Chattahoochee River

. We went to the Chattahoochee River NRA to see what edible plants we can find for Sunday's wild food walk. I wasn't expecting much other than what I'd found in the bottomlands along the river. However, it turned out to be a jackpot for common edible lawn weeds. This is one strip along a fence, at the edge of a parking lot:


There's a mowed area around the pavilion, and with the abundance of sun, and low elevation and humidity down by the river, this is prime weed habitat. The greens are mostly clover, chickweed, and dead nettle, with scallions (wild onion/wild garlic) all across the mowed lawn area. There are dandelions also, but with the cloudy skies, only a few are in bloom.

Look how lush the chickweed is:

And the dead-nettle around objects the mower couldn't reach:
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Here's a plant I couldn't identify, no matter how long I pored over field guides and later the internet:

I feel like I know I've seen it before. What weed has smooth square stems, opposite leaves, and tiny terminal clusters of symmetrical flowers with five parts? I don't know. It doesn't taste like much, it may be edible.

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[4/1 Update: The plant is Valerianella umbilicata (Corn salad), and highly edible - a once commonly-foraged wild green - it's in the valerian family.]

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In the bottomlands there are some beautiful scenes of yellow sprays of forsythia blooming beside oregon grape, with its upright spikes of yellow flowers. I've read in China they eat both the flowers and young leaves of forsythia, so I'll have to try them.

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We saw a couple of great blue herons. In fact the top photo is a close up of a heron out on a rock - he's tough to see.

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I looked for edible shoots near all the bamboo that was cut down, but couldn't find anything. Maybe it's too early in the year.

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The multiflora rose is in leaf now, and there are still a few old hips, but they are tasteless now. We came across a few hackberry trees, lots of greenbriar, cress and chickweed throughout, and of course silverberry. There will be plenty to point out on our walk.

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Day 6 going 100% raw wasn't too difficult. It's almost easy now, as long as I don't look back. It's like climbing a mountain - don't even think of turning around.

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I started out with a plantain/apple/parsley smoothie that was okay - not a great consistency. Lunch was cantelope - had an off taste. Later a wonderful young coconut - the water was incredible - I didn't really want the fatty flesh, but I ate it anyway. After our trip to the river I had a smoothie with banana, mango, and broccoli rabe (rappini), which I picked out at the grocery store because it looked so fresh and healthy. The baby broccoli inflorescences were even beginning to show some yellow flowers. However it was quite strong in the smoothie (I used half a bunch) and had a strong mustard bite to it. I also need to up the water content in my smoothies so they're not so thick.

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This sounds like enough food for the day, but I kept on eating. I had a salad with an avocado dressing I made from an avocado and the juice of two lemons - way too acidic. I'll go back to my tangerine juice. And after the salad I ate 2 ounces of pine nuts. Way too much food. Evenings are tough for me. I'm used to pigging out and numbing out at the end of the day. Now I need to find something to do besides eat!
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