Gathering inspiration growing up came naturally to me. I gleaned it from the horse’s mouth, the outdoors, books, magazines, and even television, where I first met Euell Gibbons. Gibbons was born in the northeast Texas town of Clarksville in 1911, but spent most of his life in other parts of the country. I was immediately drawn to him as he championed the “back to nature” movement and wholesome natural foods including those gleaned from the wild.

Gibbon’s teacher wife encouraged his writing and in 1962, the year I was born, he published his highly successful Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Although gathering foodstuffs from the wild seemed like a novel idea to hippies and the modern world, it certain wasn’t to our ancestors or early settlers.

Euell Gibbons went on to publish Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop in 1964 and Stalking the Healthful Herbs in 1966. He also wrote articles for a number of magazines including National Wildlife, Organic Farming and Gardening and at least two for National Geographic on stalking wild foods. The notoriety from his writing on the novel topic, along with his laid back casual humor, caused him to become somewhat of a national celebrity with appearances on the Johnny Carson show, The Sonny and Cher show and his enduring image promoting Grape Nuts cereal. Sadly a number of his original admirers never forgave him for “selling out” to the commercial world, but if he hadn’t appeared on television, I would have never known him. One of his most famous lines was saying that many parts of a pine tree were edible. This even led him to take a bite out of a “wooden” plaque presented to him on the Sonny and Cher Show. This fame for eating everything he came across was the cause of much humor and ridicule. Not me however. I was born for healthy food and jokes.

In 1973, after Gibbons was satirized on my family’s favorite TV program, The Carol Burnett Show, I was hooked for good. In our end of the year program in 5th grade at Mozelle Johnston Elementary School in Longview, I participated in a skit where I ate a portion of a chair and proclaimed to the audience, “All parts of the chair are edible you know.”

Euell Gibbons wasn’t a survivalist. He promoted nutritious meals for everyone, cooked in their own kitchens, featuring underused plant, nuts, berries, etc., especially those free for the taking in the wild. Some of his favorites were amaranth, cattail, dandelion, lamb’s quarter, rose hips, pines, purslane and stinging nettle. And like most folks during that time, he didn’t mind adding butter, grease, and other seasonings to make them more palatable.

With only a sixth-grade education, Euell Gibbons was awarded an honorary doctorate from Susquehanna University. Sadly he also had a smoking habit and died of a heart attack at 64 in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, in 1975.

East Texas is full of wild edibles. Take advantage of them when you can and think of Euell when you do.

 Greg Grant is the Smith County horticulturist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. He is author of Texas Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, Heirloom Gardening in the South, and The Rose Rustlers. You can read his “Greg’s Ramblings” blog at arborgate.com and his “In Greg’s Garden” in each issue of Texas Gardener magazine (texasgardener.com). More research-based lawn and gardening information from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service can be found at aggieturf.tamu.edu and aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu.