EatTheWeeds: Episode 38: Water Hyacinth

http://www.eattheweeds.com/water-hyacinth-stir-fry-2/

Learn with Green Deane about the water hyacinth, an escaped edible wild food that is threatening world waterways

Category:

Education

Tags:

• bushcraft
• edible
• eichhornia
• Foraging
• herbs
• hyacinth
• medicine
• permaculture
• plants
• raw
• survival
• water
• wild
• food
• wildcraft

[MickScarborough]

Sorry but hyacinth is a horrible plant that destroys waterways and kills off entire lakes. Keep them illegal forever.

[EatTheWeeds]

@MickScarborough I wasn't suggesting we make them legal. I was only showing they are edible.

[EatTheWeeds]

@MickScarborough In my 30 some years of wandering around Florida swamps I have seen snakes in the water twice, once about 100 feet ahead of me and once right under my nose (fortunately a harmless water snake.)

[fishfarmerjohn]

Since floridians can only sell hyacinths to overseas markets by law all you water gardeners and koi ponders in the lower 48 have to buy them from California growers at jacked up prices, as much as $5 a plant. Crazy. Sport fishermen hate them and they're the ones who spread them around from lake to lake by not cleaning off the props on their boats. So Florida growers lose, bass fishermen win, how stupid is that?

[EatTheWeeds]

@fishfarmerjohn Maybe I'm in the wrong business.

[rugbyman2000]

Great video! I use water hyacinth to filter for my turtle ponds. But now that I have too much of it, I am wondering if I can feed it to my other (herbivorous) reptiles. My sulcata tortoises are grass grazers like cattle, and you mentioned it's a great cattle feed. My iguanas would also have a similar diet. Sound like a good match?

My only concern is the water source. Do you think my aquatic turtles are creating enough waste to make the hyacinth unhealthy for other animals to eat? Thanks!

[EatTheWeeds]

@rugbyman2000 I think your turtle effluvia won't be a problem. But I don't know if they will or can eat water hyacinths.

[lova368]

haha,love the opening ^^

[stargateproductions]

Lol love the beginning. Good job

[Morvarid06]

After watching your video I went on this link, and thought maybe the U.S. could ship these so called weeds to India! It's remarkable how it's being used in India, and for profit!

youtube.com/watch?v=X_NjCREzuF­8&feature=related

[SithSereyPheap1]

I make great refuge for the fishes,a place to conceal and hide from dangers.The fishes appreciated this plant more than we do...

[Inquisitor53]

@gelflingfaysuzanne Not ridiculous. The state wrote that law to help prevent transporting them from one waterway to another via unwashed boats and their trailers. Same with wild tarrow & hydrilla. As a volunteer for my local state park I could (and often have) easily pull up a half-ton a day out of the river and it would take well over 6 months just to get the upper hand in the battle. I usually take home a few hundred pounds for composting & mulching.

[microiguana]

@fishfarmerjohn lolol ahahaha im from california! i got mine for a buck fifty. can't wait until it grows enough to eat it.

[microiguana]

@fishfarmerjohn lolol ahahaha im from california! i got mine for a buck fifty. can't wait until it grows enough to eat it.

[MickScarborough]

@EatTheWeeds Others commenting wanted them legalized. I was addressing them. The itch factor kinda turns me off to them as well as the danger of cotton mouth moccasins when harvesting them.

[gelflingfaysuzanne]

if it is watched, and they are found to be a weed why do they care if people pull it up? all they have to do is check that it is not in any watched waterways....rediculous.