View Full Version : Foraging foods in your region?
We make foraged foods a regular part of our diet here.
What all do you forage in your neck of the woods?
"Men who fish, botanize,work the turning-lathe, or gather seaweeds, will make admirable husbands" - R.L. Stevenson
Urban or wild?
Whatever you manage :-)
Interesting that you should bring this up. I was just thinking of going to this class on the prickly pear cactus:
http://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/events/pricklypears.html Not that I imagine myself a survivalist, but it seems good to be aware of options if the scenario presents itself.
ApatheticNoMore
8-14-12, 11:31pm
It's dry, crazy dry, plants are in summer hibernation truly. Summer greens are gone, spring and summer berries are gone. So what even could be harvested now, wild buckwheat I guess, there's plenty of that. I do take note of what is still green now, that is what you want in a drought tolerant garden. The dried up dead looking plants in summer hibernation are drought tolerant too, in fact going into drought adaptation (and alive inside, hopefully to make it to the rain), but more of a fire hazard I think.
I actually don't too much. I'm urban. I actually don't care for fruit so that does in a lot of opportunity. We do have blackberry, bilberry, salmon berry, huckleberry, thimble berry, but not in town. There is also pear and lots of plum.There is nettle also. Chicory and other plants. I do like purslane though I can't say I find it anywhere. I think a bit is starting in the garden, so I will leave that. I have lots of edible weeds like dandelion, chickweed, and gallium, but I never actually use them.
When I lived in Ireland, they had blackberries and raspberries growing wild ALL over the place, on hedges at the side of the road. I used to collect baskets of them and freeze them, so we had free fruit all year long.
In Israel, many times you can find fruit that has dropped off a home's tree and has fallen over their fence and onto the sidewalk. As long as I can see where the fruit clearly came from, I will pick it up and use it if I need it. If not, I will leave it for the next passerby. I have found several lemons and limes this way...very frugal! My friends live on a kibbutz and they often go gleaning in the fields where the main picking has already been done. They will use the fruit or the vegetables for preserves or pickling, since they can easily just cut out the bruised parts.
Tussiemussies
8-15-12, 2:19am
Don't have skill in this area although I would recognize fruits if they were available, of course. Would have to get some training before I would be able to eat any thing I found...:)
Really is a great skill to have in case there was an emergency...
ApatheticNoMore
8-15-12, 2:28am
Many of the toxins are harmless in moderation (ripe nightshade fruits) and many of the edibles slightly toxic (lambsquarters if grown in dry conditions can accumulate nitrates, mostly toxic to animals but ...). I expected a more absolutely clear line between what was consumable and not, but there are definitely some things you want to avoid. :)
We have a variety of leafty greens, berries, persimmons, walnuts, and fish. Wild game is also abundant in the area.
Besides various identification guides, a book I have found helpful is The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook by Steve Brill.
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Cookbook-Wildman-Steve-Brill/dp/1558322140/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345035306&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wild+vegetarian+cookbook
He also has a more recent vegan one.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Vegan-Cookbook-Supermarket-Preparing/dp/1558327215/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345035306&sr=1-2&keywords=the+wild+vegetarian+cookbook
Alton Brown did a fun episode of Good Eats where he washed up on a beach in Hawaii, discovered a 50 year old army survival kit, built a swiss family robinson type kitchen shelter, and demo-ed a variety of foraged foods.
Would enjoy it if he or someone did an Italian episode of where oregano, thyme, rosemary, olives, citrus fruits, mushrooms, almonds, chestnuts, and fish were forageable.
I've only foraged wild berries. The other things that I would normally forage (nettles, elderberries) I grow myself, so I know the amount of pollutants the plants are exposed to.
Gardenarian
8-15-12, 1:56pm
Mustard greens (too dry for them this year), blackberries, plantain, chickweed, fennel/fennel seeds, wild plums (I don't know if these are native or volunteers,) various medicinal plants, and bay nuts/bay leaves.
Bay nuts are the acorns of the Bay Laurel tree, which also provides bay leaves. They are everywhere around the SF Bay Area. The bay nuts usually fall in October. When roasted they have a flavor that is something like coffee or chocolate - they make wonderful truffles and are a great addition to fudge, brownies -- anything chocolate-y.
My daughter's nature group makes stuff out of acorn flour; interesting as an experiment but not very tasty.
Greens like purslane, dandelion, chickweed, wild sorrel, lamb's quarters. Wild raspberries, onion, garlic. King boletus mushrooms (oh my). For some reason, we have a wild tarragon that grows in our ditches that's just exquisite. Chokecherries, rose hips, certain roots if we can find them (like burdock). Lots of stuff around here, plus I've scattered a lot of collard seed hither, thither and yon, just to see if I can naturalize it :) Love that stuff.
I'd love to take a wildcrafting retreat. I've heard there are some great ones offered.
Blackdog Lin
8-15-12, 7:44pm
We actually forage only for wild asparagus every year in the early spring - totally fun for me and exciting to be getting all that free food. There are morel mushrooms around, but we don't know any of the good hunting spots. People are very tight-lipped about morel hunting spots (and I don't blame them a bit.)
Wild onions too, but we cheat, since we naturalized a large patch of them in our yard. More convenient, but not nearly as fun. :)
I know there are wild greens around (I mean, dandelions we've got!); but I haven't educated myself enough about them to gather.
Tussiemussies
8-15-12, 11:00pm
Thanks Amaranth for the names of those two books. Those would be a good place for me to start!
Greens like purslane, dandelion, chickweed, wild sorrel, lamb's quarters. Wild raspberries, onion, garlic. King boletus mushrooms (oh my). For some reason, we have a wild tarragon that grows in our ditches that's just exquisite. Chokecherries, rose hips, certain roots if we can find them (like burdock). Lots of stuff around here, plus I've scattered a lot of collard seed hither, thither and yon, just to see if I can naturalize it :) Love that stuff.
I'd love to take a wildcrafting retreat. I've heard there are some great ones offered.
If you know of one in CO I'd love to do that too! The local parks n rec had one but happened to be on a weekend when I had to be out of town. So far I've had wild raspberries and plums, even this dry year, up in the foothills or mountains. Alpine strawberries as well. Those I just pick a couple as a snack along a hike b/c the bears and deer need it more than I do. In town, I've got neighbors who have offered (or begged me to take) fruit, or had overhanging apples and plums. From my yard or the park have picked purslane and mallow leaves and mallow fruit. I'm a little scared of milkweed since it has a poisonous stage but there's a lot of that around to get if I want. DH planted asparagus in the park near our house as well as dill so we'll see. Also got a fishing license for the little panfish in the pond. Come fall I'd like to try hunting so attempting to find local hunters who don't mind showing newbies the ropes so to speak. DH has a contact and he offered to show us what he does in exchange for help carrying whatever he gets (elk can be several hundred pounds!). I'm just starting to dabble a little more seriously than just wild raspberries so it'll be a fun adventure. I like the idea of both urban and truly wild foraging.
ETA: sometimes you don't even have to go out of your yard either. We figured out/"discovered" we have a huge chokecherry bush but I hadn't known what it was. Chokecherry syrup was arranged in short order when they were ripe :)
Tussiemussies, the author is really fun too. Here is some online info
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
Rosie, will you process the meat yourselves? If not may want to start asking around about licensed processors. In your area do you have different seasons for bow hunting or trapping? If so learning how to do ways of hunting may increase the length of the season and your chances.
Also, do you already tan leather, or make use of antlers and bones? If not those are helpful things to know to make full use of whatever you hunt.
We have a variety of leafty greens, berries, persimmons, walnuts, and fish. Wild game is also abundant in the area.
Besides various identification guides, a book I have found helpful is The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook by Steve Brill.
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Cookbook-Wildman-Steve-Brill/dp/1558322140/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345035306&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wild+vegetarian+cookbook
He also has a more recent vegan one.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Vegan-Cookbook-Supermarket-Preparing/dp/1558327215/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345035306&sr=1-2&keywords=the+wild+vegetarian+cookbook
Alton Brown did a fun episode of Good Eats where he washed up on a beach in Hawaii, discovered a 50 year old army survival kit, built a swiss family robinson type kitchen shelter, and demo-ed a variety of foraged foods.
Would enjoy it if he or someone did an Italian episode of where oregano, thyme, rosemary, olives, citrus fruits, mushrooms, almonds, chestnuts, and fish were forageable.
Wow! Those books look really interesting and if I felt the need to pull a Euelle Gibbons I would buy those books. But I live in the suburbs anyway so probably won't.
Wow! Those books look really interesting and if I felt the need to pull a Euelle Gibbons I would buy those books. But I live in the suburbs anyway so probably won't.
Most of the recipes would work fine if you are foraging in your grocery store. For example many of the greens recipes would work fine with spinach. Some would be identical though as a wild blackberry or purchased blackberry would work the same. Others, it's hard to think what to substitue. For example I can find dried daylily buds in some grocery stores, but haven't ever seen the other edible parts in a grocery store.
Does picking lemons off my neighbor's tree count? (with his permission)
IshbelRobertson
9-2-13, 8:25am
Depending on season: Mushrooms (although I leave final ID-ing of some to my other half, as I am OK with the very common varieties, but less so with others!) brambles (blackberries),wild sorrel (known as soorock in Scotland), wild garlic, sloes (to make sloe gin), elderflowers and elderberries, blaeberriees.
At the beach: samphire, mussels and spoots (aka razor clams)
For us urbanites in dense, SE Seattle... Mushrooms, wild & feral fruit, wild greens, and nuts. It's fun! And, flowers, branches, ferns, etc. for beauty in arrangements.
we too are urban, so a field full of blackberries are a blessing! I did see a PBS show on a class they offered on the Oregon coast on foraging. It was such an amazing show, from tidal pools to road side greens, then they took all their finds back to a kitchen and made lunch. I thought this looked like the best kind of fun!!
I've been doing some foraging lately and have found wild tarragon, chamomile (for tea), lots of wild greens like purslane that make great green smoothies, sorrel, rhubarb, raspberries, rose hips, burdock, asparagus. One of the local parks used to be a farm and there are apples and hops there.
Gardenarian
9-6-13, 2:07pm
The bay nuts are here - a full 6 weeks early. Time to forage!
I would forage much more if I were more educated in it. Right now, in suburbia, foraging dandelions is very doable--one man's lawn pest is another man's salad. Other than that, I'm afraid to forage mushrooms, and I don't see any nuts or berries around. I need a forage coach.
Saturday was a forager's dream day. A friend (who knows her mushrooms) and I went looking for King Bolete mushrooms up on the flank of the local 14er (Mt. Evans) We brought in about a plastic shopping bag's worth of these fantastic meaty gems, and in addition to dehydrating a bunch of them for the winter, we made a pasta dish with fresh wild mushrooms, butter, garlic, onion, tuscan kale, a splash of white wine, a sprinkle of really good old parmesan cheese. One of the best meals I can remember in a long time. Now I want to go find some more!
The bay nuts are here - a full 6 weeks early. Time to forage!
Gardenarian, what's a bay nut?
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