July 07

again, no wild edibles today

same as yesterday

except i’ll take my camera with me and my sling, lots of time for sling practice

July 06

Heat warnings blanket much of Ontario, Quebec – 05/07/2010 5:49:53 PM

Much of Central Canada is baking under near record-setting temperatures Monday, leading to extreme heat alerts for much of southern Ontario and Quebec.

The weather is expected to last until at least Thursday.

In Toronto, temperatures rose to 33 C on Monday with a humidex reaching 43 C,

more . . .

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/contentposting?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20100705%2fheat-ontario-quebec-100705

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so i picked up a small 6 ” fan, took the side cover off my computer case and this setup seems to be doing ok so far

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no wild edibles today, gonna try something else

humidex is supposed to hit 40′ C again

leaving my place at 8 am with 2 litres of water, 1 banana, 1 orange, and 1 apple

and see how i do for the next 12 hours with only the above

riding my bike, or just sitting under a tree, not going home until 8 pm, although i will have some money with me to buy food/water, just in case

and depending on how i do today, and IF this mini heatwave continues wednesday, i may do the same wednesday with only 2 litres of water ( after having fruit for breakfast )

may as well use this ” heatwave ” for test purposes

July 05

heating problems with my computer

mini heatwave – 11 am and the humidex is 40′ C ( 104″ F )

my apartment is a renovated attic, it’s like a sauna right now

i’ll buy a mini fan for my computer and see if that helps

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for wild edibles yesterday, i picked some narrowleaf/english plantian and red clover

 

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bought some bananas, oranges and apples

not going to take any chances with an unknown number of calories from wild edibles during this mini hearwave

July 04

2:30 in the morning – ideas never sleep

i was thinking about how tough the silverweed runners were, and wondered just how tough they were, so i got a runner and made a loop

and then i doubled this

and looked for some stuff to hang from this, started with this tow hook thingy ( i found along the highway )

and i looked for other stuff to hang from this silverweed loop

final tally was the tow hook thingy, a 12 inch crowbar, a cheapo hammer and 18″ bolt cutters

i think silverweed runners has a future as temporary cordage for me

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MAYAPPLE testing – picked two of the mayapples that looked the ripest

cut a little piece for tasting

and did some more cutting

 

the inside little ball actually had an apple taste, not sure if eating some of the seeds was a good idea, but i did

this is my berry/fruit for today, i’ll be having small pieces throughout the day

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grabbed some broadleaf plantain today

and i still had the duckweed from yesterday, so i put the plantian and duckweed in for a boil ( separate containers )

when the boil was done, took the bigget leaf and put a roll of duckweed in the middle and rolled up the leaf, i’m starting to like duckweed

BRUNCH – mayapple, plantain, duckweed, and tuna

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July 03

cherries for brunch

but all the cherries on the lower branches have been picked, so i used my bike to help myself into the tree, took my container up into the tree but it was a little dicey trying to hold on to a branch AND the container, so i dropped the container and ate the cherries as i picked them

bird’s foot trefoil and milkweed leaves, i’ve already eaten milkweed leaves RAW, so i had two raw and the other two leaves go into a bulk boil with the bird’s foot trefoil

BRUNCH – cherries, bird’s foot trefoil, milweed leaves, and tuna

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DUCKWEED TESTING – grabbed some duckweed, this is something i will not try RAW

threw it into a strainer and ran some water over it

duckweed is pretty small

after a 6 min boil, had 3 pinches of duckweed, not bad, set the rest out to dry, i may have to mix this up hourly to make sure everything gets dry

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day lily grazing – can’t believe how much i’m using day lilies for grazing, they’re easy to spot, taste good RAW, and when i eat these i actually feel like i’m eating fresh veggies

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SILVERWEED – the Peterson guide says that silverweed roots are used as vegetables, i dug up a few silverweeds ( with roots ) and thought, i’d need a lot to roots here to make a meal

the silverweed stolons ( runners ) are quite long,

and i’m gonna try these as an edible, so what i’m doing here is separating silverweed into 3 different parts, runners / leaves, and roots.

already tried the leaves and runners RAW, chewy and no taste, now i have to separate all this into 3 piles

so i only made 2 piles, i’d have to do alot of digging to get a pile of roots

put these in together for a 6 min bulk boil and the bell just went off

both leaves and runners are chewy with no taste, the leaves have been used for teas / herbs, i’d maybe put these down as starvation/famine possibles

gonna heat up some noodles with my tuna,

 ” wild edibles only ” month > FAIL / start again tmmw

for the first 3 1/2 days, these wild edible meals were boring, not much taste at all excluding berries and tuna, the only thing i’ve actually enjoyed are the day lilies

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with all the mixing, the duckweed i set out to dry is still moist,  i’ll put the duckweed in the fridge and see what it’s like in the morning

July 02

starting off with the berries, i may switch to the smaller 454 ml container tmmw

and right nearby happened to be some wood sorrel

went for a little walk and came across some black medick, just grab a handful and pull

and i was going to pick some henbit, but decided on creeping charlie

i made this plate picture before i threw all the greens in together for a boil

BRUNCH – berries, wood sorrel, black medick, creeping charlie, and tuna

the black medick and creeping charlie RAW had no flavor/taste

the wood sorrel RAW had a kind of tang(?)

the camera batteries are showing ” depleted “, but the boiled greens is just a mass of . . . . . . . . boiled greens

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cornflowers and prickly lettuce for supper

cornflowers have no flavor/taste raw, and i cut out the back mid-spine in one of the prickly lettuce leaves for a raw sample, no taste or flavor

then i threw some cornflowers and 3 leaves in for a 6 min boil, i was wondering if the cornflowers would turn to mush and if the spines on the prickly lettuce leaves would soften

the flowers did not turn to mush and the spines were still fairly stiff, so now i’m cutting all the back spines out of the leaves for a bulk boil

SUPPER – cornflowers, prickly lettuce, and tuna

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i know a spot where there are larger prickly lettuce leaves, i’ll grab a better picture of the spines on the back

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July 01

last night i kept looking at the 1 L containers and kept thinking ” that would be a lot of berries ” , so this morning i went and picked up two smaller berry containers, 454 ml and 600 ml

and that seemed like a good decision because it seems someone else has found the mulberries, i had a hard time filling the 600 ml container and had to use a stick to pull down some higher mulberry branches

and for greens i went with burdock stems, used some smaller stems near the tops of 2nd year burdocks, and will be trying two longer/older stems from 1st year burdock

did a quick rinse with the stems and boiled them for 6 minutes

BRUNCH – mulberries, burdock stems, and tuna

these stems are a little more chewy than the burdock stems i had earlier in the season, but they’re still palatable, next time i harvest burdock stems, i’ll cut them up into smaller pieces

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grabbed some catnip leaves for testing as a bug repellant

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everywhere i look,  the Yucca flowers are dropping off the stalks, i’ll see if i can find some flower petals that are still fresh

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ROSE HIP ALLEY DESTROYED

the City of Windsor must have done this today,

i named this abandoned railway Rose Hip alley because of all the Rose bushes i saw back in April

and now most of them are gone

i walked along one edge and came back along the other edge

i grazed on day lilies while i was there and brought some home

SUPPER – day lilies and tuna

there was an 8+ foot wild parsnip here i was gonna dig for the root, the root is there somewhere, damned if i know where it it now

i’ll take weekly pics showing the regrowth at Rose Hip alley

intro

time to walk the walk

i’ll basically be eating twice a day, roughly 10 am and 5 pm,  plus whatever grazing i do in my travels

half a can of tuna ( for protein ) each meal, and i should be able to fill these two 1 L containers for each meal, one for ” greens ” and one for ” berries “, although i may switch to a smaller container for berries

i don’t think i’ll have a problem finding wild edibles to fill my ” greens ” and depending on how plentiful the berries are, i may do a quick switch to a smaller ” berry ” container, but i do think it will be tough sticking to ONLY water for a month