Vanessa Vasquez is a student at Humboldt State University pursuing a masters degree in Social Studies in Environment and Community — her project? Mapping edible foods that are available to the community in public spaces using GIS technology. To hear more about her project, listen here.
Vanessa Vasquez, Mapping Edible Foods in Public Spaces
June 19, 2011 at 5:31 pm (Community Gardens, Edible Native Plants, Uncategorized)
Tags: Edible plants in public spaces
Native Plants as food — Gisela Rohde
April 13, 2010 at 6:02 pm (Edible Native Plants)
Tags: Edible Native Plants, native plants as food
Self-taught naturalist Gisela Rohde discusses ethnobotany as described to ethnographers in the late 1800s and early 1900s by native people in Humboldt County. Two separate interviews discuss Berries and Bulbs; Seeds, Nuts and Acorns; and, Greens, Plants as Seasoning, and plants used as cooking tools. To Listen to this 2-part interview with Gisela:
Berries include Bearberry — 
and Thimbleberry — whose large leaves were used to separate salmon filets in a similar way that we use waxed paper today.
Chlorogalum Kunth – soapplant
©Mark W. Skinner. United States, CA, Tuolumne Co., Red Hills. April 17, 1990.Any use of copyrighted images requires notification of the copyright holder.
Bulbs include the fantastic soap plant that could be eaten, used for it’s sudsing and cleaning power, and after roasting a brush could be made out of the inedible part for cleaning (it looks like a shaving brush)
Pussy ears (Calochortus tolmiei) The bulbs were eaten by many native people:
Rosy firecracker flower (Dicherlostemma ida-maia x congestum) is another bulb that was harvested by many native people.
One of the most important food for many native people in Humboldt County was the acorn. While the tan oak plant really isn’t an oak — the seed was ground into a flour that many people thought was the very best of all the acorn meals.
