Unusual Edibles
I am in food heaven most of the time, and I really want to share these experiences with you!
Despite wide availability at supermarkets that we enjoy in our modern era, what you can find there is extremely limiting. You pretty much only find things that store well, ship well, and are widely known. What you can find at even the biggest supermarket doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the types of edible plants out there.
I have been gardening, farming, and foraging in the Bay Area for over 13 years. I am amazed at the types of foods you can grow in our unique and amazing climate — including plants that most of you have never tasted.
So I’m trying something new this year, so that I can share this passion for ultra local food with you. I’m starting a very small scale CSA, where you can essentially pre-order many edibles that I will either grow or forage.
The types of plants the CSA focuses on:
1. Wild plants that grow in our area. It doesn’t get any more local, exotic, or “taste of place”/terroir than this!
2. Unusual edibles that you cannot find at the store or restaurants that are uniquely suited to grow in our amazing Bay Area climate.
3. More common place foods, but rarer and more diverse varieties.
4. Foods that are grown in trace mineral rich soil. Most of the world’s agricultural soils have been highly depleted of trace minerals. These trace minerals not only make the food taste better, (stimulating the umami receptors of the taste sensation) but provide these trace minerals to our bodies in an absorbable way. Virtually all food you can buy anywhere in the Bay Area is extremely deficient in these trace minerals. I grow in re-mineralized soil only!
Here is a list of things that I’m taking pre-orders for:
They fall into 4 categories.
1. Plants to grow (little plants to grow yourself)
2. Seeds to plant
3. Plants to eat — a bunch of greens to consume, for instance
4. Taste — not enough to serve your family, but enough to taste to see if you like it!
Everything is $10!
wild onion lilies (plants to grow, seeds, taste)
stinging nettles (plants to eat, plants to grow)
chickweed (plants to eat, seeds, plants to grow)
black nightshade (sunberry) (plants to grow, seeds, taste)
longevity spinach (Gynura procumbens) (plants to grow, taste)
chinese artichokes/crosnes (tubers to plant, taste)
cape gooseberries (golden berries) (plants to grow, seeds, taste)
cleavers (seeds, plants to eat)
purple tree collards (plants to grow, taste)
Bolivian cucumbers (seeds, plants to grow, taste)
aloe vera (the kind for eating) (plants to eat, plants to grow)
salad burnett (plants to eat, seeds)
wild artichokes/cardoons (plants to eat, plants to grow, seeds)
wild plums (select varieties) (fruit to eat, cuttings to graft)
autumn olive (taste, plants to grow)
More to come! Any requests?
If you are interested in anything above, simply email (feralkevin (at) gmail (dot) com)and we can work out the details of delivery date and payment options.