View Full Version : Foraging
Found some wild onion beds, and a huge asparagus patch during a walk along the tracks. Scouted out about about 20 good looking (but who knows) spots to look for mushrooms.
Can't wait for the trees to blossom so I can find elderberry, wild plum, and if Im lucky some wild cherry.
I just saw a recipe for dandelion salad, so those should be coming up soon for you.
I've always had a huge patch of nettles in my yard and have been dying to cook with them but I wanted to first be sure they are nettles! I'm not an expert in foraging and it would be my luck to pick a plant that looks like nettles but is a poisonous twin.
I have a friend who is a professional forager/wildcrafter and I've been dying to have him come and look, but he's never around.
I have a friend who lives in WI who eats nettles. Everything really, lol. I'm not quite that bold.
Dandelions are either really bitter, or I'm doing something wrong.
I wanted to first be sure they are nettles!
If you touch them (without having gloves on) you will instantly know whether they are nettles. :D
Seriously though, I'd be happy to take a picture of them in my yard- they are just coming up and email/text it to you.
I was gonna say that, because I get stung all the time, but then I got worried about them doing it and getting mad at me lol.
iris lilies
4-3-20, 9:36am
Mushroom season! Yay!
My breakfast this morning is a scrambled egg with sauteed dandelion leaves. I've also been trimming the onion grass to add to different things. Hoping to run across some with bulbs soon.
The fir trees are beginning to show their bright green baby needles. If you've never had tea made with them, you should try it. And more Vit C than you'll find anywhere else I'm told.
If you touch them (without having gloves on) you will instantly know whether they are nettles. :D
Seriously though, I'd be happy to take a picture of them in my yard- they are just coming up and email/text it to you.
Thanks, herbgeek. Mine definitely look like the pictures I've seen, and I've touched them, but their not all that prickly. Just a little. Do they really sting a lot? Or a little?
Do they really sting a lot? Or a little?
Definitely A LOT. Like a burning stinging. That will stay with you for quite some time.
There are at least 2 kinds of nettles I've heard of- if its not biting you, perhaps its dead nettle and not stinging nettle.
Basically like if you could attach a thousand sewing needles to an oven mitt, then you dipped it in battery acid and lemon juice and then slapped yourself with it.
Stinging nettles.
Actually also like jellyfish stings. I got stung on the face swimming in the gulf, and my wife at the time said it would help to pee on it. Well, I didnt have to go. Anyway, she was a liar.
I dont think pee helps nettles stings, but Im not... who would be an expert on this? Botanist or biologist?
ApatheticNoMore
4-3-20, 9:23pm
the leaves of the kind that are local here sting a little, and I was shown to identify stinging nettles by a nature guide, so I use the sensation as well as the look to identify them since. It's familiar. If I see what look like nettles I squeeze a leaf between my fingers to see if they are. I don't mind the sting but you definitely feel something not nothing from them, a prickliness, almost a numbness, but yes I willingly squeeze these things just to make sure they are nettles and nettles are still stingy and all is right with the world (or not).
But then around here there are supposedly two kinds of stinging nettles large ones and small ones and the larger ones have larger stings. I think most of them are the small kind. I have also seen things that look just like nettles with no sting, don't know what those are.
the leaves of the kind that are local here sting a little, and I was shown to identify stinging nettles by a nature guide, so I use the sensation as well as the look to identify them since. It's familiar. If I see what look like nettles I squeeze a leaf between my fingers to see if they are. I don't mind the sting but you definitely feel something not nothing from them, a prickliness, almost a numbness, but yes I willingly squeeze these things just to make sure they are nettles and nettles are still stingy and all is right with the world (or not).
But then around here there are supposedly two kinds of stinging nettles large ones and small ones and the larger ones have larger stings. I think most of them are the small kind. I have also seen things that look just like nettles with no sting, don't know what those are.
I did some research online about this, and there are stinging nettles and there are wood nettles and there is also Clearweed. http://identifythatplant.com/three-members-of-the-nettle-family/
The nettles I'm talking about are in my NJ yard, not VT, so I can't run outside and do the sting test.
If these are what I'm thinking they are, a friend just gave me some nettles to plant. I'm hoping they will be harvest-able by next year.
iris lilies
4-5-20, 11:04am
We do not have nettles in the city, and I have wondered in the past about them. So this discussion has been interesting and timely.
I think we have them in HermanN, there is this plant that has awful little hair-like stickers in it so I guess that’s nettles. I looked it up yeah I think it’s a match.
Nettles are also good for making cordage and fiber. They are too often maligned, too little used. And they are tasty to boot and high in iron. An old timey animal food supplement (after drying, to eliminate the sting).
The onion grass is my yard is now pretty high. Pulled a couple with definite bulbs, so I'll be harvesting the yard later today. :) Several dandelions out there as well.
How about stinging nettle spanakopita?
https://learningandyearning.com/stinging-nettle-spanakopita/?fbclid=IwAR05elfWg_cZUpt1J38kpaQ2TdUHpQXv2e5hpguK X9CIc0WuLUzspx48ZlA
The fir trees are beginning to show their bright green baby needles. If you've never had tea made with them, you should try it. And more Vit C than you'll find anywhere else I'm told.
Good tip, I heard this years ago but completely forgot about it. Seems important in these times, plus that's about the only thing that's forageable right now where I live, so I'll be getting out there soon for some fir tea while I scout mushroom spots.
PNW Naturalist
4-29-20, 2:16pm
Stinging nettles are an important food source for the indigenous people along the Salish sea, and they are everywhere around here! I harvest some when they first started coming up last month for pesto (in the freezer) and dried some leaves for tea. Just don't harvest nettles after flowering, they can be hard on your liver or so I have heard.
I'm getting excited for berry season. The blossoms are starting to fall off the salmonberries, so we should be able to collect some of these soon.
Thus far this spring we have foraged dead nettles (a different plant entirely from stinging nettles) and watercress. We also managed to collect some bigleaf maple blossoms after a windstorm -- they are lightly sweet and floral, and delicious in pancakes. We'll be collecting dandelion blossoms this weekend for a batch of wine!
Stinging nettles are an important food source for the indigenous people along the Salish sea, and they are everywhere around here! I harvest some when they first started coming up last month for pesto (in the freezer) and dried some leaves for tea. Just don't harvest nettles after flowering, they can be hard on your liver or so I have heard.
I'm getting excited for berry season. The blossoms are starting to fall off the salmonberries, so we should be able to collect some of these soon.
Thus far this spring we have foraged dead nettles (a different plant entirely from stinging nettles) and watercress. We also managed to collect some bigleaf maple blossoms after a windstorm -- they are lightly sweet and floral, and delicious in pancakes. We'll be collecting dandelion blossoms this weekend for a batch of wine!
I'll second the berry season excitement. I'm fully aware it's too early for me (in North Idaho) but I'm getting excited anyway. Can't wait for the huckleberries to come out and stock up for pancakes and huckleberry mead. And we've already had a couple successful morel hunts, so I'm happy with that.
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