This section is from the book "Camping And Woodcraft", by Horace Kephart. Also available from Amazon: Camping and Woodcraft.
The seeds are edible.
A plant resembling toothwort (Dentaria diphylla) but bearing a yellow instead of a white flower, and developing a bur. Tops used in the southern Appalachians for salad, and the roots as a substitute for horseradish.
Yellow Rocket. Bitter Cress. Barbarea Barbarea (B. vulgaris). Fields and waste places. Naturalized. Labrador to Va., and locally in interior; also on Pacific coast. Apr.-June.
The young, tender leaves make a fair salad, but inferior to the winter cress.
Roripa Nasturtium (Nasturtium officinale). Brooks and other streams, Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south to Va. and Mo. Naturalized from Europe. Apr.-Nov.
A well-known salad herb. The leaves and stems are eaten raw with salt, as a relish, or mixed as a salad.
Scurvy Grass. Barbarea prae-cox. Waste places, naturalized. Southern N. Y., Pa., and southward. Apr.-June.
Highly esteemed as a winter salad and pot-herb; sometimes cultivated.
Two-leaved Toothwort. Dentaria diphylla. Rich woods and meadows. Nova Scotia to Minn., south to S. Car. and Ky. May.
The rootstocks are crisp and fleshy, with a spicy flavor like watercress. Eaten with salt, like celery.
Ranunculus sceleratus. Swamps and wet ditches, New Brunsw. to Fla., abundant along the coast, and locally westward to Minn. Apr.-Aug.
Porcher cites this as a good example of the destruction of acrid and poisonous juices by heating. The fresh juice is so caustic that it will raise a blister, and two drops taken internally may excite fatal inflammation. Yet the boiled or baked root, he says, is edible. When cleansed, scraped and pounded, and the pulp soaked in a considerable quantity of water, a white sediment is deposited, which, when washed and dried, is a real starch.
Meadow Bitter-cress. Card-amine pratensis. Wet meadows and swamps. Labrador to northern N. J., west to Minn, and B. C. Apr.-May.
Has a pungent savor and is used like water cress; occasionally cultivated as a salad plant.
Taraxacum Taraxacum (T. Officinale). Fields and waste places everywhere; naturalized. Jan.-Dec.
Common pot-herb; also blanched for salad. In boiling, change the water two or three times.
Rumex Crispus. Fields and waste places, everywhere; naturalized. June-Aug.
The young leaves make good pot-herbs. The plant produces an abundance of seeds, which Indians grind into flour for bread or mush.
Many species.
The young stems of ferns, gathered before they are covered with down, and before the leaves have uncurled, are tender, and when boiled like asparagus are delicious.
The rootstocks of ferns are starchy, and after being baked resemble the dough of wheat; their flavor is not very pleasant, but they are by no means to be despised by a hungry man.
Valerianella Locusta. Waste places. N. Y. to Va. and La. Naturalized. Apr.-July.
Cultivated for salad and as a pot-herb. The young leaves are very tender.
Typha latifolia. Marshes. Throughout North America except in extreme north. June-July.
The flowering ends are very tender in the spring, and are eaten raw, or when boiled in water make a good soup. The root is eaten as a salad. "The Cossacks of the Don peel off the outer cuticle of the stalk and eat raw the tender white part of the stem extending about 18 inches from the root. It has a somewhat insipid, but pleasant and cooling taste".
Allium Canadense. Moist meadows and thickets. Me. to Minn., south to Fla., La., Ark. May-June.
A good substitute for garlic. "The top bulbs are superior to the common onion for pickling".
Ground-nut. Panax tri-folium (Aralia trifolia). Moist woods and thickets. Nova Scotia to Ga., west to Minn., Iowa, 111. Apr.-June.
The tubers are edible and pungent.
Deringa Canadensis (Cryptotaenia C). Woods. New Brunsw. to Minn., south to Ga. and Texas. June-July.
In the spring this is a wholesome green, used in soups, etc., like chervil.
Waste places. New Brunsw. to Minn., south'to N. C, Tenn., Kansas. Naturalized. July-Sep.
Used for yeast. "In Belgium the young shoots of the plant just as they emerge from the ground are used as asparagus".
Medeola Virginiana. Rich, damp woods and thickets. Nova Scotia to Minn., south to Fla. and Tenn. May-June.
"The common name alludes to the succulent, horizontal, white tuberous root, which tastes like cucumber, and was in all probability relished by the Indians." (Matthews).
Canada Potato. Gira-sole. Topinambour. Helianthus tuberosus. Moist soil. New Brunsw. to Manitoba, south to Ga. and Ark. "Often occurs along roadsides in the east, a relic of cultivation by the aborigines".
Now cultivated and for sale in our markets. The tubers are large, and edible either raw or cooked, tasting somewhat like celery root. They are eaten as vegetables, and are also pickled.
English Smartweed. Polygonum Persicaria. Waste places throughout the continent, except extreme north. Naturalized; often an abundant weed. June-Sep.
Used as an early salad plant in the southern mountains.
White Pigweed. Chen-opodium album. Waste places, range universal, like the above. Naturalized. June-Sep.
A fine summer green and pot-herb, tender and succulent. Should be boiled about 20 minutes, the first water being thrown away, owing to its bad taste. The small seeds, which are not unpleasant when eaten raw, may be dried, ground, and made into cakes or gruel. They resemble buckwheat in color and taste, and are equally nutritious.
 
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