Wild edibles foraging? - Page 2

[JamieCatheryn]

Originally Posted by BunnySlippers

I heard or read something about eating maple keys. I need to find the article

Wow DS was right and I was wrong! He was opening his "helicopter seeds" up and telling me to cook them, and I said I didn't think they were edible. Turns out you just have to pick them still green, and rinse in boiling water a couple times to take the bitter tannins out.

[sdbeachy]

Yes! I love foraged food! There's something so satisfying about eating something free that you didn't do the work to grow.

We ate dandelion leaves and wintercress before they bloomed. Also violets and wild garlic/onions (not sure which it is). Now (I'm surprised no one else mentioned this yet) LAMBS QUARTERS! We have a huge patch in one of our pastures, and they come up everywhere. I use it just like spinach--in salads, green smoothies, cooked in anything I need greens for. (It makes great quiche with eggs from our chickens!)

When I can find them, I also eat sorrel, wild black and raspberries, autumn olive, asparagus, puffballs, sassafrass root, chokecherries. Then there are all the things I "taste" when I'm outside but I don't really think of as "foraging." I suck honeysuckle blossoms, eat the seeds of something I don't know the english name for (we always called it "kesakruet"--I have no idea how to spell that; it's Low German), eat a few redbud flowers, chew birch twigs. . .

I envy those who can find wild mushrooms. That's an area where I've never had any success.

[sdbeachy]

Huh, I don't know why that all came out underlined. It wasn't intentional.

[tifpaul]

I have only ever foraged for dandelions in our yard.
The children love to chew on "sour grass" but I'm not sure that makes it "edible."

Does anyone have experience foraging in Southern California?

[Jeff Black]

okay,I need to share with you this.A weed that people think is pretty,but pesky lil rascal...but is quite nutritious and also high in iron supposedly.Purpledeadnettle is plentiful all around the world.Im a spinach lover and its every bit a equal to spinach.The signature square shaped stem is a tell tale sign.They grow fast and in bunches.THERE ARE NO POISONOUS LOOK ALIKES OR UNEDIBLE LOOKALIKES. the fuzzy leaves are soft hence the nettle is "dead"also bruised leaves can be put on cuts and burns and the teas that can be made from it are said to have certain medicinal qualities.

Mix it in place of spinach and tell your family after...they wont believe how good this pesky weed tastes

just be sure  rinse them,they are edible raw,not bad but best cooked

tell me what you think

[SweetSilver]

Bedstraw is another name for cleavers (Gallium sp.), that lanky weed that is like velcro.  The seeds are edible as well are famously roasted and used as a coffee substitute.  My chickens love it!

BTW, poison sumac does indeed belong to the sumac family, as do poison ivy  and poison oak, cashews and mangoes.  Poison sumac belongs to the same family, Rhus, and the others belong to the Toxicodendron family.  Not that it makes much of a difference in foraging, just wanted to clarify.  In Steve Brill's book he notes that poison sumac will have dropping clusters of white berries, nothing at all like the edible kinds of sumac.  I've made hot tea with the berries--really, really good!  Lebanese cooking regularly uses sumac in its cooking--check it out from the library.

One of my favorite books for wild edible is "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plant in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" by "Wildman" Steve Brill.

Note on Morels:  Morels need to be thoroughly cooked to cook out a compound that is pretty nasty.  Some people (me!) are extremely sensitive to this and Paul Stamets recommends that even the steam from cooking be vented out of the house.  I have gotten monsterously sick eating morels, extreme nausea followed by excruciating GI cramps and vomiting.  This happened twice before I figured out what was up and thankfully I read this info in Stamets' books or else I would have thought somehow I mixed up the mushrooms.  DH, however, wasn't affected in the least.  Crazy!

Nettles at our property are about ready to harvest.  I like them mixed with other things because their flavor is really strong.  

I've also heard that budding maple leaves are edible raw.  Looking forward to trying it this year.

Mainly I am determined to make jam with all the Himalayan blackberries that grow all over the place.

[SweetSilver]

Just noticed this is an old thread, but I'm glad someone bumped it!

[catnip]

We eat mustard flowers, chickweed, sorrel, dandelions, and violets.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by catnip 

We eat mustard flowers, chickweed, sorrel, dandelions, and violets.

Violets.... I had a friend who made flower honey by adding violets, lavender and fragrant rose petals to giant (separate) jars of honey.  The flowers will add water to the honey, so you need to cover it securely with a cloth instead of a metal lid until it thickens again.  So fabulous!  Really, the best way to enjoy violets, I have found, spread on toast.

[nstewart]

Neat thread!  I love foraging but will be honest that I (a) don't have much opportunity living in the city and (b) don't know much about it!  Last year I picked Saskatoons (kind of a high-bush blueberry) in the park and also some raspberries.  We always have tons of plantain the back alley, and dandelions are abundant so maybe I'll try those this year.  I worry though, about them absorbing exhaust from vehicles and run off from lawns were people fertilize, etc.  Any thoughts on foraging in an urban setting?

When we visit the inlaws, we often go ATVing in the woods and will look for mushrooms (Morels) and my MIL will often get fiddleheads.  MIL is also a hardcore berry picker and will have a freezer full by the end of the fall: Wild strawberries (so sweet and amazing, and just the size of your pinky nail!  Talk about time consuming to pick!), choke cherries, raspberries, saskatoons, and bluberries.  I'd like to find a weekend to go with her this summer/fall, but it is hard because she lives 6 hours away!

I grew up in the country and in addition to the above we used to eat Alberta Wild Rose petals and pick hazelnuts that grew in our lane.

This thread has me keen to do some research and see what I can scrounge up in the city parks, etc.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by nstewart 

 Last year I picked Saskatoons (kind of a high-bush blueberry) in the park and also some raspberries.   Any thoughts on foraging in an urban setting?

(Italics are mine)

You'd like the Steve Brill book I mentioned in my post above.  He writes about urban foraging, and things to think about when doing it.

Forgive me for being such a plant nerd, but my brain will short circuit and implode if I don't mention this, rendering me incapable of continuing with my day-- Saskatoon berries (Juneberry/ Serviceberry/ Sarvisberry, etc.) Amelanchier sp. are members of the Rose family.

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

You'd like the Steve Brill book I mentioned in my post above.  He writes about urban foraging, and things to think about when doing it.

Forgive me for being such a plant nerd, but my brain will short circuit and implode if I don't mention this, rendering me incapable of continuing with my day-- Saskatoon berries (Juneberry/ Serviceberry/ Sarvisberry, etc.) Amelanchier sp. are members of the Rose family.

Thanks!  See, I know so little!  When you say that, the texture and flavor do make sense as being members of the rose family.