Wild Edible Plants

[WVH1977]

Hello All,

My wife and me have been researching and using wild edibles found on our property recently. We have a native sumac that produces small clusters of red/purple berries late summer that make a drink that is as good or better tasting than lemonade.

We also have a lot of nice American Beauty Berry bushes that she has used to make jelly. This jelly has a mild fruity sweet flavor and tastes very good.

Lastly, she has been making her own cough medicine from plants on the property and the kids love it and it really does help with coughs and colds.

I am currently clearing really wide trails on our property (at least 50 ft across) and we are going to start planting more medicinal plants along with nut and fruit trees. I already have some apple trees and black walnut growing nicely. I am really enjoying doing these kind of things that our ancestors did long ago. There is so much growing out there that can benefit us and probably a lot better than all the processed junk we get now.

So what are you doing on your land? Anyone else delving into the weeds???

 

[Eagle1]

Hello All,

My wife and me have been researching and using wild edibles found on our property recently. We have a native sumac that produces small clusters of red/purple berries late summer that make a drink that is as good or better tasting than lemonade.

We also have a lot of nice American Beauty Berry bushes that she has used to make jelly. This jelly has a mild fruity sweet flavor and tastes very good.

Lastly, she has been making her own cough medicine from plants on the property and the kids love it and it really does help with coughs and colds.

I am currently clearing really wide trails on our property (at least 50 ft across) and we are going to start planting more medicinal plants along with nut and fruit trees. I already have some apple trees and black walnut growing nicely. I am really enjoying doing these kind of things that our ancestors did long ago. There is so much growing out there that can benefit us and probably a lot better than all the processed junk we get now.

So what are you doing on your land? Anyone else delving into the weeds???

Elderberry - cough syrup
Wild Black Cherry - the best jelly YMMV
Autumn Olive - Jelly
WIld Plum - Jelly
Rose hips - Medicinal
Willow bark - Pain tincture
Wild grapes - Jelly
Wild blackberry, black raspberry - table treats and jelly
Mushrooms - Morel, Chanterelles, Chicken of the Woods, and others

Need to try the Sumac we have lot but it is an important wild life food.
Wife does other things I can't think of right now she is the plant user, I deal with the meat and drive the tractor for harvesting things up high.

 

[oosik]

Mushrooms - morels, shaggy mane
Wild onions
Oregon grapes - jelly
Wild blackberries

One must be careful and KNOW YOUR PLANTS. I have plants that can be very toxic - poisonous.

Sumac, Night Shade, couple species of the Aminita. Death Cap and False Parasol. And one other Aminita - red cap with white spots.

 

[ponytug]

Mushrooms - morels, shaggy main
Wild onions
Oregon grapes - jelly
Wild blackberries

One must be careful and KNOW YOUR PLANTS. I have plants that can be very toxic - poisonous.

Sumac, Night Shade

Lucky you! I love morels. I'm impressed that you have morels! I would have guessed your climate was too dry. Do yours come up under the pines?

Not a great deal to forage here. Elderberries, plus pine nuts, and some sunflower relatives for seeds, and every few years, edible mushrooms. There is a patch of introduced watercress near here, and blackberries, but none on our property.

And some really poisonous plants and mushrooms. The local mushrooms get a few people every year. Some folks just don't know the local mushrooms well, and some mistake poisonous ones for small puffball mushrooms.

All the best,

Peter

 

[oosik]

I should have also added - Puffball mushrooms. Morels are seldom found here and only in damp, shaded areas. I'm lucky if I can find morels - once every three or four years. I check the same area every year.

There is a short section of my driveway ~200 feet - where the shaggy mane grow in abundance. Well drained incline - coarse sand - liquefied cow poop draining down from neighbors field. I've gone to some lengths to "improve" this short section.

I never get as many mushrooms as I would like. But - that's just the way things are.

 

[Oaktree]

My father used to go mushrooming when I was a kid, I'd usually go with him. Only knew the "good ones" by their Russian names, and have forgotten most of them. Mother would fry them in butter...mmmm! I don't think any of my friends would even try them

 

[LHF2019]

Add horsenettle to your list of things to try.

 

[BackRoad]

I'm all in on using holistic natural herbs and remedies...I've several books, such as "Be Your Own Doctor".

That said, I had a morning newspaper route back in the late 60's early 70's. Got very proficient at reading the front page news as I was folding them for delivery.

Read of an entire extended family in CA which died from eating poisonous wild mushrooms...ever since reading that, I only pick my mushrooms from the market shelf.

 

[Smokeydog]

Watercress year round. Polk, black walnuts, mushrooms morels and chicken of the woods, persimmon, lambs quarter, purslane. Sometimes the forest floor is covered in pine nuts and muscadines.

Many edibles are subsistence and take work. White oak acorns need a long soak in the creek to leach out tannins but are good tasting afterwards.

Apples, pears, blueberries, blackberries, various nut trees.

Be careful just because they’re plants or natural doesn’t mean they are safe for all.

People get sick or die from grocery store food too.

 

[Eagle1]

Yeah, anytime you try something take bit and see how you react. Some things are not compatible with your gut at first try, others may never agree with your system.
Mushrooms take some knowledge some like Morels and Chanterelles are pretty easy to identify. Others like Chicken of Woods, Maitake have some that look similar but are not tasty or could be harmful. The coral type mushrooms are easy to find and identify but I don't find them tasty enough to pick.