Prosthetic Conscience

Watching the local wild/feral edible plants

Walking home from the bus stop today, I took notice of some wild and feral edible plants, and how far along they are in terms of availability. Some of them I had been familiar with, some of them I noticed for the first time, even though I’ve walked this route many times. Here’s what I found, in order of my path from the bus stop:

1. A fairly large fig tree in a vacant lot. The lot is seprated from all the surrounding houses by fences or the street, so probably no one will object if we pick from this one. It has green figs on it; I expect they’ll be ready middle of next month, but I’d better check back weekly so I don’t miss them. The ants here get into the figs as soon as they’re ripe, and overripe figs are ruined fast.
2. A really big fig tree, in another vacant lot. This lot is separated from the street by a partial fence, and the neighbours on either side park their cars in this lot. Odds are they’ll probably want these figs for themselves.
3. Maypops or passionflowers, growing alongside the road at the powerline. We collected fruit from these last year, I guess in the late summer. The fruit is hollow, but has seeds covered in juicy pulp, unless you wait too long to harvest them, and they dry out. They didn’t have any flowers yet, much less fruit. This is a native species. Apparently the best use of the fruit is for making jelly.
4. Wild black cherry, also native. This is all over the place. I just noticed that the fruit is suddenly ripe. This is good for casual snacking, and it’s probably good for jellies, too I’m kind of considering trying to make cherry wine, but I doubt I’ll have the time to get the equipment and so forth.

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