A great way to insure good health is to eat greens regularly, but this can be harder in the heat of the summer. Pat Battle teaches us how to grow and forage nutritious greens that are commonly eaten in tropical climates. Learn how to harvest beneficial “weeds”, and discover surprising sources of greens from plants you already grow and enjoy other crops from in the garden.
VIDEO: Greens You Can Grow & Eat Through the Heat with Pat Battle
A great way to insure good health is to eat greens regularly, but this can be harder in the heat of the summer. Pat Battle teaches us how to grow and forage nutritious greens that are commonly eaten in tropical climates. Learn how to harvest beneficial “weeds”, and discover surprising sources of greens from plants you already grow and enjoy other crops from in the garden.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
This video is very well adapted to a classroom setting rather than purely educational like Curtis Stone or John Kohler(sp?). Admittedly, this isn't the most fun thing to watch, but I'll learn more here than anywhere else.
I agree with @JohnnyMcska! This video would work well for a classroom, or in my case, a cozy Friday night at home with a cup of tea. Is it just me, or have the videos significantly improved? I can't put my finger on it, but I'm impressed!
bronze mignonette lettuce Seed available from Bear Creek farms
Thank you so much for sharing Amazing
I'm so grateful for all of these videos! By the way, the botanical name of the wonderful "Chinese Toon" tree is "Toona sinensis". It's in the mahogany family. Leaves taste like onion.
Ice plant grows like a weed here in SC – as easy to spread and multiply as purslane (which it looks just like) or spurge. But it blooms SO beautifully, only in the morning. Cheers!
Like spinach and kale (except the dinosaur kale), isn't amaranth high in oxalates? I think lambsquarters is, too. Oxalates can cause some serious health problems: 'The Loss of Seasonality and the Overconsumption of Plants – Risking Oxalate Toxicity' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ArmIYGH0s Of course, sorrels and rhubarb are very high in oxalates.
Note: The minerals in oxalates, such as calcium oxalate, or magnesium oxalate, are 'tied up' and not available when humans eat them.
Sadly, even plants that humans have been growing for food for a long time are not all as benign as we would like to think they are: Dr. Georgia Ede, 'The Risks and Benefits of Eating Plants' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRBFiBWQZQ
George Diggs, PhD 'Food Plant Toxins in an Evolutionary Context' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnjX3cZ4q84
Purslane is delicious, either in a salad or tossed in at the end when making a sitr-fry.
On Vitamin A – No plant actually contains Vitamin A. They do have vitamin A precursors, which take several steps in the human body to be converted to true Vit A that our bodies can use. Not everyone can successfully convert much, or any, carotinoids into Vit A. Vitamin A, in the biologically active form, is readily available from animal-source foods. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/11/16/vitamin-a-types.aspx
Plant protein is not well digested or utilized by the human digestive system. Dr. Barry Groves provides details: 'What We Are Designed to Eat' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn5zdWucv6I
Of course, fermenting plants, like sauerkraut, increases the availability of nutrients in plants.
Just as 'vitamin A' in plants is not the same s Vit A from animal-source foods, (plants actually contain vitamin A precursors), the Omega 3s in plants are NOT the same as Omega 3s in animal-source foods, like oily fish, grassfed milk, and 100% grassfed & grass finished meats. Our digestive systems are just not as good at using the nutrient in plants as the true herbivores.
Groundhogs are wild edibles, too, aren't they? 🙂 A good dog will eliminate them, too. Livestock guardian dogs can successfully remove and/or convince groundhogs to leave the pastures or farm areas they patrol, and a number of other breeds and mixes will do a good job, too. Groundhogs are just one reason that every farm and homestead used to have at least one good dog.
Was bummed to learn that many greens we enjoyed were high in oxalates, which can lead to painful kidney stones, and also pain and issue in other parts of the body – spinach, kale (except dinosaur or lacinato kale), and amaranth are all high in oxalates. 🙁
Not as high as rhubarb leaves, or sorrel, which we also like for the tangy flavor, but high enough to cause serious problems over time. Juicing tends to make the problem worse.
'Loss of Seasonality and the Overconsumption of Plants – Risking Oxalate Toxicity' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ArmIYGH0s
Then we learned that many commonly eaten plants have other issues:
Dr. Georgia Ede, MD 'Risks and Benefits of Eating Plants' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRBFiBWQZQ
Dr. George Diggs, PhD, 'Plant Toxins in an Evolutionary Context' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnjX3cZ4q84&list=PLWhDhUuVNt2LPcjpVR5_H2eKDtTYos7n0
Traditional fermentation can help with many of the toxins plants produce, but not oxalates.
I have both Okinawa spinach and longevity spinach growing. The longevity spinach is extremely vigorous and has covered all of one shaded corner of my garden. The Okinawa is alot less vigorous but I like it alot better. Both have a light lemony flavor but the longevity spinach has very rigid leaves which seem to suck up liquid when cooked and slick together in an big slimy mat. It is the most slimy of any "spinach" I have tried. Worse than malabar spinach. I much prefer the Okinawa even though it doesn't grow as crazy.