Anyone like to forage?

[Heidi3]

Do you forage in the springtime?

The woods for mushrooms and ferns, prairies for wild onions, all kinds of herbs and mushrooms, deserts for cactus pads, fruits and herbs... the beaches for seaweeds and clams...there are loads of low carb treats out there just for the gathering! ..not to mention the exercise foraging gives you, climbing over stuff, bending ..stretching.... the fresh air ...the beauty!!!...it is all so wonderful ...I can not imagine not doing it..even if you do not eat stuff do you ever go looking?... I would love to hear what is growing where you live ...it is so different everywhere ...

I actually tried to tap a maple tree one time...no luck but it was fun trying

My foraging story started early as a kid in Providence RI
I foraged in the "woods" ..well our "woods" was really an old overgrown place where a Catholic girl school was previously located...it was left to over grow in to what looked to us like a giant forrest!..we made forts and played all kinds of role playing games ..I even had my first kiss there ... and poison ivy rash aside ..it was a mighty tasty kiss that is for sure !!
..besides lots of playing and kissing ..I found, blueberries, strawberries, apples, plums and concord grapes growing all over the place... some wild asparagus, my first fiddleheads and other plants...the risk I took as a kid was insane with the wild stuff I ate !!!..but I survived and learned as I grew older that the best way to learn to forage for things is to have a very old person who is able to teach you..and show you what is ok to eat...obviously if they are old and have been foraging and eating what they teach you about you are reasonably safe from a deadly mistake...SO PLEASE DO NOT PICK AND EAT ANYTHING YOU HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT!!

Springtime is my favorite time to forage especially here in the Pacific Northwest...it is all so new and beautiful ..

..I love to pick fiddleheads, seaweeds, morrel mushrooms and stinging nettles this time of year..also clam digging is fun! if that is foraging?

the nettles are kind of unusual in that ..well they sting but if you are careful and wear gloves...pick lots from clean not contaminated area..you will find a wonderful green veggie that saute'd iin butter and garlic are to die for...not to mention loaded with vits and minerals and touted to be a very good antidote to spring allergies! the sting dissolves when you cook them..

the fiddleheads here in the Pacific Northwest require a preboil ..where I grew up back east the fiddleheads could be just saute'd briefly in butter and eaten but here they are a bit more complex..my Korean friend showed me to preboil then dry them and add the to soups or make a kimchee out of them they are really yummy when prepared correctly

morrel mushrooms are a bit more tedious ..but a treasure if you find some ..they are my second favorite mushroom .....unless there has been a burn in my area (and one time I actually found a GIANT one in my yard where we had a fire pit...I have to go more to the east of the Mountains where pines grow to find them ..but when I do they are sprinkled everywhere and the best treat you can imagine .. ...the smell of the woods the trilliums in bloom all the things that makes it spring are out there!!!!

Seaweed this is so fun to pick here! we have all kinds and there are notifications on the beaches if they are contaminated so that really helps. I pick kelp usually and then rince dry it and make a wonderful chowder out of it.


So tell me do you forage? if so what for?

[Richt]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I always used to go blackberry picking when I was younger, but I dont anymore. Does that help satisfy your curiosity?

Rich

[dotsamantha]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I've eaten honeysuckle since I was 5 or 6 years old. We go walking by the sandunes and get handfuls. I'm not familiar with a lot of plants so I don't take many chances, but I do enjoy eating wild.

[not2late]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I forage. But I don't pick mushrooms--never learned how to tell the edible ones from the poisonous ones!

I generally stick to the leafy greens but I do forage some of the fruits, like mayapples (be careful because if they aren't ripe, they are poisonous), blackberries, strawberries, etc.

In terms of animal foraging, when I was a kid we would visit relatives in Maryland every year. There were unpolluted river tributaries where you could go crabbing: take a long piece of heavy string (like kite string), tie a raw chicken neck onto one end and toss it into the water. After a few minutes, pull the neck up and you'll have a few crabs hanging onto the chicken neck.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Blackberries, yep. Honeysuckle grows on everything here so you don't really have to "forage", you just step out in your back yard and there it is!

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Oh, I didn't think of "animal" foraging. I also love to go crabbing, have since I was a kid! Also clamming and fishing! I even like digging for worms to use for bait!

[Richt]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I didnt even know that Honeysuckle was edible. My mum and dad have some growing in their garden.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

There is a teeny tiny little bit of "honey" in them that you can eat, really not worth the trouble, but we loved it as kids. If you are very patient and have too much time on your hands you can harvest this "honey" and use it to make a honeysuckle sorbet! But that is way too much work for me! I just love the way it smells!

[dotsamantha]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

My uncle did all kinds of things with the flowers, but I mostly just sucked the nectar out. We went clamming and crabbing all the time.

[Richt]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I doubt its at all edible now then? What with this Atkins dieting lark?

[2big4mysize]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

yep make sure you know what you are foraging for as Heidi said. I saw some lovely looking plants that looked just like leaf lettuce plants groing in Mothers wilderness and ask my plant expret what they were as I had designs ona wild lettuce salad only to discover they were a wild flower called shooting star.

Megs around here the saying goes May apples are good to eat from the time they drop from the plant till they hit the ground a very very small window of opperetunity. what do you do with them as mother's wilderness is full of them?

We have blackberries, blueberries, grapes, poke, spring onions, dandilions (yummy) and of course kudzu if anybody cares to eat it.

[Miss Phode]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I'm a city girl. Foraging for me is going to the Farmer's Market. It's not safe for me to pick anything wild and eat it. I'll end up poisoned.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I doubt its at all edible now then? What with this Atkins dieting lark?

I don't know if you could use a sugar substitue, but here's the recipe

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4712589

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

My uncle did all kinds of things with the flowers, but I mostly just sucked the nectar out. We went clamming and crabbing all the time.

Really? that's cool, so what sorts of things did he do with them? I have a ton of them in my yard as we speak!

[not2late]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Yeah, 2Big, mayapples are only edible when they have fallen and hit the ground. That happens around late summer. But I look for them during the spring and make a mental note of their location. There's national park nearby with a very big 'orchard' of mayapples along a trail.

honeysuckle is something we used to eat when we were kids. Near my elementary school, someone had a honeysuckle growing on a fence, so alot of the kids used to congregate there after school, picking the flowers, ripping away the petals and getting that one little drop of honey.

Other edible flowers are hollyhocks (leaves and flowers!), violets, pansies and roses.