Tomato plants are poisonous as are all members of that family but many eat squash blossoms - stuffed and fried.

Dave

Here's a link to a list of plants with edible leaves. However before I used this page as engraved in stone, I'd seek the opinion of an expert cause dead people don't report back to us.

Here is a link that might be useful: List of plants with supposed edible leaves

That's a huge list!
I do agree with you about seeking others opinion also. It's also important to know what you can use on the plant also. Though this isn't a veggie here is a good example: the roots of a coneflower are ok to take internally but the rest of the plant is bad for you. So it's important to research of the whole plant is ok to take internally or if only part of it and what parts!
I just found out pumpkin leaves are edible so I attempted to brew a tea from corn silk and pumpkin leaves....not much flavor :( I think if I allowed the leaves to boil in water for awhile it would have been better because they could have seeped longer, but I just had it seeping in a cup of hot water for a few minutes.
Here's a page I found of an African recipe for pumpkin leaves: http://africhef.com/blog/?p=11
Maybe I'll try it sometime

Lots of plants are edible, IF you care to eat them. When we were kids, we smoked the dry cornsilks, and used the green stalks as candy by cutting them into sections and sucking the sap from them. Even many of the poisonous plants are quite edible if prepared properly. I and many of my cohort enjoy Poke salet for example. Many folks eat dandelion, lambsquarters and similar weeds. Not many folks eat it it but kudzu and crabgrass are quite edible if not too palatable. And that is the key palatable. And poisonous is relative, I have seen people eat poison ivy with no ill effects, they were showing of, and while it did not hurt them, most people should not even consider it.

RE: Pokeweed or 'Poke Salet' -- why, oh why, didn't you Southerners tell us Yankees about this stuff before?

I've had it growing as weed for many years, always dug it out. This past spring, I tried it, and was shocked at how utterly delicious it is -- like a cross between asparagus and spinach.

Now, I'm gathering all of the volunteer pokeweeds into a bed, where they can be pampered and babied with lots of moisture and fertilizer to make a whole lot of those delicious spring shoots for me in the future.

Got to tell you, though, I tried the 'Purple Hull Jelly' with my pea pods last week -- I thought it basically had no flavor, or sort of tasted like very weak tea. Very pretty purple color, though.

Dennis

Poke should only be eaten when very small. It's poisonous when it gets bigger. Research it before you eat!

Radish leaves are very good. Don't waste them. Put them in soup, salad and other things.

The leaves of cole crops such as broccoli, rutabaga and brussels sprouts are very much like collards, kale and cabbage.

Beet leaves are one of the best greens of all, IMO.

Jim

Your garden is nearly 100% useful to make high-end soil for next season if you compost what you can't stand to waste.

If you can work a shovel/pitchfork well, you can do it.

If you can't there's smaller drum-like options, but they don't make a whole lot at one time.

Also don't forget to look for ways to use veggie products in other ways. Corn husks are dried for making tamales. Banana leaves are used to bake in. I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them right now.

Oh yeah.....dry gourds for bowls or such. I'll bet some things were used for dyes too.

To the list so far, I'll add young shoots. I like pea shoots, from either the growing ends, or from late-season volunteers from fallen seed. For the more tender varieties, I'll snack on them raw; but they're also good in stir fries.

Besides the squash blossoms, there are the tender vine tips. This is a seasonal delicacy for me, since I generally won't touch them during the summer. When frost threatens, I harvest the tips, which Filipinos use as a vegetable.

This year, I grew Sharkfin Melon (Malabar squash). It is tropical, and did not flower in time to produce squash... but the unbelievably rampant vines did produce loads of tender shoots all Summer. They are delicious, but I'm not sure I would waste that much space in the future just for shoots. Unless I train it up a tree...

Radish pods from radishes that bolt can be tasty, depending upon the variety, weather, and how much they are watered. Hotter, drier conditions cause hotter pods. "White Icicle" produced good pods for me... but they must be picked young. I like them in salads, or added to stir fry. However, there are varieties bred for their tender pods, such as "Madras Podding".

Beans that get old can be left to mature, then either eaten green-shelled (as butter beans), or allowed to dry for Winter use.