Survival Food Series #7 : Eat the Weed(s), Flowers and Roots! What You Can Eat From Your Own Backyard!
Yuca and Yucca # 7
Another two for one Post! Both of these plants have edible portions. But you must not get them mixed up! One of them has a root that is used to make soap, (Yucca) while the other has a root eaten cooked, (Yuca) . The one pictured above is Yucca or Adam's Needle.
My husband and I were interested in foraging both the wild spaces, as well as, our own yard and neighborhood. We live in the country and are homesteaders as well, so we have open space in which to search and hunt for various edibles.We have been hunting and researching for probably 5 years give or take. Our premise is you can never store enough food, but if you can recognize it all around you when others do not, in a crisis, you will have a skill to trade and have food for your family to boot!
Yuca pictured on the plate, is native to South America aka cassava, manioc, and tapioca. This is an edible we decided to plant in our own yard but unfortunately we did not plant it in full sun and after a couple of years it has finally died from neglect. ( We should have transplanted it ) I only realized it was dead today when I went out to take a picture and only saw sticks. However, I persevered and was rewarded with a single root buried under the sand, albeit it was a bit mushy but viola! I have one to show you! Paired with avocado and targeted for my son’s late lunch. Make sure you cook it as it can be toxic if eaten raw.
Yuca is a plant we will repurchase and plant in the proper location because it is super yummy! Its taste is even better than most potato varieties in my opinion. I have an organic co-op so I have tried many types of potatoes.
Nutrition is high as with most tubers, corms and rhizomes. In particular, the the Yuca is high in Vitamin C and Manganese and can be a staple to fill you up if need be. It can be cooked either by thoroughly frying in oil as you see here, used to make chips or frenchfries, boiled to make mashed yuca with butter or in a stew.
Nutrition data available here:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2389/2
Above is the little beauty I dug up(Yuca)!
While the Yuca is available year round the Yucca aka Adam’s Needle only has one edible portion and that is the flowers and the attached artichoke type stem. These delicious parts are available mostly in the spring. We still chose to plant several in our yard as part of them is edible. The flowers are often served in restaurants batter fried, however they are safe to eat raw in limited numbers.
My Yucca was not blooming so here is an additional picture from Britannica.
More on this edible here: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/30/news/la-lh-giant-yucca-gigantea-elephantipes-20130429
Images unless otherwise noted are original from @joearnold.
Data sources:
https://www.britannica.com/plant/Poales#ref993586
Other articles in this series if you would like to catch up!
Disclaimer: As with all edibles, you want to collect away from roadsides that might be covered in heavy metals or other contaminates. This is not intended to be medical or expert advice. Readers of this article and harvesters of all plants takes full responsibility for use of any plant and should use appropriate precautions in identification of any plant before ingesting.
Love and Peace,
Melissa
In Venezuela there are 3 kind of Yucca known: 3 months, 6 months and 9 months. We eat it in breakfast, lunch or dinner, Yucca cooked or fried has a good taste. When it's fried, the cheese is fried too. What a delicious! Here we have a plainsman breakfast: the dish contains Yucca, cheese and a egg fried, meatloaf and black beans. It an amazing plate. I like this post because I love the natural. My upvote and I follow you!
:) Yum!! I am working on today's post right now it will be malanga. similar :)
Correcto. Similar, parecido. Excelente. Esperaré para leerlo
Never imagined we could eat these plants
Excellent post continue
I really enjoyed winning my vote.
Thank you, I try to be informative regarding what I have passion about, I am sure you do the same. ?winning your vote? unsure of meaning?
Love and Peace,
Melissa
Hmm... i heard about it but never eat it.
I will try to see if i find any here in europe.
Good lifestyle you have there.
Cheers
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the article, Sometimes we are not sure if it will grow here but be plant it anyhow and see what happens! Sometimes we get a surprise and so may you!
Love and Peace,
Melissa
Yes. That's the way i love to live. Try new things all the time.
We learn as we live and never learn enough.
As a sport photographer i learned so much from what i saw.
And all the day you can learn from others too, even when you share :-)
Hope that i could share more in the future if life will leave me with my health.
Cheers
Thank you, gave a little $, love back! Keep writing, keep steeming, see you on the flip side!
Lot of health and learn from the kids all day long :-).
They are the best thing that can happen to us and drive us forward giving motivation.
Indeed, I have three! love to you and yours!
tks
I've never tried Yuca before, very interesting. Thank you for providing the detailed information on this edible as well as the pictures. I'll upvote and resteem this post.
To everyone reading this article by @joearnold, when commenting please leave REAL comments. If you comment, please also upvote the article. I will choose one REAL comment at random to give a 100% upvote.
Thank you so much! It makes me feel so good because it took the greater part of my day between making meals and being a homeschooling mom. I just followed you as I love anything I can learn about prepping and like to have friends with the same interests to chat with.
Love and Peace,
Melissa
Great info....I want to learn all this....when I come home from the hospital with my grandma I'm going to go back to beginning and read all :) :) resteeming :) :)
well done joearnold, once again!
This post has received a 1.04 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @joearnold.
This post has received a 4.92 % upvote from @bellyrub thanks to: @joearnold.