Beware the Pig Nut!

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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Florida
.......Checked online, and dry roasted peanuts are roasted the same way as coffee, some tea.
Hot surface without oil or water......’
Yeah. That’s what it’s supposed to mean when thy advertise “roasted.” Only that ain’t what happens.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
They can do what they want, dry roasted ones are still disgusting.

I remembered that we indeed use raw peanuts in cooking, in a couple SE Asian dishes.
Nice!

I jave never tried the British Isles named Pignut. For some reason it is not part of a Scandi bush food repertoir.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
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S. Lanarkshire
Pignuts are a tasty crunchy of a munch. I grow them in big clay pots in the garden so that I can harvest them, but they're common round here, both along woodland paths and in grass verges. They roast well with care.
Woody girl's right, they're like a water chestnut type bite.

Talking of which, water chestnuts were once a staple food stuff of the European mesolithic.

M
 
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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
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www.mont-hmg.co.uk
R V pig nuts are a tuber rather than a nut. They are the root of a flower a bit like wild chervil or cow parsley ie an umbellifer. Not realy a nut at all.

Broch I wonder why you should have such a reaction to a tuber when you have a nut allergy. Seems strange to me. Can you eat water chestnuts? Again not realy a nut but an aquatic root. Piig nuts remind me of water chestnuts a bit.

The reason I quoted the scientific name in the opening post was to avoid confusion with our members over the pond; maybe that failed :)

To be honest I have an allergic reaction to a number of raw foods sadly now (never used to) - including cucumber, celery, and even, these days, raw carrot!! Peanuts aren't actually a nut either are they - but a lot of people react to them as well as other nuts. My theory is it is the very 'light oils' that get driven off with heat that I react to.

I've never tried using them in stir fries! I'll give that a go. I'm going to miss just chomping on them walking through the woods though and I'm going to have to be very careful when I persuade other people to try them (which I do regularly).
 
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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,759
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Pignuts are a tasty crunchy of a munch. I grow them in big clay pots in the garden so that I can harvest them, but they're common round here, both along woodland paths and in grass verges.

M

They are so easy to gather in our wood amongst the loam that there's no need to grow them in pots and none of that fiddly 'follow the stem down to the tuber' bit.
 
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Woody girl

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Mar 31, 2018
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Havnt had a pig nuts for some time. I realy miss them. I don't think they grow in my vicinity due to the moorland soil. I do get a lot of other things instead.wild whortleberry for one.
I did find a small patch of three or four one March in a private wood about 20 miles away I had snuck into ( for an emergency break ) but obviously I couldn't take them....... well I lie I did dig one up but felt very guilty. It was delicious though! Bad girl!
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
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UK
They are so easy to gather in our wood amongst the loam that there's no need to grow them in pots and none of that fiddly 'follow the stem down to the tuber' bit.

Seems to be a good year for them but ours grow out in the open - there was a small paddock covered in them but I turned some sheep out in there yesterday and they seem keen on everything other than the grass.

BB749C52-BC9C-4C5E-870A-3FFDA68BD11C.jpeg
A8095BE2-C82C-4421-9EE9-08EE44C7A6E6.jpeg

Never tried them but will give it a go. :)
 
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Woody girl

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Mar 31, 2018
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I'll bring some to the moot!
Oh yes please! Any chance of some seeds? I'd love to be able to add some to my collection of wild food in my garden. I'd have to put them in a pot as my soil isn't great. But I'd love to grow them for myself. I'd be eternally grateful.
 
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Toddy

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Mod
Jan 21, 2005
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S. Lanarkshire
They are so easy to gather in our wood amongst the loam that there's no need to grow them in pots and none of that fiddly 'follow the stem down to the tuber' bit.

Lucky fellow, we're on heavy blue clay here, the wee tubers form below the leaf litter rich topsoil and bed themselves firmly into the clay. Thus the pots of home grown compost :)

M
 

Keith_Beef

Native
Sep 9, 2003
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Yvelines, north-west of Paris, France.
Pignuts are a tasty crunchy of a munch. I grow them in big clay pots in the garden so that I can harvest them, but they're common round here, both along woodland paths and in grass verges. They roast well with care.
Woody girl's right, they're like a water chestnut type bite.

Talking of which, water chestnuts were once a staple food stuff of the European mesolithic.

M

In some parts of southern Europe, chestnuts were a staple until well into modern times.

When I was a kid, peanuts in their shell were called monkey nuts, but I don't know whether they were raw or cooked in some way. We also used to buy tiger nuts.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
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Florida
I’d heard (on this forum) of pigmuts before, but until this thread I had no idea what they were. Thanks for posting it!
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
The flowers, leaves and roots are proving popular - I’d better get a move on if I want some!

C6CB3D8E-63C2-4AD8-B964-5AD74C5EC7E5.jpeg FC28EEE0-9C7E-4CC5-A22C-973A9385B0EB.jpeg
 
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