Edible Perennial Ground Nut

Apios Americana more commonly known as ground nut is probably the best know wild tuber in North America. You will find it listed in most every book on foraging wild edibles and it was a well-known staple in the diets of Native Americans, yet many people have never heard of it.

In the wild it is a little hard to harvest because the plant grows as a vine, taking root at each place it touches the ground. This makes it hard to find the tubers.

Yet by simply growing it on trellises, so the vines don’t take root, it becomes a plant that you can harvest from year-round in most locations and never have to worry about replanting year after year.

Ground Nut Tubers

I admit, I have never tasted them and all the descriptions I have read make me think they taste like either peanut butter, a little sweeter regular potato that is not as sweet as sweet potatoes, peas or beans. Hopefully some time next year I will be able to give you a better taste description as this is one of the plants I have decided to set aside part of one of my raised beds for. The plants produce many small tubers the first year and larger tubers the second year.

Ground Nut Tubers are very nutritious. Among other things, they have about 3 times the protein of regular potatoes. Most people prefer to eat them in soups and stews, but they can be combined with other tubers, mashed and used much like a potato. Dried and ground to a powder, they can be used as a thickening agent. You should always cook the tubers. They have a natural latex that tastes bitter and some “anti-nutrition factors” including protease inhibitors. Cooking takes care of both of these problems.

If you are having a hard time peeling the tubers, try boiling them first a little first. The skins slide off easier after boiling, but don’t boil them for too long or at too high of heat and it can cause them to burst open. This is fine if you are going to mash them into another food, but is not what you want if your plant on baking or frying.

The leaves, flowers and the seed pods are all edible also. Cook the leaves like any green, eat the flowers raw or candied and cook and eat the seeds inside the pod like any type of pea.

Ground Nut Edible Flowers

Medicinal uses

There is not a lot of information on the medicinal uses of Ground Nut and yet there are several websites calling it one of the most important medicinal plants around. I found zero actual studies on its medicinal properties and only one reference (repeated in several places) regarding studies from at least two U.S. universities reveal that groundnuts contain a significant quantity of isoflavones, chemicals linked to a decreased incidence of prostate and breast cancers.

Warnings

In my research I found several references to above normal incidences of allergic reactions. This would make sense due to the amount of latex in the plant and the fact that many people are allergic to latex. It is always advisable to go through self-testing anytime you start to eat a new food find.

Getting Started Growing Ground Nuts

Make sure you have a proper place to grow them before buying to seeds or tubers. If you choose to allow them to run, they can be very invasive. Make sure you have a trellis or small tree or large bush for them to grow on.
If you do not have someone to get a fresh tuber or seeds from, there are many places online that sell them. Google Apios Americana instead of Ground Nut or you will mainly find people selling peanuts, lol. They can be rather expensive to get fresh tubers. Seeds are not as expensive, but allow extra time to start your seedlings before planting.

Areas where Ground Nut grows Wild

You can harvest wild ground nuts but it is harder to harvest them than those on trellises. Wild plants tend to grow near streams and lakes where the ground is moist. Plants grown in beds seem to do better with drier soil. They still need moisture but the ground does not have to stay wet.

Image source eattheweeds.com

Why I plan on Growing Them

I am working almost 100% with reworking my entire yard in perennial or self seeding edibles. Experience has taught me I cannot depend on my only child to keep a roof over my head and food on the table, so I want to concentrate of food sources that do not require long hard hours of work to produce a sizeable amount of food.

Ground Nuts save well in a cool environment. Plus where I live, I can probably harvest all year anyway. Planting now will ensure I have a food source for years to come.

As my own plants mature, I plan on selling tubers and seeds to others. This will help them produce a long term food source and give me a little extra cash to pay the bills and property taxes.

I also plan on planting some in various places in the forests and fields near my house. There are several hundred acres of land just sitting there. No one is taking care of the land, no one is using it, so I might as well start growing food crops that will help feed everyone when the zombie invasion starts.

My other food foraging posts you might be interested in:

Fermenting Wild Greens
Food foraging plantain weed for food and medicine
Arugula a wonder food that self sows
garlic a must have for any survival garden
how to make diy garlic oil
One big beautiful camellia bloom
food foraging chicory
food foraging flowers you can eat
Pine Needle Tea
Borage
Cattails
Wild and Mock Strawberries
Seed Bombs
Clover
Fried Dandelion Flowers Recipe
Dandelions
Food Foraging 101 – part 1
Food Foraging 101 - part 2
Food Foraging 10 1- part 3

Sources:

Images (unless marked otherwise): svsf.wikia.com

wildflower.org
naturalmedicinalherbs.net
eattheweeds.com