Storing/ organizing seeds

Hmm… I will still consider that a cool season crop if it dies back in summer, just not a frost hardy cool season crop. The term cool season is all encompassing for me (. But very good example to clarify things.

Perhaps I stand corrected, that definitely sounds like a warm season plant :sweat_smile:.

I haven’t researched Okra enough to know but some Hibiscus species do have edible roots. Okra is pretty much a Hibiscus species because the entire Hibisceae tribe is potentially all just 1 genus Hibiscus (In much the same fasion as the super genera Solanum & Ficus).

In particular Pineland Hibiscus (Hibiscus aculeatus) has edible roots. The species is closely related to Cranberry Hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella), Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) & Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) which are all part of the Furcaria section or the new genus Sabdariffa.

Google is partially wrong. However I’m not sure which species is Broadleaf Sweet Pea but Everlasting Pea (Lathyrus latifolius) is 100% edible. The only concern for toxicity is in very specific rare cases, such as if you are starving & only eat Lathyrus species, only then can you develop lathyrisum (Or unless you are alergic - similar to how people get favaism from Faba Beans). If you are not starving & eat other things besides Peas or Lathyrus spp., this isn’t a concern. It should be noted that eating too many cultivated garden peas (Pisum sativum) can also have a similar Lathyrisum effect, especially when huge quantities are eaten on an empty stomach on a monodiet of Peas (Point is, don’t make Pisum or Lathyrus majority of your diet, especially when starving).
Below is Sam Thayer’s Page on Lathyrus latifolius & Lathyrus japonicus

Here’s John Kallas excert on Lathyrisum. The Best info on Lathyrus potential toxicity.

Hmm… This seems to be more so for fully dried seeds however Foraging Expert John Kallas says otherwise.
According to John Kallas in reference to immature seeds of Lathyrus latifolius : " Although pleasant and reminiscent of domesticated sweet peas, they are not as sweet and tender. But they are the best wild peas you will find. I love them. The pods themselves are too tough to chew."
He does eat them boiled like this.

According to John Kallas in reference to Ripe fully dry seeds of Lathyrus latifolius : “If you wait until the pods are tan and dry, the peas will be rock hard, but are good for later boiling like other dry peas, or for grinding into flour. Harvest the dry, hard brown seeds after the pods have gone fully dry and brittle. This is the way most cultures gathered the seeds. They would boil and then dry them for storage. When they were ready to use them, people would grind these high-protein peas into flour to add to other foods or to extend their wheat flour in bread making.”

John Kallas also states this warning towards the end
“From the research I’ve done, I cannot see any problem with eating any parts of this plant in moderation, in the context of a normal, healthy diverse diet. In fact, it is likely safer than dandelion greens for humans of any age.
There is an unlikely possibility that large amounts (like in food jags) of the unboiled peas (green or brown) eaten often might interfere, in temporary ways, with growth and development in rapidly growing bodies. From a perspective of an overabundance of caution, I would not make baby food out of the peas, or allow kids to engage in a food jag with the peas. Note that this is all about excess in a non-diverse diet, and even there, I am hesitant to mention this due to a lack of evidence that any negative experience will happen.”

Humans are incredible, what is pretty much poisonous to other animals we can eat deliciously :face_savoring_food:! However on the flip side, many poisonous berries are only edible to birds.
But also Grapes are poisonous to dogs too!?

:100: and I’m thankful to be a part of it! Chatting together with like-minded people is such a blessing! I’ve learned so much likewise I’m sure so many have learned from what I shared too.

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Is this the book you had pictures from? I love buying/ reading books! Seems like you’ve found it a useful reference?

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Yup! That’s the book, Sam Thayer’s newest book he released in 2023 (It’s his 4th book & the best one as it contains all of the plants - brief but still useful info for each so that it would fit in a book). His other books go into more detail on select plants but this 2023 has them all (many of which never covered in his previous books).

I read the book at my local library, definitely check your local library (Unless you want a copy all to your self). Library has lots of good stuff!

The other one is from John Kallas. He as written 2 very good books, super good quality info & photos (Up there with Sam Thayer if not better in some ways). The lathyrus sweat pea chapter is from book 2.

All other plant foraging books kind of fall short of these 2 authors (with very few exceptions).
Not to forget many “foraging books” on amazon are now written by AI & are really crappy (Don’t buy anything with the words “foraging” bible or “all in one”, those terms are a calling card for being written by AI. Definitely a buyer be aware & don’t fall for scams please type of situation!

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I aim to only buy books that 1. I know this author from other books, etc or 2. Come by recommendation from a person or 3. I already read it from the library and know I want to own it. Certain publishers I will trust. Yes, AI written stuff is a problem and I’m growing my own library, on my shelves and in my head, in light of a “dead Internet”.

Just last night, my 14 yr old is telling me that this here song will filtered by an explicit filter (it’s not a bad song, but it is forceful). All what he learned from the Google AI. I ask the Google AI in a different way, and we get a different answer. had to talk about why we need to fact check the AI answer, why filters don’t always work, and difference between inner filter (your own self) and outer filter (router, program,etc). Anyhoo, all the conversations! Vet all internet things. Yep, I read here with an eye to that, and I’m glad to report that I’m pretty sure most everyone is an actual person! :green_heart:

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Smart, likewise I’m doing the same except I save my ebooks as a pdf to read online. I don’t have much space for physical books. I’m also taking personal notes about plants I learn about (including a lot of gold info on these forums as well!).

Have you heard of Plants for a Future? or the split off site called theferns?
These 2 are such epic & useful database on every edible or useful plant. I use them all the time when trying to figure out if a plant is edible or not (Of course they aren’t the only resource).
https://temperate.theferns.info/

In the age of the “dead internet” I’m also downloading useful websites like this & anything else I wouldn’t want to loose when the internet actually dies (or in case of an EMP attack or solar flare/radiation - in which case I wrap a Hard drive in tinfoil).

That’s what makes this small niche corner of the internet so special. It’s also why I don’t want this community to get too big. The more bigger a communtity, the more insentive there is for bot accounts/ai accounts to infiltrate communities & sell crap (sometimes AI is in chats for influence campaigns, this is more common with reddit, facebook, twitter, and other bigger platforms where there are more people).

Of course I’m real & thankfully everyone I’ve talked & traded with here is real too.
Real as in not Ai & as in not fake people (like those who pretend to be your friend only to forget you exist when it’s inconvenient, still technically a real homo sapiens but oh man what a fake person :joy:).

Yes! And that I’ve gotten the seed box and sent it on, I hope proves I’m human. :grin: Thanks for the additional resources, I’ll check them out.

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I have seeds on plates that have dried and arent stored, seeds in packets above plates of seeds, seeds in yogurt containers under a bedside table, a full shelf of seed packets and plastic bags with more seed packets, a cardboard box with bigger seed bags, and a box with seed packets that were organized by category at some point. How’s that for storing/organizing seeds :wink: ?

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Pending is totally a valid category when organizing! Seeds need to dry, and various other processing steps. I’ve got basil seeds in a dish outside drying, getting ready for sifting. I have sorghum seeds doing the same.

Of course, I also have, in my guest bedroom, tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers started in pots,sweet potatoes slips sprouting in pots, various citrus seeds sprouting or baby trees being sheltered for warmer weather. I’ve got something at about every stage!

(Now you get to see my philosophical bent), as the poets have said, “the stall is clean where there are no oxen” and “there is no system so perfect no one has to be good”. Things are always moving around here, this home is very dynamic in that sense. So it should be, and be encouraged when your home is the same. Not even death is static! Yes, I think like this a lot. :face_with_monocle::nerd_face::green_heart:

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Everlasting pea stems die off for the winter, not for the summer. The stems are start growing after the hard freezes are over, and they die off after the hard freezes start. They’re a dieback perennial that’s active in the summer. They can handle light frosts, but their stems are nothing but dead mulch to grab and spread all over the ground in the winter. :wink: So yeah, they’re definitely a summer crop, not a winter one. There’s nothing to harvest in winter! (Unless the roots are edible — they’re very, very woody, so I doubt they’d be palatable.)

Mmmm, when I say that the seeds are mildly poisonous, I’m repeating what my neighbor told me. She used to snack on the green pods of everlasting peas when she as a kid, and she always wound up with a stomachache. The seeds were still green and soft, and they tasted like peas. She only learned many years later that the reason she always got a stomachache when she visited her grandma’s house was that she kept eating those “pea pods” that weren’t really a good idea to eat. :wink:

I’m pretty certain the dried seeds aren’t edible (unless carefully prepared, as per foraging books), but the edibility of the raw green seeds is doubtful too, given my neighbor’s personal experiences with having eaten them as a kid. Maybe they’re okay if they’re cooked; I have never tried it.

I’m familiar with Samuel Thayer’s books, which are fantastic, but I’ve never tried John Kallas before! Clearly I should read both of those books you recommended. :blush:

PFAF is excellent. So is the Eat the Weeds website. The author of that site has a foraging book out now. I’ve read it; it was pretty good. But I find his website a lot better. PFAF’s books are quite good, and I recommend trying them. They sometimes have information in those books that isn’t yet on their website.

Hee hee, and back to the topic of organizing seeds: I often have a few plates of seeds drying somewhere on my desk. I have a strong recommendation to make to anyone who does that: Remember to write a label to go with those seeds before you leave them out for two weeks and then realize you’ve completely forgotten everything about them! :rofl:

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