I’d love feedback or ideas for future content.
I’d also very much appreciate my attention being brought to any mistakes in content. My intent is to have my info be well-vetted by getting it from peer-reviewed literature or from other reputable sources like the USDA and NIH, but it’s entirely possible I might get some things wrong, or misrepresent them through oversimplification. So please leave a comment or send an email. I promise to follow up.
-Andrea
aewills@stanford.edu
A bouquet from Mendel 
Hi Andrea, my name is Adam and I am a chef on the Mendocino coast. I have started to gain more and more interest in wild edible plants of this region and was hoping you could send me some information of a list of edible plants around me. I love their flavor and feel it is really important to showcase them in my food.
Thanks,
Hi Adam,
What a great ethos for a restaurant. One thing you might want to do is get a copy of “Edible and useful plants of California,” by Charlotte Bringle Clarke, which can point you to a whole range of local edible plants.My own travels on the Mendocino coast have been confined to a few spring/summer camping trips on the Lost Coast, but I remember a few of the wild edibles:
-there’s a large variety of wood sorrel (looks like a big shamrock) that grows all over the forest floor up there. Has a slightly citrus flavor.
-nettles are common in shady damp places–along creek beds, eg.
-there is a ton of fennel and mustard (and probably radishes) in the open meadows. Also look for cheeseweed (Malva parviflora). This time of year miner’s lettuce and all varieties of asteraceae (dandelions and their relatives) are common, too.
-Near the ocean, look for iceplant and New Zealand spinach (which I particularly like), and cattails near fresh water.
-I have fond memories of thimbleberries and wild strawberries from the forest floor, though they won’t be in season till about early July. You may also have currants, which come in larger quantities. And of course there are blackberries.
-It’s also chanterelle season! They grow on oak trees, and your colleagues in the restaurant business may know where some good ones are.
Happy foraging! If you want more follow-up please send an email and we can discuss more. The Harbor House Inn looks amazing; I’ll have to find an excuse to get up there and try out the food!
Hi Andrea
I wrote a while back asking for advice about possible natural treatments for prostate cancer, and you were very helpful.
So I thought you’d like to know I recently did an MRI scan for my prostate and they didn’t find anything, no cancer, no lesions, no nothing, a year (and a lifetime ago) my biopsy showed 7 out of 12 cores with from 10% – 60% cancer, be interesting to see what a biopsy would show now, maybe the cancer only develops when you remove it from the body?
I really have changed my life,but the main thing is the belief that I can have some influence over what’s happening in my body, there’s no way that all that power and potential sitting between my ears can’t control a few renegade cells in my prostate. I’ve also been doing a lot of things like Reiki, Chinese herbs, Flax oil, no sugar, no meat, sitting in the sun, jogging and more and I’m sure they all helped. The thing that I think will interest you is this 10 day cancer cure (http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/aloe-vera-honey-rum-treatment.html) I came across googling for help on the web, the recipe was:
300 grams fresh Aloe arborescens leaves
500 grams pure organic honey
4 Tbls. alcohol
Blend in blender, take 1 Tbls. a half hour before meals 3 times a day for 10 days
Well I have this Aloe plant that’s been waiting outside my front door for years, it was 10 days before the scan, how could I not do it? What do you think, can it really be a cure?
Can it do any harm? Really like to hear your thoughts, ’cause after all this journey I still don’t know how I did what I did.
(:David