Grow Edible Tree Leaves Instead of Lettuce & Spinach!

You can eat trees! There are so many benefits to growing edible trees and they are also suitable for smaller gardens as you can pollard them to keep them small. From no slug damage to year-on-year harvests, particularly during the hungry gap, here are some though-provoking points about growing edible tree leaves which could replace your salad bed!

#perennialvegetables #edibletrees #permaculture

[HuwRichards]

Latin names by popular request (sorry I didn't put them in sooner!)
Tilia Cordata (small-leafed lime)
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Atriplex halimus (saltbush)
Vitis vinifera 'Chardonnay'
Lycium barbarum (goji)

[Stephen]

Fantastic knowledge, the beetle chat was interesting, Joshua should be on tv giving the next generation and us older gardeners a heads up, great stuff thanks Huw, Steve

[HyaenaHierarchy]

This is a very cool and underrated approach to growing food. Thanks Huw.

[TheNyuszus]

This is the most exciting idea I've heard in a long while! I keep struggling with slugs and I've been searching to find alternatives to salad, like nasturtium leaves and flower that slugs just avoid.. however the little black bugs do feast on them during summer. I'm so excited to look into having edible trees and also to have beatles to have a good ecosystem. Thank you so much for sharing this very valuable information, you've given me hope ❤

[gardentours]

My salad always bolted. When I saw on a YouTube channel that someone was growing lime trees (linden / tilia) in a container to use the leaves as salad 🥗 I tried it as well. The leaves 🍃 are very hard they do not really taste very nice but I'm going to use them. The blossoms of that tree are very good against a cold. I normally buy them as tea in the pharmacy now I can get them right from the garden.

[marianneeckertjensen]

How interesting that you could try those leaves.. 🤩 Regarding slugs, I do have some succes in having the local hedgehog around to eat the slugs and snails in my garden. And with a bowl of water for the hedgie, and maybe a little hideout for the creature helps too.

[PrincessFidelma]

Fascinating.
My mum is always saying we should be eating tree leaves!
I'm sure there are Lime trees along my road.

[Chaos_Senpai]

Ooo i have been growing Goji berries in my backyeard for years

[johnnyc]

Very, very interesting. I want to hear more.

[elainesommers]

My daughter has been eating young lime tree leaves ever since she was little. She loves them. Thank yoh for promoting these more practical salads. Our primate relatives including chimps eat young tree leaves, and have been observed wrapping them around fruit to make them more palatable and easier to digest.

[brigittecrombez]

wauw, so inspiring, I will soon have a new piece of land so I can plant some tree salades.

[cherylhowker]

I’ve got goji berry that hasn’t had fruit either in 2 years. The plant is fairly big. And lots of different branches full of leaves.

[davidhogan]

Brilliant! Off to watch the full podcast now.
Small-Leaved Lime is associated with minor heart stress in some people. Mulberry leaves can cause tummy upset if eaten to excess, should be avoided by pregnant women because of this. Saltbush is high in minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. it should be consumed in moderation, especially for those on a low-sodium diet. Ingesting large quantities can strain kidneys and lead to dehydration. Rinsing the leaves can help reduce salt levels. Grape leaves have no known side effects but can benefit from a quick blanching to soften them for salads. Goji leaves may interact with certain medications, especially blood thinners like warfarin. Overuse may lead to mild digestive upset.


Disclaimer: I am not a medical expert and this advice is purely educational and for entertainment, do your own research.

[MyScooby]

Oh, I got a goji berry....I need to try this....a good advise against slugs is spray cold coffee on the leafs of your veggies....this was the only thing that worked out this year

[jensissons]

Been doing tree leaves for years. Toona and sumac are good too.

[ryandmaal]

Doing it with birch, hornbeam and lime. sometimes just pick from the tree fresh young leaves.

[trevordickson]

This is really, really interesting. Again, working with nature rather than trying to fight it seems to work very well for Joshua. I hope these ideas take off. I'm going to give Tillia cordata seed a go, even if they are slow & difficult to germinate. Excellent video by the way Hugh.👍

[EvelynM-vlogs]

Living in a temporate rain forest climate (I live in Campbell River on Vancouver Island off the west coast of BC, Canada) with lots of slugs, I don't have a slug problem. I do have a healthy eco system and knew the birds and garter snakes ate lots of slugs, but did not know about the beetles. I do have lots of ground beetles, so they are probably helping with the lack of slug issue. People do ask me why I don't have a slug issue, especially on my 150 dahlias. Thanks for this video, it was really interesting. If I could grow lime trees outdoors, I would, I love limes, and now that I know the leaves are edible and tasty, I am jealous.

[ajb.]

As I, along with many others with health challenges such as mold toxin, autoimmune, food intolerances and such issues - incl. arthritis - may VERY much benefit from a strict, low-oxate diet ( one of the reasons the carnivore diet is healing so many), I am VERY interested in the oxalate content, per typical serving size, and how the typical person would eat it (OR both content when raw and content when simmered in water and the water discarded, such as for beet greens & chard, which I love.. ). I'd settle for SOME idea of oxalate content per serving, of these tree leaves and other lesser-known edibles ( and herbs, spices and medicinal plants), such as nasturtiums, etc. ... which aren't on the usual lists. I know you have your own interests and personal goals and projects, Huw, so I'm just putting it "out there" in case this is something you can add to your list, ask of "colleagues", or if any of your viewers can take this up. My efforts of "googling" things, so far, is time consuming and not 100% fruitful. I'm very interested also in how sprouting affects it in seeds, grains, nuts.. . If just any sprouting is the same, or if plenty of rinsing and time spent soaking, and rinsing super well again, makes a notable difference.. due to the fact I buy my flours sprouted, so, don't control the process myself (and I have enough to do, so...) . I can just go without quite a bit, but not all the time.

[anatevkabell]

Great video content! Thanks 🙏🏼. Another tree you could try is Toona sinensis. The common name in German translates to Chinese Vegetable Tree.