Survival Foods

Backyard Harvest That You Can Eat

There can be certain emergency situations in which you find yourself unable to reach to the stores and buy foods for you and your family. Finding source of sustenance can be pretty difficult in this regard. But good thing is that there can be a number of edible plants in your backyard that you don’t know about.

Plantain, lanceleaf and broadleaf

The identifying features of these plants include leaves with prominent, fibrous and parallel veins. Moreover, these plants usually have flower spikes with green brown steps that seem originating from the base of the plant.

Here, you have to be wary of the toxic lookalike which is known as rumex obtusifolius. This plant can be poisonous. This plant can be identified by the absence of flowers and less prominent and non-parallel leaf veins.

Chickweed

Chickweed is another edible plant that you might see growing in your backyard. it can prove to be your source of sustenance in emergency situations. It is a low and sprawling plant that has small white flowers and 5 deeply notched petals. This plant has delicate stems each of which has a single, thin line of white hairs running down.

Of course you have to be careful about the poisonous lookalikes here. Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) and spurge (euphorbia) are the plants that may look similar to chickweed. Scarlet pimpernel can be identified by salmon orange flowers and hairless stems, while spurge is identifiable with yellowish green flowers and hairless sap-filled stems.

Chicory

This plant has deeply-toothed leaves with irregular hairs on them. It is a flowered plant which has blue flowers with square-tipped petals.

Purslane

Purslane, also known as portulaca oleracea, is an edible plant which you may see growing in your backyard. This plant has thick reddish stems and succulent green leaves.

Do not mistake another lookalike to be this plant. The lookalike is hairy-stemmed spurge which is also known as Euphorbia vermiculata. This plant is identifiable by its hairy, sap-filled stems.

Garlic mustard

This plant has kidney or heart shaped leaves with large, rounded, irregular teeth. This plant has petite white flowers with four petals. The odor of this plant is similar to that of garlic or onion. The height of this plant is up to 3 feet.

Miner’s lettuce

This plant can be identified through its large leaves. It has tall stems that pierce through the center of the leaves and flower midway. Every round leaf has small, five-petaled, And White or pink flowers and seed pods.

Lamb’s quarter

This is a plant with bluish green leaves. Young leaves of this plant have talcum powdered appearance on the undersides. The plant height is 3 feet.

This plant looks similar to nettlefeaf goosefoot which is a poisonous plant. This plant can be identified through strong turpentine-like odor. It can be toxic in large amount.

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