Many of us are seriously looking at growing our food right now for obvious reasons, but that obviously takes time. In the meantime, we need to know exactly (from the nature around us) what is edible, and what isn't (yucky, poisonous or toxic).
I grew up wandering through the hills of Oregon foraging for food.. mushrooms (chanterelles, morels, coral, etc), dandelions, blackberries, huckleberries and the like. Ever since we moved to Acapulco, Mexico however, my family and I are having to relearn pretty much everything about the edibles, etc.
So, today we went for a walk and took some photos of the trees in hopes that you guys can help us:
- Identify which items below are edible, and which ones are not.
- What is the common Mexican name for each.
#1 "bean-pods-red-stuff" - They look like green beans, with rigid leaves. red stuff (the seed pods?) coming out. I'm not sure, but I think the bean part falls to the ground and shrivels up into a black spiral shape.
#2 "big-bean" - Some of these things are like 1 yard/meter long. I assume they have some kind of beans/seeds in them.
#3 "cherry-tomatoes" - These look very similar to cherry tomatoes, but they have a green, kind of bumpy skin on them while they are on the tree. The leaves are not as rigid as the bean-pods above. Not all of the red ones are perfectly round when they fall to the ground, some were oblong. Inside of the yellow meaty part there is a seed.
#4 "green-golf-balls" - These round things were about the size of a golf ball. The leaves are fairly rigid and the bark of the tree was relatively smooth as you can see. The skin is kind of bumpy. I have no idea what is inside of them since I could not reach any of them yet.
#5 "little-bean" - These flat pods were averaging 4 to 9 inches long and have some flat seeds inside of different colors.
#6 "little-berries" - These hard little berries grew in bunches. The leaves are ordinary.
#7 "small-berries" - Big rigid leaves and strings of these small berries running down along the branches and twigs.
#8 "spiky-balls" - These spiky balls are about 1 to 1.5 inches across and have relatively sharp spikes on the husk (or skin, whatever). I have no idea what is inside since all of the ones that had fallen to the ground were already, hollow, black and dried out.
Anyone care to take a stab at what these things are and if they're edible or not? I'd really like to learn the Mexican names for them as well. If you have preparation, cooking and/or recipes for these things, please share that as well so that we can upvote your replies. Thank you and cheers from #Criptopulco :)
Agorise - The rise of Agorism (and permaculture!)
Good luck and thank you for your input! :)