This is an important post and you are right. Right now, people eat only forty different vegetables and fruits at the most on average. This was not always the case. American Indians, Settlers, Pioneers, and average people used to know all the different plants you can eat and people's diets used to consist of hundreds of plants and fruits.
Did you know that before tumbleweed gets large it is delicious? I saw cattle and chickens eating, deer, elk, pronghorn antelope and one time the dog and so I though, what the heck? Out here in the Western Desert, believe it or not there are about a thousand different plants. I only know three but a Paiute told me that all the plants out here are either edible or can be used for medicines. Who knew?
Great Post!
Amazing! Very cool, thanks for sharing that. No time like the present to learn!
I will attest to the deliciousness of young tumbleweeds (Salsola tragus). They are restaurant-quality in stir-fry when they are about 3 inches high, in my opinion. They are worth blanching and freezing, too. They can grow too large really fast, but if a person is quick to react to seeing them sprout all over - they are in for a good spring green.