What do you forage?

[Grizzleyette___Adams]

I didn't know that about the nightmare leaves!

You are an incredible fountain of knowledge which is also one of the reasons I keep coming back to the herbal/foraging subforums, etc.
I am constantly thirsty!! And you don't disappoint, Peanut!

Please don't stop!

 

[Peanut]

The nightmare leaves are a really strange oddity... I've spoken to people who tried outer leaf tea only... they had the nightmares... I know a few who didn't.

I know several folks who made a sleep aid tea from mixed leaves... It wasn't a good sleep aid, they had sort of a restless sleep. The inner leaf tea works well.

I'm not going to touch the outer leaves for a tea as my dreams are wild enough already.

Edit to clarify... it was a weekend herb class... most of the class volunteered for a mullein experiment the first night.. The next morning we learned the results matched what was expected..

 

[LadyLocust]

How do you deal with the pits?

I add just enough water to almost cover, then use my masher. Once it comes to a soft rolling boil, I run it through my food mill - the kind that looks like cone with a wooden masher to roll around inside. It lets quite a bit of the pulp through but not the pits and skins.
Also depends on the choke cherries. I wasn't planning on picking yesterday but these are perfect- right before end of season, dark and really juicy. Some years they aren't as juicy which is a little more challenging.
This is just what I cleaned while hubby was finishing supper last night.

 

[LadyLocust]

@Peanut I didn't know that either. I just use it for congestion etc.
@Grizzleyette___Adams That's funny. I think you are both wells of knowledge. I luuuuv it. I keep 2 binders with 'tidbits' of info - one for flora and one for fauna. There is so much knowledge and various sources, I had to figure something out to keep is contained. I add this type of note to the sheet I already have for mullein.

 

[Caribou]

View attachment 24574
I add just enough water to almost cover, then use my masher. Once it comes to a soft rolling boil, I run it through my food mill - the kind that looks like cone with a wooden masher to roll around inside. It lets quite a bit of the pulp through but not the pits and skins.
Also depends on the choke cherries. I wasn't planning on picking yesterday but these are perfect- right before end of season, dark and really juicy. Some years they aren't as juicy which is a little more challenging.
This is just what I cleaned while hubby was finishing supper last night.

Thanks! I wish I had asked before the birds had their annual feast. Our second year here I picked our choke cherries and it was so much work that we decided that watching the birds was a better use of the berries. Besides the verbal abuse I was subjected to was disturbing. I never expected a robin was capable of such rudeness. I can't repeat it here for fear of being banned.

 

[hiwall]

I have eaten yucca flowers many times but have never eaten the fruit (never found any ripe). This year here many of the banana yucca had fruit on them. I baked one in the solar oven just to try one. When it was done I opened it up and found they contain little actual meat. Most is seeds (which can be dried and ground into flour). They do taste fine but not much for actual food in there.

 

[Terri9630]

I've never seen a fruit on a yucca.

 

[Weedygarden]

They say first year mullein is best, that's when it is the ground floret. The second year is when it sends up the flower stalk.

I have several on my property now. I am going to pick them for tea! Thank you.

 

[Weedygarden]

I've never seen a fruit on a yucca.

I think it splits fairly quickly when it gets dry.

 

[hiwall]

I've never seen a fruit on a yucca.

We had them near our last house too but though they all blossomed they never or seldom got any bananas on them. I bet you will have at your mountain house. The flowers are just like eating lettuce.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Wild asparagus is all I've foraged so far this year.

Yessss..........wild asparagus is awesome. I just walk the roadsides here and pick it.

Asparagus, wild berries, in the spring MOREL mushrooms, I eat some and dry some. I love morels.

 

[Terri9630]

We had them near our last house too but though they all blossomed they never or seldom got any bananas on them. I bet you will have at your mountain house. The flowers are just like eating lettuce.

There aren't any yuccas on our mtn place. I'll have to watch the valleys near by to see if there any.

 

[Spikedriver]

I'm curious about gooseberries. They're not too common where I live. I saw what I think were gooseberries along the tracks in Wisconsin. They were green, but to my understanding should be ripe in early July. Is there a harmful look alike for gooseberries?

 

[Meerkat]

We have a little 8 acre refuge for the animals but in times of starvation they will be prey ans so will we I guess.
Untouched for over 75 years all natural.

 

[Weedygarden]

All about mullein:

 

[LadyLocust]

We went up the mountain to do some winterizing today. "My" apple tree was ready so I picked quite a few. Hubby preferred the apples from a different tree. Also a few pears left - two different kinds. Then some mullein (new plants - no stalk or flowers) and some borage. Aaaannnddd some cedar for infusing oil for soap. I think that's everything. There are tons of elderberries but I won't have time this week so didn't pick any - so tempting though.

 

[snappy1]

Elderberries, Figs, Blackberries, Blueberries and Walnuts. All either on our property or within 500 feet of it. I know there is more to forage but haven't done it yet.

 

[joel]

Stephen Barstow Around the world in 80 plants edible perennials hosted by growUp.city

Has anyone heard of this guy? He said that if you make nettle soup or tea you are part of a world wide group, that in every country around the world nettle leaves are cosumed by the local people. I know about 10% of the plants he talks about, he says 1/3 of the ornamental plants are edible world wide.
I only know about 52 & some of them I have to look up.

 

[Patchouli]

@joel I will watch when I get time. I drink nettle tea, but I don't gather it.

 

[Peanut]

I've never heard of the guy. There is no "about" on his blog or anywhere else I could find, nothing about his history. From what I gathered he lives in europe. I wouldn't buy his book because of the difference in common plants between europe and here. Any foraging book I purchase would be based on N. american plants... my 2 cents.

As far as nettles go... depends on the nettle. There are several species here in north america... not all are yummy and filled with nutrition.

 

[joel]

His book is on perennial plants around the world, most of which he as collected, but you are right, it is not a book for forging in North America.
He does name some of our plants, but also Hasta as a Ediblemental or Ornamental that are safe to eat. So I was intrseted in the perennials that I could collect, to use as fall back plants, if my winter Kale fail, the sea Kale could fill the gap. I am not a big forger, I rather grow it in a hedge row untill I need it.
That way it is comouflaged from prying eyes, but in reach, I would know it if I was lost or moving thuogh a new area, but it would be in reach if I was home. I have no problem with others forging for food in the outback.

 

[Spikedriver]

A question for @Peanut - I'm thinking of picking a little pigweed or lambs quarter this year. I understand it is much like raw spinach, but it also accumulates soil toxins so you have to be careful of the conditions where you pick it. Am I correct in this? Does pigweed or lambs quarter have any health benefits?

 

[Peanut]

@Spikedriver

Lamb’s Quarters aka Goosefoot aka Pigweed aka Chenopodium album, my favorite wild edible. It is also called wild spinach. Nutritional value… it beats out spinach in the produce section of your market in almost every category, minerals, vitamins, even fiber.

Harvest… think of pruning or cutting off ends of branches and picking leaves, that’s the parts I eat. There is no need to pull up the entire plant. It’ll continue to put out new branches and leaves all summer long.

It grows around the edges of my garden, sometimes in my garden rows with other veggies. I let it grow all summer. I always let it go to seed too.

I love it in salads, can’t remember the last time I cooked it. Thinking… now that I have a new oven I’ve been thinking of making pizza from scratch. Thanks for posting, now I have a new ingredient for my pizza’s.

Any plant in a toxic environment will absorb toxins. I’m extremely careful where I harvest plants for medicine, same with wild edibles. I suggest growing it in your garden, you can get seeds on amazon and several other places on the net.

Edit to add... Common Cocklebur aka Xanthium strumarium is a common weed in the fields of the southeast, nasty, not edible. When cocklebur and wild spinach are less than 5 inches tall... when they first come up they are almost identical. I wait until wild spinach is 8 to 10 inches tall before I start harvesting.

 

[SeventiesWreckers]

When I was stationed at MCB Bridgeport in the High Sierras, we would gather Pinion Nuts, and Wild Dill out of Pickle Meadows. The headwaters of The Walker River run thru there, so we also fished for trout. Up higher there were some large black granite benches that had been scoured by glaciers during the last ice age. Where they were gouged out deeper, ponds would form from the snow melt, and they were full of crawfish, easy to catch, and very good to eat. I discovered them by accident while trying to fish. How they got up that high in altitude with no creek, or river nearby was a mystery. Tasty little fellows though.

 

[joel]

Peanut, I just saw a TED talk where the talk was on framing & he said that "Hunter/Gathers" lived much longer than farmer did 100-200 year later.
One of the reason is H/G could find food in a drought, because they would pick top & leave, tubers. The farmer put all in a few crops that fail in a drought and would lose all.
"Common Cocklebur aka Xanthium strumarium is a common weed in the fields of the southeast, nasty, not edible. When cocklebur and wild spinach are less than 5 inches tall... when they first come up they are almost identical. I wait until wild spinach is 8 to 10 inches tall before I start harvesting. "
I hate the cocklebur, the sticky foot ball bur had 4 seeds in it & they could stay buried for several year then sprout. Spent many day hand pulling them in a
10 acre field, do not see many now.

 

[Spikedriver]

When I was stationed at MCB Bridgeport in the High Sierras, we would gather Pinion Nuts, and Wild Dill out of Pickle Meadows. The headwaters of The Walker River run thru there, so we also fished for trout. Up higher there were some large black granite benches that had been scoured by glaciers during the last ice age. Where they were gouged out deeper, ponds would form from the snow melt, and they were full of crawfish, easy to catch, and very good to eat. I discovered them by accident while trying to fish. How they got up that high in altitude with no creek, or river nearby was a mystery. Tasty little fellows though.

'Dads can be very good to eat. Used to catch them in the creek when I was a kid, then bring 'em home and put in the bathtub overnite so they could purge out any gunk. But I didn't know how to cook them and neither did my parents. As an adult I had a Cajun boil and that was much better...

 

[hiwall]

When we were in town yesterday I saw packages of dried juniper berries for sale. Surprised me.

 

[viking]

We have Salal, Oregon Grape, Pipsissewa, Mullien, Black Caps (black raspberries) and Soap Root on our property or not that far away, we don't harvest any unless it's needed. Salal berries are mild and often a bit mushy, Oregon Grape berries are puckery tart but make great jelly and Black Caps taste just like raspberries but are supposed to be very good for your health. Soap Root can be ground up and used as a good scalp shampoo used to fight dandruff. Pipsissewa is sometime used for urinary tract infections but the leaves are also harvested for making rootbeer.

 

[LadyLocust]

Hubby found some morels today

 

[Patchouli]

There used to be places on our back hill where lots of red berries grew. Longest time we thought they were red raspberries, but no, they were something that was an invasive species and now I can't find the name of it. It was reported that they were crowding out the native berries. They were tasty enough.

Foraging for mustang grapes here is popular, making jam from the spoils. I haven't done it. I don't know where to look!
There is a particular area we drive through on late summer in the evening that smells like dill, every year. Would love to find out where that is growing.