Foraging Wild Edibles & Eating from the Florida Permaculture Garden

Urban Ag! Seminole Pumpkin Breakfast

Eating from the garden and wild foraging for the past week has been a challenge I must say.  In search of answers about Urban Agriculture and the practicality of feeding a city, I wanted to see if I could eat for two weeks either from wild forage or our Urban Permaculture Garden.

So far some surprising results!

First of all I've learned about the power of salt addiction.  Salt can be poisonous.  Salt has been used as a herbicide for millennia.  And salt has been responsible for countless human health issues, yet the mineral excites our taste buds in such unique ways it is hard to do without.

Processed foods are loaded with salt!

Going without salt for the first few days was hard.  Salt gave me a pseudo adrenaline-type rush once on my taste buds.  Salt enlivened otherwise seemingly dull tasting foods.

Now, after six days without salt-laden processed foods I've found that my desire for the mineral is rapidly declining.

And my systolic blood pressure has quickly dropped overt twenty points.  Before my foraging/garden diet my systolic blood pressure was running in the low 130's.  Now my systolic hovers at 100-105, an amazing benefit - especially with my dissected aorta condition.  I've had no other change to my diet or medications other than eliminate processed foods.

This morning I'd even been wearing my lightweight wrist weights for a couple hours prior to checking my blood pressure.  Long term a 25% decrease in blood pressure may result in many more years of life for someone in my condition.

In addition to the blood pressure drop there are other surprising discoveries with the yarden diet and I'll discuss those in the next post!

An Urban Agriculture diet that replaces processed foods may potentially create super healthy cities!

Eating from Urban Gardens, Day 3.5 Update

Eating from an Urban Garden can provide insight into many interesting concepts.  I've either foraged or fed myself from our very tiny backyard garden going on or the last 72 hours now, drinking lots more water than I normally used to.

Florida Permaculture Garden Cow Peas

Though I've yet to really get hungry, my want for salt and sugar spiked during the first couple days.  Going without salt has really had a significant impact on my body.

I caught several  fish Monday evening and have had plenty of protein.  Combined with sweet banana peppers, collard greens and black eye peas from the 'yarden' as Judy calls it, there has been plenty to eat.

Salt is pervasive in processed foods.  I never add salt to my food, except in the form of soy sauce or tamari, which I understand has lots of salt as an ingredient.

Yet by removing salt-laden processed foods from my diet, including soy sauce, for three days and drinking two gallons of water daily, I've lost a significant amount of previously retained body water.

My belly feels much less 'sloshy', I've shed four pounds water weight and my blood pressure has dropped by ten systolic points from 125 to 115.

The sugar urge has been easier to deal with.  Foraged saw palmetto berries have loads of natural sugars and 'quench' the urge for sugars.

I am looking forward and excited to see the end results after two weeks.

Eating from the garden and wild forage has also opened my eyes to an awareness of what the 'slow food' movement is about.  I spent four hours fishing Monday evening.  Four hours is a long time to spend on food, or is it?

Sitting in the beach chair under the brilliant early evening sky a calming wave of peace flowed through me.  All the stresses of the day soon disappeared and I felt one with the universe.  My breathing became deeper and more measured.  Not only was I fishing for food but I was also fishing for stress relief and health.  The experience was every bit as good as a yoga session or massage.

The effort expended with throwing the cast net for bait, setting up the beach chair and fishing rod and cleaning up afterwards actually moderated my appetite that evening.  Though I cannot do near as much as most because of my aortic dissection, I found clarity in the experience of actually spending effort for my meal.

Over the last three days I've come to realize just how addicted I was to packaged and quick food from the refrigerator.

Now I am just beginning to see the beauty of simple eating.  Our Urban Garden really offers all I need.

I am now seeing an amazing result around the corner as simple foods become more integrated into my life.

A small balcony or rooftop could easily provide a couple with all the food, year around, that they need.

More soon!

Urban Agriculture & Native Plants Diet

Many of us dream of growing our own, organic healthy food and breaking away from industrial pre-packaged groceries.

Dinner from the Florida Permaculture Garden, peas, okra, peppers and more

Yes, Judy and I have always had a healthy diet.  Virgin olive and sesame oils are the primary fats we've cooked with for almost twenty years.

Our garden has provided daily vegetables throughout the seasons.

Yet I've been asking myself if I could really break from grocery market food.

So this week I am giving it a try for a week, starting yesterday afternoon (Sunday, October 21, 2012).  The teens and Judy are welcome to participate if they like.

Anyway, I'll be updating my diet successes or failures daily on the blog here and posting similar updates to Facebook.

The ground rules are simple.

The only food I am going to eat for two weeks will come from the garden or will be wild foraged.

Right now I've gone twelve hours and feel fine.  Of course I am watching my blood pressure and INR. I am assuming my diet will include more green vegetables since we have so many in the garden   Green vegetables mean vitamin K.

Having artificial heart components I must make sure my blood doesn't clot around the titanium valve.  An increase in green vegetables translates into a probable increase in Coumadin to keep the blood thin.

Dinner Sunday evening consisted of sweet Saw Palmetto berries, a wonderful mix of garden veggies heated on the stove (including okra, black-eye peas, peppers and more - see photo above) and delicious Seminole Pumpkin from out back.

Seminole Pumpkin were cultivated by the native Floridians and originated probably in Central or South America.  This calabasa keeps for a very long time once picked and is absolutely delicious baked, tasting very similar to a cross between a butternut squash and a pumpkin.

Seminole Pumpkin from the Floria Permaculture Garden

Today I'd like to net a bucket of mullet running along the shoreline, clean, soak in vinegar and bake.  I also found an awesome patch of lentil-look-alike Florida native Thicket Bean, Phaseolus polystachios.  I easily had a bag of pods, leaving most on the vine, within five minutes.  We will see how tasty they are later today.

Florida native Thicket Bean, Phaseolus polystachios

Can I stay away from the commercialized and industrialized pre-packaged foods?  Can I stay away from Publix?

Each day you will find comments and recipes, creative I am sure, of my garden and forage adventure.

Why do this?

Preaching Urban Green and Sustainability is one thing.  Living the life is another.

Native, wild saw palmetto berries.  Many can not stand their taste but I love them!

Now is the time for me to see if I can really live the low-carbon footprint life and just how hard weaning one's self from cardboard boxed foods, is.

Day One Diet:

Saw Palmetto Berries, freshly picked;
Marvelous sauté of garden vegetables (okra, peppers & black eye peas)
Baked Seminole Pumpkin
hot Yaupon tea (black drink)

I'd love to hear about your experiences too!  Emailed testimonials of Foraged & Garden Diets will be posted along with my experiences.