These days, most people walking through a yard or wooded area wouldn’t look down at the greenery underfoot and think, “Hmm, that looks tasty.”
But that might not have been the case more than a century ago.
In 1918, the Montgomery Advertiser published a helpful guide to “wild vegetables” from George Washington Carver, the famed agricultural scientist, educator and inventor who worked for Tuskegee Institute (Tuskegee University). At the time, he’d been agriculture director there since 1896, and in 1897 was named the director of the Agriculture Experiment Station.
Carver wanted to show the public that there are many plants in the wild that make fine, nutritious meals.
There’s a bit of a backstory here that should be noted. At the time this was published, the end of World War 1 was still about nine months away. Around the world, nations were hungry at home, some starving, because so much had to be dedicated to the war effort. In words often attributed to Napoleon or Frederick the Great, “An army marches on its stomach.” Meanwhile, families left behind had to fend for themselves.