…for
discerning weeders
A Newsletter of the Okaloosa County Master Gardeners Association –– March 2011
Master Gardener Meeting, 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, 2 March Shalimar Baptist Church Eating the Invasives
Lynn Fabian
I have long advocated (tongue in cheek) that if we could persuade people that the stuff growing in some inland lakes was good to smoke, we would soon clear our waterways of Hydrilla verticillata. Same goes for kudzu and any other unwanted plant material. Now there is a movement to ʻEat Invasiveʼ and some chefs are getting behind the movement. Visiting other countries (or states) really points out the variations in diet that exist worldwide. Whatʼs the most populous critter on the planet? As a group, insects win hands down. How many insects are in our diets? (Accidental inhalation aside!) James Gorman reported in The New York Times (December 31, 2010) that a fishing derby in the Florida Keys was held and the species
was the lionfish. Bermuda has a campaign called “Eat ʻem to Beat ʻem”. UF lists a Lionfish Cookbook (http://monroe.ifas.ufl.edu/) The lionfish is a native of the Western Pacific Ocean and is flourishing in our SE coastal waters and in the Caribbean. It Pterois volitans has few enemies and feeds on immature native aquatic species. If you go hunting this one, watch out for the venomous spines. If we eat enough of them, it may go the way of the Passenger Pigeon.
Hunger is the best sauce Okaloosa County Master Gardeners