the yucca stalk for the drill.) The roots and leaves can be moistened with water and used as a natural soap; the saponins, which make the lather, are also what makes yucca bitter. You can also crush the root of some yuccas and wash your hair with the juice. Plus, the leaves can be made into extremely strong rope. Excerpted from Eat the Weeds: A Forager's Guide to Identifying and Harvesting 295 Wild Foods by Deane Jordan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.