Is anybody into "foraging?"

[Jstpssng]

This time of year gathering newly emerged ostrich ferns... AKA"fiddleheading" has almost a cultlike following. Oldtimers are digging dandelion greens, Smelting is over but the trout are biting, and turkey season is open. As the season progresses other opportunitites will present themselves... For many in this region, recent memory living off the land meant keeping food on the table, not just a chosen lifestyle. Ecven if welfare checks were avaialable,folk were too proud to accept "handouts"... why bother when there were deer feeding in the pea patch every night?

 

[clemsonfor]

This time of year gathering newly emerged ostrich ferns... AKA"fiddleheading" has almost a cultlike following. Oldtimers are digging dandelion greens, Smelting is over but the trout are biting, and turkey season is open. As the season progresses other opportunitites will present themselves... For many in this region, recent memory living off the land meant keeping food on the table, not just a chosen lifestyle. Ecven if welfare checks were avaialable,folk were too proud to accept "handouts"... why bother when there were deer feeding in the pea patch every night?

My aunt has "picked dandelions" for years, she prefers them to store greens. She transplants them into flowerbeds around the house to make collection easier.

 

[chkntrktr]

Too late in the year for it here, but the old people used to pick creasy greens.

 

[crash325]

Most folks think there is nothing growing to eat in the desert. Truth is for thousands of years the Indians lived in this area.

Soon the mesquite beans will be ready to eat. A very healthy food. They can be eaten green or dried and ground into flour.

About the same time Pala Verde beans will also be ready. Very sweet honey inside of the pod. If picked late the bean turns woody.

Prickly pear cactus makes a real good tasting fruit. Lots of seeds. Generally crushed up and strained, drink as is, cook into syrup or make candy. Again very healthy. The large leaves themselves are also good to eat, best if cooked.

Barrel cactus makes big fruits that have a sour lemon or lime taste. Chew on one now and then and they seem to clear your head a little.

Almost all cactus makes fruit that is edible and most cactus is edible.

When the rains come Pig Weeds flourish, need to pick & eat, put in salad or used as a spice. Like to put some in the bean (Pinto) pot, really adds to the flavor. Some folks make a tea out of them, very healthy. Down side to Pig Weed, when mature it turns poison, if eaten when dried out it can kill you.

Ocatillo's makes a very tasty flower. just pick em and eat em. A little thorn bush (have several in the yard) makes a sweet & tasty little red berry.

flowers of grease wood can be chewed up and it will help with allergy's, cold, or runny nose. Does not taste good and does not have to be eaten just swallow the juice.

 

[Tig]

I always bring a fiddlehead bag when trout season opens and we're walking the creeks.
Pickeral are on the menu most of the year around here.

 

[PossumHound]

One of the best moments in my life: eating wild strawberries on a mountain bald in the Blue Ridge mountains with my new bride:licking:

PH

 

[AchingBack]

Here is just one of my favorites: Seasonal Eats: Purslane the Super Food!: LAist


So, why am I trying to convince you to eat a weed? For one thing, purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids thank any other leafy vegetable, right up there with fish, algae and flax seeds. For another, purslane is a great source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, some of the B vitamins and carotenoids as well as Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium and Iron. And for yet another, there are two types of anti-oxidants present that have antimutagenic properties. From a gardening standpoint, purslane can be a nice ground cover in dry soil, since the roots pull deep water closer to the surface, making it available for neighboring plants. Something to note, if you are a candidate for kidney stones, purslane also contains oxalate, which may make it problematic for you, but otherwise, work some of this super food into your diet!

 

[txdon]

Soon the mesquite beans will be ready to eat. A very healthy food. They can be eaten green or dried and ground into flour.

I can't seem to find any info on exactly how to do this. Do you take the beans out of the pod when they are dry? What can I buy to ground them? Can I get a flour by blending them in a grain blender? How is the flour used?

Has anyone tried Bull nettle seeds. The plant burns so much I'm a bit scared to try to eat a seed. The plant looks like this:
Bull Nettle | My East Texas

 

[DKCDKC]

I went out a few years back and got some books on what Virginia mountain plants could be eaten safely... And it's surprising how many there are.

One note for those interested, although its time has passed here, but the pedals from the flowers on redbud trees make a great, colorful and sweet addition to salads.

Dandelion greens are great, picked when young.

I wouldn't want to have to live off the land entirely, but it's nice to know there is a lot to eat out there.

 

[Egon]

Bean flour = Mortar & Pestle

With dandelions the roots go good fried up.:thumbsup:

 

[Redneck in training]

My mother used to make dandelion honey. You pick several buckets of blooms and soak them in cold water for a day (I think). Do not use too much water. Just enough to keep the flowers wet. They have to be pretty dense in the bucket. Then squeeze or press the water out and evaporate it. What is left looks like golden honey. It was used as sweetener and also as medicine.
Back in Czech republic I am from we used to forage for forest berries, mushrooms, black elder blooms and berries, itching plant leaves, birch leaves, salvia and many other things I forgot. Had to do is a kid.

 

[crash325]

I can't seem to find any info on exactly how to do this. Do you take the beans out of the pod when they are dry? What can I buy to ground them? Can I get a flour by blending them in a grain blender? How is the flour used?

Has anyone tried Bull nettle seeds. The plant burns so much I'm a bit scared to try to eat a seed. The plant looks like this:
Bull Nettle | My East Texas

Generally the mesquite beans are left in the pods and dried. Most folks today use a blender to grind them into flour. Most of the current recipes use it at 25% with wheat flour. Don't think many of the recipes that the Indians of 10,000 years ago are known.

Google desert plants or AZ desert museum and you should find some recipes.

They are really good for diabetics. Not into the technical aspects, but they help control blood sugar.

I know nothing about bull nettles. Most of the thorny / or sticker weeds in this area are poison. Members of the Night Shades family.

I have a large Hack Berry in the yard. Makes little red berries that make humans sick. But birds just love them, last year they didn't even let them get ripe. Have used its wood for smoking and it has a really good flavor, much better than mesquite.

 

[Oaktree]

Dandelion greens are great, picked when young.

Yeah, best picked before they flower...they're kind of bitter after that.

When I was a kid my mother would sometimes cook up some milkweed too.

 

[1GB]

How do we differentiate foraging from gardening?

I'm presuming foraging is for crops that aren't "maintained" like those in a garden would be?

To start the year I hunt asparagus. Then come the wild black raspberries every year, 1/2 of which I eat and 1/2 I freeze. After those I focus on wild black elderberry, but it's hard to beat the birds to them.

I planted some service berry around my woodlot - found a few berries last year, but like the elderberry they are an avian favorite.

 

[DAY]

In the Spring pokeweed appears the same time the asparagus does. And tastes a good bit like it!
However- it can be poisonous, so google it before cooking!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Bean flour = Mortar & Pestle

With dandelions the roots go good fried up.:thumbsup:

It's a lot easier to just get a grain mill for the Kitchen Aid mixer. That's one serious kitchen implement. I have the grain mill, the meat grinder, the juicer attachment for the meat grinder, the sausage stuffer for the meat grinder, and the colander. I didn't get the slicer/shredder because we have a food processor that does that. I also have the traditional whisk, paddle and dough hook.

The colander gets a lot of use. I can just core apples, cook them up and run them through the colander for apple sauce. We have a lot of wild plums around here and I don't even bother to pit them, I just cook them and run them through the colander for plum sauce and plum jam. The juicer is great for berries. It squeezes out all the juice and pulp, and spits the seeds out the end. I do a couple gallons of wild blackberry juice every year.

The grain mill is slow but does a good job. I find it quicker to run large seeds like beans through once on a coarse grind, then grind them again to flour. I have been experimenting with grains like quinoa, make my own rice flour, etc.

When I was a kid, neighbors made dandelion wine. We all went out and picked dandelion blossoms. They brewed them up in a tea for flavor, then added sugar, fermented and bottled the stuff. I never cared for it.

 

[KTurner]

We play around with some. There's some blackberry and rasberry around that we gather berries from.. There's a crown or two of asparagus that'll normally give us a few stalks. The wild (leftover from 10-15 years ago) blueberry bushes are putting out real well, but I've started tending to them so I'm not sure you'd call it foraging anymore. There's also the black walnut tree (and it's two babies that I transplanted last year). We do collect and eat the stuff in this paragraph. By far, the two biggest harvests are the black walnut and the blueberries.

We also have a persimmon tree (the small ones, almost all seed), lots of sassafras, dandelions, a few muscadine grape vines, a couple service berry bushes and I just found a fig tree a month or so ago. We haven't done anything with these, but I'd like to figure out something to do with them. Tons of acorns and beechnuts, but I wasn't fond of the taste

Here's a picture of *some* of the dandelions. They're pretty thick. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to mow them, and the grass hiding under them, this weekend.

Keith

 

[mbohuntr]

Cowslips before they blossom, and LEEKS!!!

 

[Pete Judd]

Water Cress for me in the creeks around. Great addition to the salad.

But also clams, oysters, crab, seaweed, and some salmon as the season progresses.

My father taught me that when the tide was out dinner was served.

 

[AchingBack]

Years ago, in the Pacific NW, a small plane carrying a mother and daughter crash landed not far from the Oregon coast. The pilot and passengers survived, only to later starve to death; while all around them were a host of edible plants.