Hey guys! I’ve been growing out a lot of grexes and really getting my hands dirty with landracing. My questions is - Is every plant of every species I grow going to be safe to eat? (I know that’s vague)
Are there instances where something will be toxic? If so, how will I know it’s not edible? I’m mainly talking about cucurbits, nightshades, corn, okra, and common beans. Although, any information about any type of plant is welcome.
I hope someone knowledgeable answers this one.
Pepo squash keeps me paranoid because it can cross with the bitter gourds. Last year I got sick after eating some squash and cut all my plants down. It was all bought varieties though and they all tasted good. Then I got to thinking and realized it was probably all the vodka I drank that made me sick not the squash.
This topic reminds me about reading Joseph’s post talking about eating a poison nightshade berry and thinking he was gonna die. OOPS.
I hope so too!
Sorry you got sick. That sounds awful. I would be so paranoid after. Would definitely love if others had any stories around this topic.
As Rylan said above, pepo squashes can cross with inedible ornamental gourds/jack-o-lantern pumpkins. (Other species of squash aren’t as problematic in this regard.) A good rule of thumb is not to eat any squash that tastes bitter.
Cucumbers and melons can sometimes be bitter; again, the solution is to avoid any bitter fruits, whether for eating or seed saving. In the case of cucumbers, it is a good idea to taste fruits from each plant before selecting ones to produce seed; that way, any bitter plants can be removed, and any fruits on other plants that might have been pollenated by the bitter plant can also be removed, giving you a “clean slate”.
Given the risk of bitter pepo squash, I will be hand pollenating all my pepo squashes, but doing so in the spirit of landracing; starting with a diverse population, and hand-crossing in such a way as to preserve that diversity over time while selecting for local adaption.
All common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are poisonous . . . unless they are cooked! Most people don’t know that, since nobody eats them raw. But I’ve never heard about ones which are poisonous when cooked, so you should be pretty safe with them. (Though a cross between a green bean and a dry bean probably won’t produce tender green beans.) This does not apply to more unusual legumes, some of which can be quite toxic.
I tend to be a bit worried about nightshades, just because the family contains so many strange plants. Bitter (toxic) potatoes can show up in potatoes grown from true seed; the Cultivariable blog has a great write-up on toxins in solanums and how to deal with/avoid them. I’d recommend it to anyone working with potatoes or related plants: Potato Glycoalkaloid Toxicity - Cultivariable
Re bitter cucumbers - I seem to recall that there are two genes regulating bitterness - at least one of these also confers bitterness in the leaves, so tasting tiny bits of leaves would be another way of screening for at least some bitterness.
Re: green beans from dry bean varieties- there are many very good ones, though they generally have strings. I’m personally a big fan of green beans from most varieties of black beans. Pintos are also pretty good. Some of the French-type white beans have watery, flavorless snaps. There are enough good options that I see no reason to dedicate the garden space to maintaining both green and dry bean varieties. (My biggest challenge at the moment is my 3 year old picking her own green bean snack every afternoon and not leaving any to mature, but it’s hard to argue with a 3 year old who forages vegetables.)
Thanks for all the info Malcolm. This is the kind of info I was looking for!
Interesting! My kiddos love the green beans too. We have always grown a separate row of “green beans” away from our dry beans. Makes sense to just use the same variety for both fresh/dry eating.
Hey Gregg! So does bitterness necessarily mean toxic? Or is that just the best way to screen for toxicity?
As others mentioned, poison is bitter. You’re unlikely to get a plant that’s poisonous enough to really harm you. You’d likely vomit long before getting a dangerous dose
HI,
my major concern was carrots with hemlocks, but it looks they are different species so cannot cross pollinate.
If there’s a toxic trait from one of the varieties, I think it will be noticed when tasted, but since they are hybrids of already edible species, the probability is very small (a recessive trait emerging?). As I said, my fear is that they cross with something nasty that grows wild around the garden. Wild carrots can make my cultivated carrots fibrous, apparently. But there’s no poisonous plants around to my knowledge (except hemlock).
As far as bitterness/toxins; it is my understanding that the toxin in cucurbits (various forms of cucurbitacin) is bitter, so a bitter cucumber/melon/squash is a toxic one. (Leaving aside the Asian “bitter melon”). The only deaths/injuries I’ve read about from cucurbitacin is where people force themselves to eat bitter cucurbits, generally on the assumption that “bitter things are healthy”. In particular, I read about a case where a nursing home made a soup out of the ornamental gourds left over from fall decorating, and some of the residents ended up seriously ill, and another case where a couple cooked and ate large amount of bitter zucchini from their garden.
Some other toxins are not bitter; for instance, Poison Hemlock and Water Hemlock are not bitter, but are extremely deadly.
The Cultivariable article above lays out the situation with solanum alkaloids; some of them are easily detected by taste, others are not.
Not sure about toxicity. The bitter phytochemicals have been reported to have anti cancer properties. there’s a good discussion of bittering genes here - Journal of Heredity 2013:104(1):134–139
doi:10.1093/jhered/ess075 “Localization of a new gene for bitterness in cucumber”
hi Destin,
here only 2 problems encountered :
It’s worth reading this post that references a substack post I made a while back about a certain class of bitter compounds common in the gourd family, including cucumber of course
I only grow edible varieties for now. The wild cultivars can wait. I prefer to be well versed on good tasting varieties first. It does take research and study to know your garden. But im learning every season…I like some bitter flavors depending on the recipe. Cooking and preparing bitter plants is also an art form to get a good tasting meal.