What do you forage?

[DelcoMama82]

Here, in south eastern PA, pa pa have tons and tons of wild raspberry bushes, blackberry and wine berry bushes. And tons of them pesticide free in our local state park. They start ripening between May and July depending on the weather. I’ve taken my kids out the last 3 years and end up with about 10 pounds and a hell of a lot of scratches. But hey! Free berries!!!
We’ve also found this park is a great place to find rosehips (for tea) and crab apples (for jelly) in the late fall and early winter.
So I want to know: what do you forage? Where? What time of year? And what do you use it for?

 

[tortoise]

I've also tried a lot of the edible wild plants round here, and concluded that there is a good reason why most of them are not cultivated - they don't taste very nice or they're not worth the effort of collecting/prepping.

You're not lying 🤣 DH and I planted some native edible berries and they are disgustingly horrible. Probably cant kill ya 'cause no one has ever been able to consume enough 🤣

 

[Hinotori]

We dig Pacific razor clams. They are big enough to be well worth it. Cleaning them is fairly quick once you have the technique down. They are one of the clams you gut, and you cut open both valves in the neck to wash out the dirt. I have a little pair of shrimp scissors that works awesome.

Dip in simmering water until shell pops open. Dunk in ice water. Pull off shell. Snip tip of neck. Slice open valves. Cut foot mostly in half and pull gut off. Rinse and use or freeze. Takes me only a couple minutes per clam.

Both of us getting our limit of 15 each usually results in just over 4 pounds of cleaned clam meat.

 

[whysprs]

Ive got a long list of sorts . Mullien for lungs, dandelion and chickory there's quite a few uses, pineapple plant its similar to chamomile and is prolific here, cattail, elderberry, passion fruit clover both red and white, willow, sumac, mulberry, henbit, henbane, slippery elm, persimmons, white pine, sheep sorrel, nettle, milk thistle. Theres more that i cant think of at the moment.

 

[flowerbug]

i foraged a banana split for breakfast from the cupboards and freezer and then to make sure my world was in balance i also made a cup of fake coffee...

 

[NH Homesteader]

🤷🏻‍♀️ I have no idea. I don’t like mushrooms 🤣 or chicken, actually. I just know what they look like, my husband likes them though so I’ll ask him.

 

[Alaskan]

We felt that way about fiddle head ferns...

And I feel that way about clams.

So much work before you get to eat.

 

[Hinotori]

I foraged morels and shaggy manes when I was in high school. There was a fairly unknown spot on school property down by the river. Simple as asking at the office if I could go pick and coordinating with the science teacher so we didn't interfere with each other. Tons of forageable foods there.

The high school and middle school sit on a large acreage so there is a conservation riparian area as well as the site of an old abandoned train stop. The Madame who willed the land to the school in the late 1800s was wealthy and very much pushed education. She taught her girls and forced them to save half their money so they could get enough to get out of the business. The middle school is named after her but they do not advertise what she did as a job.

 

[akroberts]

I forage wild mustard greens. I have to start picking up the acorns to make some acorn flour. I don't know what mushrooms are safe to eat so no picking up any of them.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Unfortunately, not much foraging going on around here right now. But, pecan season is coming up and we'll probably head to the parks to pick some up later.