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i enjoy high fructose corn syrup too (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] sobchak@programming.dev 24 points 1 day ago

Tbf, many are kinda disgusting to modern palettes. Lamb's quarter sucks compared to stuff like spinach, kale, or collards. Pokeweed needs extensive preparation to make it safe. Wood sorrel, horseherb, and prickly pear grows where I currently live, but I haven't tried them yet. My dog likes horseherb despite the little spines for some reason. My grandmother used to fry dandelions and plaintain which was pretty good.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago

For another example of a plant that just didn't make it into modern society at scale, there are skirrets. Carrots, parsnips, and skirrets were related umbellifer plants with edible, nutritious roots, cultivated over the centuries as food. Carrots and parsnips were responsive to breeding for root size, and could produce comparatively huge roots, but skirrets never really did. Once the potato was brought over from the new world, the skirret fell out of favor.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 hours ago

I always find it interesting when comparing cuisine between cultures of stuff that exists in different places but only eaten in one (or a few) of them. Like ok, I get that if you're not used to much seafood in general you maybe will eat some grilled salmon but you're not gonna be eating the guts out of crabs or lobsters or whatever. But then there's something like burdock root, which grows in the US, doesn't have a strong taste, and is just like various other root vegetables we do eat (although not as sweet as something like a carrot). But the US doesn't eat it while east Asia does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium#Food_and_drink

[-] phoenixpinkmyn@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Wood sorrel is an interesting case. In the US, we don't commonly eat our native wood sorrel, i.e. the thing that looks like clover. But we do eat starfruit. Starfruit is also a type of wood sorrel, just one that has a much larger, sweeter fruit, that's been selectively bred for agriculture. But if you look at the fruits of our native plant, they do look like tiny starfruit! link

They're still tasty. They're very tart, but with no sweetness. They could be good to top a salad. But you'd have to pick hundreds of them to get as much food as you get from one starfruit, and it wouldn't be as tasty as a fruit. Like eating a lemon instead of an orange.

That said, I still love them! The leaves and stems also have a good taste. They're everywhere and have a lovely burst of flavor. Just be careful if you have kidney stones or kidney disease, any kind of wood sorrel - including starfruit - has oxalic acid which can be tough on kidneys.