Unripe kawakawa fruit as vegetable

It is well known that the ripe fruits of the common New Zealand native plant kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) are edible, though they have a very strong unusual flavor. I've found the birds usually get the ripe fruit where I am so I decided to try the green unripe fruit as food. They have a sharp taste raw, a bit like mint, too strong for my liking and are also a bit dry, but boiled they loose their pungency and dryness, becoming milder in flavor the longer you boil them, but still with a distinct peppery-mint taste. They have a pleasing consistency, like baby corn. An acceptable vegetable to add to stir fries or similar dishes in my opinion. Their rather small size being the only drawback.

There are no reports of the unripe fruit being toxic in humans or animals and many herbivores like eating kawakawa so it is highly likely poisoning in animals would have been noticed. However rats died when fed dried leaves of this plant at 60% of their diet (1) so perhaps some caution may be advisable as the leaves and ripe and unripe fruit taste similar so presumably have similar chemistry. 60% seems like a lot, rats might die on 60% of a lot of things I suppose. This report does not seem to worry anyone, the leaves are popular as a tea, are used medicinally, and are increasingly being used as food, there have been no reports of toxicity in humans and another study concludes the tea is safe in moderate quantities at least (2). It is possible cooking removes any possible toxins since it reduces the intense flavor.

 The plant is also notable for producing fruit in full shade or near full shade, the plant will also grow in deep shade in the understory where little else can but I don't think it will produce fruit in deep shade. It has also adapted very well to human colonization of New Zealand, often growing wild in suburbs. Fruit only occurring on female plants is a drawback.   

References.

(1) A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. Andrew Crow. 2004.

(2) Composition and safety evaluation of tea from New Zealand kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum). C Butt et al. Ethnopharmicol. 2019.   

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30572092/

Community Democracy as Healing Therapy

 An obscure utopian political ideology few people take seriously is direct democracy, citizens assembling to decide things for themselves rather than electing and paying state representatives to do it "for them". There are various forms such as libertarian municipalism proposed by Social Ecologists seeking an ecologically sustainable and egalitarian society, free of domination of both humans and nature. Everyone would take part in making laws in their human-scaled local communities which would be confederated in a global network. This would normally be in conjunction with maximum local economic self-reliance. This is sometimes considered eco-anarchism or green-anarchism (1, 2) , seemingly little more than something harmless and exotic for idealistic bookworms, though there are much less extreme versions (3). 

Most people would dismiss this as utopian fantasy given the ugly mess that is at least half of human nature and history so far. Until recently I would have agreed, scientists have clearly established all primates have instincts for domination and humans are definitely no exception (4). This instinct for domination is probably the main reason revolutionary attempts to bring about equality have been utterly catastrophic.

Recently however a branch of therapy called mentalizing or mentalization based treatment (MBT) has been developed that appears to offer a way out of most of not all of the instinctive psychology of domination. Mentalizing therapy has reportedly been effective in treating personality disorders (5) and shows promise in the treatment of Asperger's syndrome (6). Certain personality disorders such as narcissism and psychopathy, account for most of the domineering behavior in society and many people in powerful positions possess these instinct based* disorders (7) (called "disorders" because they violate the "prosocial" norms that make civilized society possible, they might be "healthy" in wild animals). Both narcissists and psychopaths tend to view people more as objects to be used or discarded, than beings having thoughts and feelings to be respected (not just other people, they may see themselves in physical terms and insight into their own thoughts and feelings may be inaccurate or non-existent.) Asperger's, sharing this tendency to treat people as objects, though less maliciously, is also implicated in domination. It is believed many CEOs are Asperger's, corporations and their stellar products, such as computers or cars, might even be impossible or much more difficult without this "gift" for assembling people like objects or parts of a machine (there also might not be an environmental crisis or so much servitude in work). The narrow focus of high functioning autism may also give an advantage if power or wealth is the focus, the sociopath sees the peripheral damage they do in pursuit of a goal and doesn't care, the Asperger's does not even notice. 

Personality disorders also abound in criminals, who take dominance too far to try to become alphas in society, making the state, police and prisons absolutely essential in order to deal with them.  

Mentalizing is "a focus on mental states in oneself and in others, especially in connection with the explanation of behavior" (8). I find it hard to believe something that sounds so simple could work but apparently this tendency is dysfunctional, weak or absent in people with personality disorders and all of us when we are very emotional. Seeing someone, including oneself, as an object, is contrary to mentalizing. Practitioners of mentalizing are quick to point out it is far from simple or easy in practice to get someone with a personality disorder to metalize and takes months or years of therapy. 

Mentalizing therapy is an incubator for mentalizing, as children we learn to mentalize from an adult caregiver mentalizing about us, usually the mother so far in history. People with personality disorders can reportedly learn to mentalize largely in the same way in a well managed therapy group or one to one therapy. It is believed mentalizing is mostly a human cultural invention (absent in other animals including other primates) that must be learned (9) unlike the universal instincts for domination and deference. 

It has been said that people with personality disorders are immature (11) if this is true mentalization therapy may be a from of "child" rearing of people who were not socialized properly due to abusive, indulgent, laissez fare or negligent upbringings or perhaps excessive instinctive drives.

What if community scale political gatherings could be developed to become supportive, therapeutic incubators for mentalizing in the same way, geared towards helping and extending "the other" not opposing them. Basically the opposite of the the hard, blindly instinctive winner takes all competition for domination political gatherings "have to be" at present (and which everyone except narcissists and psychopaths avoids like the plague). What if people with domineering tenancies could be "healed" or brought into civilization through such meetings through other members, utilizing the sophisticated and innovative, albeit complex and counter-intuitive, helping techniques of mentalizing therapy, effectively inverting the competitive game or warfare techniques of pedestrian politics. It may be the techniques of mentalizing can be adapted to replace the traditional "rules" of politics generally, if you can learn to work with and help psychopaths and narcissists surely you can do the same with people with "opposing" political views. An important element of mentalizing therapy for narcissism is getting beyond "psychic equivalence" - rigid certainty one is right based on feeling (12) - this is rampant in mainstream politics, getting beyond it in all parties could lead to creative collaboration in solving problems rather than numerical dominance contests. Crucially conducting effective mentalizing therapy also requires being genuinely humble in outlook and approach, dispensing with your own narcissism, it's definitely not about being superior to or knowing more than "the other" (12). 

That could be the "price" of political participation and being able to shape your community and society, you be prepared to develop a mature personality. 

It is not hard to think of problems with this, small scale experimentation and research would clearly be wise before considering attempts at widespread implementation. We would still need to ask do we really want an egalitarian society, would it really be better overall? It has for instance been suggested a world without personality disorders would be "less stressful but deadly dull" **(11). But this is the first thing I've ever seen that makes equality a realistic possibility in the face of our powerful instincts for dominance and deference*** (11).

Our community-free mass "society" is inherently indifferent to individual personality, you can generally have any personality, no matter how feral. This could be mistaken for freedom but people with personality disorders lack genuine self control and their behavior diminishes the choices of those around them. It's a miracle there are any healthy personalities in this high-tech wilderness (13).

Perhaps one day our personalities will not be left to chance, we may be able to choose to sculpt them with the same sophistication and high standards we currently reserve for technology. Maybe then we could finally start creating a truly free civilized society.

Note: This argument is based on my non-professional interpretation of mentalizing, I hope I have not overestimated its potential. Originally posted in 2022, updated in 2024 in light of Ref 12.

References.

1) The Impossible Community. Realizing Communitarian Anarchism. John P Clark. 2013.

2) The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Murray Bookchin. 1982.  

3)Slow Democracy. Rediscovering community bringing decision making back home. Susan Clark & Woden Teachout. 2012.

4) Our Inner Ape. Franz de Waal. 2005. 

5) Mentalization-based treatment for personality disorders.  A Practical Guide. Anthony Bateman. Peter Fonagy. Oxford. 2016.

6) Mentalization-Based Treatment in Groups for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Katharina Kramer et al. Frontiers. 2021. 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708557/full.

7) On Narcissism, Evolution and Group Dynamics. Sigmund Karterud. Group Analysis 43(3), pg 301-310 

* Ref 6 covers strong similarity between narcissistic personality disorder in humans and alpha male behavior in chimpanzees. Ref 10 says psychopaths are more in touch with their animal instincts than the rest of us.

8) The Mentalizing Guidebook. Janne Oestergaard Hagelquist 2015

9) Avoidant and Narcissistic Personality Disorders. S. Simonsen, S Euler. Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice. Second Edition. 2019.

10) Mentalization-based Group Therapy (MBT-G) A theoretical, clinical and research manual. Sigmund Karterud. 2015.

11) Emotional Vampires. Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry. A Bernstein. 2000. 

** "In addition to being pains in the neck," (some) "Emotional Vampires" (people with personality disorders) "are artists, heroes and leaders. Because of their immaturity they can do things we can't. The forces of darkness always swirl at the edges of creativity and great deeds. A world without vampires would be less stressful, but deadly dull" (p12).  

12) Biosociology of Dominance and Deference. Alan Mazer. 2005.

12) Mentalization based Treatment for Pathological Narcissism. Robert Drzek, Brandon Unrich, Anthony Bateman. 2023.

13) Big Science (song) Big Science (album). Laurie Anderson. 1982.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTHiN6Qwdgs

*** I have not attempted to go into the instinct for deference much in this thesis, without which the instinct for dominance would not get far. I may try to go into that some other time.

    

Aeonium arboreum as edible

Aeonium arboreum growing wild on a vertical rock bank in a Wellington suburb.

Aeonium arboreum, native to the Canary Islands, is a common weed in Wellington, New Zealand, usually found on steep rocky cliffs, including very exposed coastal sites. 

There only seems to be one reference to the Aeonium of the Canary Islands being used as food (1), at least 500 years ago the immature inflorescences of unidentified species were eaten raw, possibly all of the species found on the Canary islands were used, it is not clear. 

I've tried the immature inflorescence of Aeonium arboreum raw, when the flowers were almost mature. It is acceptable, rather astringent I thought, probably not something I'd seek out. But boiled for a few minutes it is much nicer, rather like broccoli in texture, which is also an inflorescence, with a mild but pleasant flavor a bit like beans.

I imagine the leaves could be eaten too but there is probably no record of this because they grow pretty slowly so would not be a sustainable crop, unlike the inflorescence which can be harvested sustainably whenever it appears.

I would rate this a good potential crop for exposed steep rocky and coastal places where you might not expect to get much of a food harvest. 

The smaller Aeonium haworthii, also from the Canary Islands, is also found growing wild in similar niches around Wellington, I have not tried eating it yet. 

Reference.

1) https://www.academia.edu/7183303/Wild_plants_gathering_Canary_Islands

Gathering in a new environment: the use of wild food plants during the first colonization of the Canary Islands, Spain (2nd-3rd century BCE to 15th century CE) J Morales, J Gil (in) Wild Plants gathering Canary Islands. E Giloyan.1977. 

Growing tomatoes in high wind areas.

 The tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum) is delicate and is well known for not liking high winds or coastal sites. However I grew them successfully when I lived in on a hilltop by the sea that got regular hurricane force winds, over 100 km almost daily, sometimes with salt spray from the sea about half a kilometer away.

I grew varieties that normally require staking but just let them sprawl on the ground, I didn't stake them. Due to surrounding grass around 20 cm high the wind went over the top of them. Most of the tomatoes were still held a few cm off of the ground by the stems so did not rot, though some touching the ground did rot.

I also grew tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa), which grows a little taller without support, in holes, the wind went over the top of them in the same way.

Arisaema tortuosum cooking trial.

 

Ariasema tortuosum unripe fruit, stem and leaves visible at bottom of photo. 

The pea-sized unripe fruit of Arisaema tortuosum is eaten after washing, preserving in salt and cooking in North East India according to (apparently only one) report(1).There is also a report of the fruit (apparently ripe) being eaten after roasting (2). It is very rare to get edible fruit from a plant that grows in full shade like this one does. There is also a report that the peeled stem is edible, along with a warning to cook thoroughly to neutralize dangerous https://www.laura-selection.com/butchers-broom-shoots-what-a-delight/(3). 

I could not find any advice on how long you need to cook it for. I sampled the unripe fruit raw (without swallowing), it produced the characteristic feeling of needles piercing the skin on the inside of the mouth typical of uncooked aroids due to calcium oxalate crystals.

I tried boiling a few stems, leaves and fruit for 1 hour with 3 changes of water. Even after this time there was still a slight numbness and tingling in the mouth from eating them, but I was not noticeably harmed from swallowing a relatively small amount. The peeled stems were particularly good, well worth the fiddly task of peeling them, the leaves tasted good, like spinach, and the few unripe fruit seemed non-descript.

It is unclear if longer cooking is required or if they are eaten despite the slight numbness and tingling they produce as has reportedly done with the bulbs of its relative Arum italicum during famine (3). There is a report that although the tubers are eaten cooked violent illness has been known to follow eating a large amount of them (4) which may indicate not all of the calcium oxalate crystals are neutralized by cooking and they are normally eaten in moderation. 

Despite this plant's highly desirable ability to flourish in very shady locations I won't be eating much of it unless longer cooking, &/or other common techniques such as soaking and drying, prove to eliminate the slight numbing effect. Further experimentation will have to wait until next year's harvest. 

A related plant, Zantedeschia aethiopica (arum lily), is a common weed here in Wellington. There are a few obscure references to the tubers being eaten by humans (Wildflowers of Transvaal. Cythna Letty 1962. & Food Plants of Southern Africa. Ashton Kim Ruiters. 2012). So I tried some. The tubers are large and fiber free, so look very promising. However I found even after many hours of cooking they still have a reasonable amount of calcium oxalate crystals causing a feeling of eating needles. Drying for maybe six months like some other aroids seems like the only remotely possible way of making them safe and pleasant to eat, or perhaps fermentation, this is the only way to "effectively" eliminate calcium oxalate crystals from taro according to Discovering Vegetables, herbs & spices. Lyle. 2009. I tried fermenting, it did not work but it was my first attempt, may have done something wrong.  

Another arum, Arum italicum, is a common weed in parts of Wellington. There are ethnobotanical reports the leaves are eaten after lengthy cooking (e.g. , The ethnobotany of wild vegetables in the Adriatic Islands. Luczag. 2019 et al. ) I found after 1 hour the unpleasant prickly sensation of calcium oxalate crystals was still very much there. After 3 hours of boiling with changes of water there was only a slight numbing, no prickly sensation, by this time it was almost a (tasteless) mush. Seemed safe to eat but even more cooking probably wise. Hard to see the point in going to the trouble of cooking for so long it unless nothing else is unavailable.  I will be trying the tubers, which have been highly valued in North Africa.

References.

1) The Wild Edible Plant Diversity of North-East India. Ashish Kar. 2009.

 2) An Ethnomedical Review on Arisaema tortuosum. Hemlata Verma, V K Lal, KK Pant and Nidhi Soni. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN PHARMACY, BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY Vol. 1(2), Apr- Jun, 2012. 

https://ijapbc.com/files/03-125.pdf

          3) A hundred years of change in wild vegetable use in southern Herzegovina. Lukasz Luczaj, Katija Dolina 

https://docksci.com/a-hundred-years-of-change-in-wild-vegetable-use-in-southern-herzegovina_5a62c443d64ab2c4e6b71ff5.html

"The memory of eating Italian lords-and-ladies (Arum italicum Mill.) starchy bulbs during famine in World War II is still present, though there was no consensus on the proper detoxification technique (the plant contains large concentrations of oxalates which can harm the digestive tract). Some people remember it boiled, others roasted or fried. The processing did not completely remove the stinging feeling. Hungry people swallowed the bulbs in spite of the unpleasant feeling in the throat."

4) Edible Plants of North West Himalaya (Uttarkhand) Rakesh Shad. 2015.

 

Acanthus mollis as potential food

A common weed in Wellington suburbs is Acanthus mollis, Bear's Breeches.

There seem to be absolutely no references* old or new to it being used for food despite being well known in Europe for thousands of years at least, noted as the inspiration for Ancient Greek ornament.

However I've found if the immature flowers are removed, the top few inches of the flower stem is quite edible. It is bland in flavor and crunchy raw, when boiled it is rather floppy but tastes good, like mild asparagus. It is not produced in great quantity compared with the size of the plant. The flower stem further down, surrounded by prickly mature flowers, is very slimy and tough once mature. When immature the peeled core of the inflorescence stem is pretty good to eat, if slightly mucilaginous.    

I also sampled the peeled core of the leaf stem base raw. It is white, produced in reasonable quantity, bland in flavor with a very slight bitter aftertaste, crunchy, and without fibers. It is a bit like water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis), could potentially be used the same way I'd say. I've not tried cooking it yet.

I could find no reference to it being toxic but it probably should be treated with some caution as there seem to be no ethnobotanical or historical references to it being used as food at all, not even as famine food. It has however been consumed for medicinal purposes ( https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Acanthus+mollis ).

*Since writing this a few months ago I've noticed Alejandra Robles has reported using the roots and stems as food but considers this experimental. (West Coast Food Forestry. 2005.)

https://www.academia.edu/34135104/West_Coast_Food_Forestry?email_work_card=view-paper

 

Polygonatum multiflorum understory crop

 

 I've found Polygontum multiflorum (Common Solomon's Seal) is exceptionally tolerant of deep shade. Here it is growing with only a little dappled light in the understory of the New Zealand native tree Mahoe, Melicytus ramiflorus (very common in Wellington suburbs where native bush has been allowed to recover). It is possible there is slightly more indirect light available to this plant than in some dense Mahoe groves but you can see in the background nothing else is growing naturally nearby. This plant is also on a very steep slope, almost vertical. 

The young shoots are edible (1) with a pleasant taste. The shoots are available in spring, it is not a very productive crop, you'd need a lot of plants for a good feed. 

I tried eating the boiled rhizomes. They were of good size, about 4 cm wide, free of fibers, of good texture, with a delicious sweet earthy flavor, more like Jerusalem artichoke than anything I can think of. 

The rhizomes are also eaten raw (3) though at least some Polygonatum rhizomes, including those of  multiflorum (8) are reportedly toxic raw (2) due to calcium oxalate crystals, like taro. I did not cook the rhizomes for long and did not detect any irritation in the mouth, typical of calcium oxalates, at all. This species grows naturally across North America, Asia and Europe. Perhaps some strains, Himalayan for instance, are oxalate free since they are eaten raw there (3).

It is interesting that multiflorum is not included in Polygonatum reported eaten in China (6) perhaps it is not the best Polygonatum rhizome for food use. It is reported available in Chinese supermarkets in America, steamed and dried(9) presumably imported from China. At least sometimes it is cooked with gin (9), from the text I am not clear on why, perhaps for detoxification.  

There are reports they can be fibrous or even woody, if so this probably depends on age.

The only problem with them is I suspect they grow rather slowly, but I am not sure of growth rate.

Polygonatum multiflorum rhizome

 The rhizomes of many other shade loving Polygonatum species are eaten in China with little or no preparation (6). Some are sold in Chinese supermarkets and online, including those of Polygonatum odoratum, which is widely available as an ornamental in the West.

1. https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Polygonatum+multiflorum

2. Couplan F. The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America. Nature's Green Feast. 1998.

3. Wild edible plant resources of the Lobha Range of Kedarnath Forest Division (KDF), Garwhal Himalaya, India. Radha et al. International Journal of biological sciences V2(11)  2013

4. Moerman D.E. Native American Food Plants. An Ethnobotanical Dictionary. 2010.

5. Gibbons. E. & Tucker G. Euell Gibbons Handbook of Edible Wild Plants. 1979.

6. e.g., Ethnobotanical review of food uses of Polyonatum (Convallariaceae) in China Wujisguleng Wujisguleng, Yujing Liu, Chunlin Long Vol 81, No 4 (2012) > Wujisguleng

7. Wild Edible Plant Resources of  the Lobha Range of Kedarnath Forest Division (KFD), Garhwal Himalaya, India. Ballabha Radha et al. 2013.

8. file:///C:/Users/OEM/Downloads/latamaniuk,+art_06_Riznychuk.pdf 

ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF POLYGONATUM MILL. SPECIES IN THE PRECARPATHIAN REGION. NADIA RIZNYCHUK, VICTORIA GNIEZDILOVA

9. Food Plants of China. Shui-ying Hu. 2005.