Challenge #01915-E091: Surprising Nutrition
All fungi are edible. It's just that most are edible only once. -- Anon Guest
[AN: I recognise that Terry Pratchett quote!]
"There's food all around us," said their nature guide. Teaching these wayward kids some wilderness survival skills. "Can you point out what's edible?"
Tilly, the quiet one, said, "Everything. The real question is: what's edible more than once?"
Nature Guide Sam winced. Right. Some of these kids were on the spectrum and took things to literal extremes. Or extreme literalism, depending on where you were standing. And since they were also abused, it was a careful exercise to correction and getting these kids on the right path.
That considered, Tilly wasn't exactly wrong. "Okay. That's a good point. How much around us is edible more than once? How would you tell?"
Guesses abounded. Watching animals and seeing what they ate. Recognising stuff from the store. Aaron got that one. Sam was careful about making loud noises like clapping, because a lot of these kids flinched at them. She gave Aaron a double thumb's-up. "Good thinking, Aaron. You can start with what you recognise at the store. But there's some other things that you'd never find in the store." And now the real lesson started. She uprooted a dandelion at her feet and knocked most of the dirt off its roots. "This is edible more than once. The roots can be roasted and used for tea or eaten. The leaves can be added to a salad, and you can even eat the flowers. They contain vitamins A, C, K, and a host of B-vitamins, and also contain magnesium. It's also a natural diuretic - it makes you pee."
Laughter from the troubled teens.
"These are elderberries. They look very similar to deadly nightshade. Which, as the name suggests, poisonous. Elderberries grow in clusters and the elderberry bush has longer, narrower leaves. And if someone you know doesn't like you hands you a bunch of little black berries, just... don't go there. And please don't try it." Sam lead them to an area covered in kudzu. "Now, believe it or not, you can eat kudzu. The leaves can be eaten just like you'd eat spinach. The roots can be prepared like potato, or dried, ground up, and used like flour or a thickener. You can even make a syrup or a candy out of the flowers. And that's what we're doing today."
Sam checked that they all had their tools and protective equipment, and then displayed how to harvest various parts. Kudzu was eating the south. It was only fair that people living there learned how to eat it back.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / tsmarkley]
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