I mix pine needles into a lot of teas! They’re supposed to be high in vitamin c. I sometimes add them to juices but they gum up the juicer with resin.
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Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure feijoa leaves are edible. I say that because I accidentally pulled some off one of my purchased seedlings, so I gave them a taste, and – hey! What a nice cotton candy flavor! There was a slight bitter aftertaste afterwards, and a bit of a standard leaf taste in there too, but otherwise, it tasted just like the flower petals are described as tasting.
I’m pretty excited to have feijoas that grow old enough to give me cotton-candy-tasting flower petals to eat . . . 
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Based on the color of the berries, I’m guessing I have mostly Morus nigra, with one or two Morus alba. They just grow wild here, the birds and wild animals plant them everywhere. Most people work to keep them out of their yards, and what does grow in less maintained places they cut down for firewood. I will taste the leaves this spring. Also the male flowers…? do you eat them raw or cooked?
Thank you for the list of tasty trees. I’ll try to munch on the ones I have when I walk my yard. Has anyone actually eaten the tips of fir and spruce? I am willing to try it once. Sad confession, all this talk of eating trees has me wishing for a bag of cheese puffs…
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Fruit Colors are very unreliable for species ID, as Morus alba has Purple, White, Black & Pink Berries. Morus rubra has Dark Red to Black berries. The scientific names unfortunately mislead many.
These are all Morus alba fruits. Such incredible diversity for the species!
These are Morus rubra fruits.
Plus both species hybridize, complicating the delicious situation 
This is the video where I learned you can eat Male Flowers too, such a wealth of knowledge! Male flowers are crunchy & good for salads but I’ve never tried them only because I never found them at the right stage to harvest.
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRCif6Gz3Ks
Your welcome! I hope you find the tree you like best, the feeling is almost magical to actually eat trees like a giraffe . I did so with Tilia cordata.
Yes, very Easy! They were actually among the first wild edible plants I’ve tried & certainly the first tree leaf. Each Spruce Tree taste different, even within the same species. I’ve never tried Firs (Unless you count douglas Fir, which isn’t a true fir).
You can eat Spruce Tips raw or cooked, best when soft & tender (Enough to cut with fingernail), otherwise mature needles good for tea. Last photo is me boiling them!
There are much more creative Chefs who even pickle them, I suck at cooking so I just eat them raw or simply boil em.
You can also eat the pollen cones (Aka Spruce Flowers) raw or cooked. Nice & Crunchy before they open & shed pollen.
But if you let them shed on parchment paper, you can collect & eat the spruce pollen.
These 2 Videos Helped me gain enough confidance to start Foraging Spruce (They were my Gateway Drug to Spruces for lack of a better term).
At this point, maybe I should make my own video? They really are easy to forage.
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Leaf shape/texture is also usually unreliable for ID.
There is a lot of variation between young and mature leaves/trees. And it is also made worse do to the high rate of hybridization.
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The mulberries in the bottom photo above look like the ones in my neighborhood. The darker ones in the middle look ripe and the pinkish one to the right not quite ripe, but they taste good at that stage too.
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Yes! Mostly due to Hybridization. Plus Red Mulberry leaves look a lot like Tilia americana, leading to the tree “Disappearing” due to mistaken ID. Young vs older leaves & Sunnier spot vs shady spot often from very different looking leaves.
Here’s how differently they look.
And undersides difference form Forager Sam Thayer’s book, someone who correctly knows ID trait the differences. Morus alba (Left), Morus rubra (Right)
Oh wow! That’s fantastic, definitely give the leaves a try especially if they look like the ones in the photo above. If possible save seeds, I’d love to trade for red mulberry seeds & kickstart my Mulberry Landrace Project for edible leaves, not just fruit.
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Is that because Tilia americana is a highly harvested species?
I don’t think so… I mean not many foragers harvest or even know Tilia americana is edible.
It’s just a lot of people who ID plants (Like Scientists/Conservationist) often mistake Tilia americana for Morus rubra, That’s what I’ve learned from Samuel Thayer’s 3rd book from the Mulberry Chapter.
I’ve also seen it happen myself, lots of very credible Wildflower websites often mistake Morus rubra for Morus alba, I’ve even saw a map of Morus rubra Trees planted, went to them only to found out all of them were in fact Morus alba.
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That makes sense. I was thinking maybe harvesting for lumber.
I don’t know much about Tilia americana because we don’t have those down here.
Yes, you should totally make more videos about how to forage things! You’re such an expert; I’m sure you’d have a lot of ideas to share.
Hey, since I’m sure you would know – if I find a tree with those asymmetrical leaves that look just like Tilia, is it safe to just . . . taste a leaf? If its only lookalike is mulberry, those leaves are equally edible, so there would be no worries. If there are poisonous lookalikes, I’d better wait until I’ve seen the fruits. 
I check Inaturalist, it seems to be found in eastern Texas but North Texas is just right outside the range. I’m sure if planted it will grow there.
Thank you! I have no video editing software so I’m just gonna freestyle them.
I use YouTube Live since OBS doesn’t work well on my Chrombook Linux Mint OS.
What kinds of videos would you like to see @UnicornEmily
Plant Breeding, Phylogenic Trees, Wild Edibles, ect?
Well… Kind of, a lot of foragers in the eastern US say that but I haven’t all the potential look alikes in Utah. That being said, Asymmetrical leaves are very unique to Tilia & Red Mulberry. Ideally you should be able to 100% ID before you even take a bite, but taking a bite should be pretty safe (Especially if you taste any really bad flavors).
Once you get an eye for it, than it makes it much easier.
It might, but the climate/soil differences between North Texas and East Texas can be pretty extreme.
Not just lumber, it’s good for smoking meat too. Tastes like toasted peanuts imo.
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Not a tree, but I’ve been eating a lot of kudzu leaf (cooked and juiced) I’m trying to find information on that as well as mulberry to see if there are issues with long term daily consumption. There is one report of a death which may have been linked to white mulberry leaf supplements but I couldn’t find details of how exactly mulberry would have caused the issue.
For kudzu leaf I haven’t seen much infirm on daily consumption of the leaf. The starch from the root commonly eaten.
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Feedipedia is a great resource for nutritional info. Also an internet search works decently using keywords. Such as “toxicity kudzu humans” or “toxicity Mulberry rabbits” etc. The latin name is more reliable though.
The only questions of toxicity I was able to find were pertaining to possible liver issues with supplements of kudzu root extract. I didn’t see anything like that in regards to the leaf. I saw feed studies where it was fed to chickens & rabbits in fairly large percentages without issue. I suppose I can extrapolate that it’s likely safe to eat regularly.
When i hear “such and such is toxic to so and so” my knee jerk reaction is to assume it’s really only toxic to Big Ag or Big Pharma’s bottom line.
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(Laugh.) Well, there are plants that are unambiguously poisonous. But yeah, I tend to suspect most claims that something is toxic when it’s commonly eaten are there to attract attention, not backed by any rigorous science.
That said, alcohol is toxic, and it’s often consumed, so . . . it’s always possible a report like that could be true. Good to check on the sources, even if your knee jerk reaction is that it’s probably untrue (which it easily could be).
And of course, there’s also the caveat that some food is toxic – until it’s prepared in a specific way. No one should eat raw pokeweed or raw anything that contains raphides, for instance!
Toxicity is also a really different consideration if you consume something occasionally & in moderate amounts! Kale is super healthy but some people have eaten enough to give themselves goiters.
Many foods are self regulating due to availability but with a ‘plentiful’ plant like kudzu there is not really a limiting factor. If I were so inclined I could replicate the rabbit feed experiment and make it 35% of my total diet
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