Wild Foods

[Pigeon Lady]

What wild foods do you gather?

I came across this website a couple days ago and love it!

http://prodigalgardens.info/weblog.htm

Town is 20 miles away but after reading this I realized we have a supermarket in our back yard!

Right now I have oodles of acorns processed and ready to be ground into flour and about 100lbs of black walnuts to hull!( a job for this weekend while hubby's home!) The Sumac trees still have their big red 'candles' but I think it may be too late to do anything with them.

I just read the thread on Rosehips. In early summer our road is lined with beautiful wild roses. I'm going to head out there tomorrow to see if there are hips on them. - Growing up in England my mum used to dose me up with a teaspoon of rosehip syrup every morning before school. It was delicious!

Last weekend we went up in the woods and marked about 15 maple trees that are large enough to tap. We'd planned on boiling down the sap but according to this lady you can use it straight from the tree for sweet teas!

Anyway take a look, she has good clear photos and instructions along with recipes.

P.

[Maggie]

Pigeon Lady, Wow, what a great site. I definitely will be checking it out more when I've got about 2 hours. Thanks for the link, Maggie

[papaw]

Neat site. Thanks for posting it!

[Charleen]

Interesting site. When I have time, I'll go back to it and read more thoroughly.

We have black walnuts to deal with also. I've got the hulls off and the nuts are in the basement. Wintertime project. Be sure to wear gloves!!

[diane]

Great site!!! Thanks for the link. I am harvesting hickory and black walnuts. I have harvested wild berries all summer, as well as elderberries. Our 40 acres is a vitual supermarket for gathering and I alway feel so blessed when I can fill the pantry and freezer with it's fruits.

[sue currin]

Originally Posted by Charleen

Interesting site. When I have time, I'll go back to it and read more thoroughly.

We have black walnuts to deal with also. I've got the hulls off and the nuts are in the basement. Wintertime project. Be sure to wear gloves!!

I always throw the hulls into a 5 gal bucket and put in 4 jars of water, then just let it sit for a month or so, It will make a great stain for frams or baskets or even walken sticks

[moonwolf]

Some years filberts (hazelnuts) can be harvested in modest quantity here.
I harvest several kinds of mushrooms. In the late spring it's morels. Then after that it's boletes, puffballs, lobster mushrooms and a few others that I know are edible here.
In the late summer, the wild blueberries and saskatoon berries are abundant if the weather cooperates with enough rain during the growth and blossom stage and after.
A few wild plums are around to pick and in the early fall wild high bush cranberries. A veritable cornucopia of wild edibles if one finds the time during the seasons to pursue them.

[mtn bluet]

I harvest Burdock stems that taste like celery sticks. I soak them in water and pour out the water to get rid any bitter taste. Then I simmer them for a while.

I also encourage and snack on Creeping Wood Sorrel, and Lambsquarters. They are good tasting no matter what the stage of growth.

Of course, mulberries, blackberries, wild grapes and elderberries are great to munch on too.

Thank you so much for that website! I just might be very interested in attending her workshops as they are in my neck of the woods!