Have you ever eaten/harvested smilax (greenbrier)?

[PunkinPeep]

Part of my yard is a virtual garden of smilax that grows wild. I have been reading about how it is edible - you can harvest the stalks and prepare like asparagus - or green beans for the smaller ones. This is SO intriguing to me, but when i went to harvest, i think my plants are still too small.

I just want to know if anyone here has ever done this and what your experience was like.

Anyone?

 

[hoodat]

I like them raw. I used to browse on them as I walked through the woods. That is, when the deer didn't beat me to them. Goats will eat them right to the ground, thorns and all. I always wonderd why they didn't get bloody mouths doing that, but them donkeys will eat thistles and sheep will even eat blackberry briars.
Young leaf shoots on springtime elms was another favorite.

 

[PunkinPeep]

hi hoodat!

i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too young?

 

[Hattie the Hen]

hi hoodat!

i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too young?

Hi PP,
This video should help a bit in sorting out how it should look when it's suitable to be picked & eaten. I had never heard about eating it before so I have been looking it up.

*** Whoops......!! Edited to add the link to video --- idiot old age has got me.....!! ! Thanks PP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ccDW8vUrqI&feature=digest


:bee Hattie :bee

 

[PunkinPeep]

hi hoodat!

i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too young?

Hi PP,
This video should help a bit in sorting out how it should look when it's suitable to be picked & eaten. I had never heard about eating it before so I have been looking it up.


:bee Hattie :bee

psst! Hattie. what video?

 

[journey11]

I've been pulling greenbrier relentlessly from my clump of lilac for years. I never knew it was edible. I have cut it in the late fall and used its berries and crimson blushed foliage in flower arrangements though.

From wikipedia:

Smilax is a very damage-tolerant plant capable of growing back from its rhizomes after being cut down or burned down by fire. This, coupled with the fact that birds and other small animals spread the seeds over large areas, makes the plants very hard to get rid of.

Well, that explains my exasperation then!

I will have to try the shoots. So many things are edible and you'd never know it otherwise. The berries are edible too, as per Wikipedia ).

Thanks PunkinPeep! I've learned something new and useful today! :coolsun

 

[Hattie the Hen]

:bee

More smilax info.......!!

http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/?p=1111

http://www.maltawildplants.com/SMLX/Smilax_aspera.php


:bee Hattie :bee

 

[Hattie the Hen]

hi hoodat!

i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too young?

Hi PP,
This video should help a bit in sorting out how it should look when it's suitable to be picked & eaten. I had never heard about eating it before so I have been looking it up.


:bee Hattie :bee

psst! Hattie. what video?

Duh !! I'm an old idiot !!!! SORRY!! I have corrected my post ( #4) now......!!

Hattie

 

[PunkinPeep]

Hattie, you are certainly no idiot.


And you are very helpful.

I had watched Green Deane's first video on smilax, and frankly, it wasn't very helpful. But the one you linked to is very helpful. I shall recommend anyone who is interested in this eating the smilax business watch it - so they don't accidentally eat toxic virginia creeper.

Also, Green Deane is hilarious.

I was able to harvest one stalk/stem or whatever, and i am munching on it raw. The very tip of it was the best. Makes me feel a little like i'm eating bugs - with the tendrils and all - but it's not bad. When the plants get a little bigger, i'll harvest more and cook them for dinner.

Won't my husband be surprised!

I haven't gotten to look at the other links yet, but i'm going to. And i am most grateful.

 

[hoodat]

hi hoodat!

i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too young?

You only eat the tender tips and they should snap when bent. Late Spring to Early Summer is when the tender tips are the longest. The vines have to be in fast active growth to be very long. In boggy areas they may have fast growth all Summer.
You arent likely to mistake them for Virginia creeper, which looks like ivy. Smilax has a single, undivided shiny leaf