Can a gorse plant be used as a source of food?

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Could a gorse bush provide for food?

Yes, they can not only provide food, they can provide for food. But not just that, they have the potential to support a whole culture in many ways:

The Tips of fresh growth contain vitamin C and other nutrients and can be used to make a refreshing tea, the flowers (available during the winter) are similarly suitable for tea.
References indicate that both can be pickled in vinegar and kept for long periods. A poisonous alkaloid it contains can be taken in moderate quantities, but don't eat too many in one sitting though.

its flowers have been used in the treatment of jaundice and as a treatment for scarlet fever in children. The seed is said to be astringent and has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea and stones. The plant is used in Bach flower remedies

Both sheep and goats are used in various parts of the world to control gorse growth, goats being hardier and more suited to mountain terraine can live off gorse at a density of 35 individuals per hectaire (10,000 sq metres).
They would provide your peoples with milk/cheese, meat, tools (horn/bone/glue/lighting from the fat) and dung for fuel for fire/building materials or to fertilise suitable patches of rock for herbs. Goatskin and leather for clothing/bedding, and stomachs as storage bags. Fine quality thread, woven or knitted hair, as from the Cashmere or Mohair goats would present a very valuable trading resource for metal tools, medicines or alternative foods for variety.

An Angora Goat (Produces Mohair) _{Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Wikipedia 2019}

Don't neglect the importance to your people of beer that can be brewed from the milk (Koumiss).

it can be used as a windbreak hedge in the most exposed positions, making an impenetrable barrier with its vicious thorns.

Gorse contains terpenes - these highly flammable aromatic compounds have antiseptic qualities and can be used for starting fires, treating wounds. The wood ash can be used for making a lye for making soap, the flowers as a natural dye.
The seed can be soaked in water and used as a wash potent against fleas.
The thorns, well perhaps your people have a passtime of playing darts.

_{Information gathered from variously:}

https://www.grassland.org.nz/publications/nzgrassland_publication_1218.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashmere_wool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair

http://rawedibleplants.blogspot.com/2013/03/common-gorse-ulex-europeaus.html

http://www.eattheweeds.com/ulex-europaeus-edible-gorse-or-furze-pas-2/

http://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/u/ulex-europaeus=gorse.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye

posted almost 6 years ago