frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
I am south of Houston...
We do have chickweed and purslane all over. A neighbor had a wild persimmon tree and chopped it down...argh!
What do you forage?
- Thread starter DelcoMama82
- Start date
We do have chickweed and purslane all over. A neighbor had a wild persimmon tree and chopped it down...argh!
Britesea
Sustainability Master
chokecherries, elderberries, wild plums, "feral" apples (planted long ago on land that no one's living on now), nettles, purslane, dandelions, mullein... I've been watching a baby wild blackberry that started last year by the river, but no berries yet.
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
the only ones i'll eat from the wild are morels. i wanted to get some green wood from a friend to set up some mushroom logs innoculated with known mushroom spawn along the northern hedge (under the honeysuckle bushes would be a good use of that space to get some edibles from there) but it didn't work out so i never have gotten around to it. i think this is a good way to learn about just certain mushrooms and have more safety.
Mini Horses
Sustainability Master
Beauty Berry is a bush, wild here. Old type that has been used or bug control and animal feed at certain times. It's really pretty and the berry jelly tastes like maraschino cherry syrup, IMO.
Hinotori
Sustainability Master
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We have a small chunk of land but enough to forage some on and I know where things are down the seldom used railroad tracks.
There are the invasive Himalayan and cut leaf blackberries that we cant eradicate, so I pick them. We also have Pacific training blackberries. Then there are the thimbleberries, serviceberries, salal, Oregon grapes, and Pacific crabapples. Those native apples are tiny things smaller than a dime but make great jelly.
The blackberries I also pick young leaves to use for tea.
I have a stand of cattails I've been trying to encourage so I'm careful how much I take. Nettles grow in several spots.
I collect beaver downed willow and alder trees for kindling. I trim willow for craft use.
Ive been using dandelion and plantain a lot the last few years. I dried a bunch of brackenfern last year but never got around to making a salve with it.
We have hawthorn, but I usually leave all the berries for the wild birds as winter food.
We love to go razor clamming and fishing.
I know there is more but I can't think at moment.
There are the invasive Himalayan and cut leaf blackberries that we cant eradicate, so I pick them. We also have Pacific training blackberries. Then there are the thimbleberries, serviceberries, salal, Oregon grapes, and Pacific crabapples. Those native apples are tiny things smaller than a dime but make great jelly.
The blackberries I also pick young leaves to use for tea.
I have a stand of cattails I've been trying to encourage so I'm careful how much I take. Nettles grow in several spots.
I collect beaver downed willow and alder trees for kindling. I trim willow for craft use.
Ive been using dandelion and plantain a lot the last few years. I dried a bunch of brackenfern last year but never got around to making a salve with it.
We have hawthorn, but I usually leave all the berries for the wild birds as winter food.
We love to go razor clamming and fishing.
I know there is more but I can't think at moment.
Hinotori
Sustainability Master
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 5,500
- Reaction score
- 11,500
- Points
- 373
- Location
- On the foot of Mt Rainier
I'm in the Puget Sound area. The climate is very good for foods. The area from western Oregon up to British is the only place in the world that was able to sustain a sedentary population of hunter gatherers. We have a lot available.
I have comfrey that's gone feral here as well. The wild roses we have don't have good hips so I dont bother.
Mostly I collect berries for a few deserts or jams. We don't have a lot of the other berries anywhere close that I know. I'm thinking of getting some salmonberry starts.
There are some nice turkey tail mushrooms growing in one of the dead fir tree clusters, but they are no good for eating unless they grow on hardwoods. If I get the smokehouse going, all the alder would be good. Just have to strip bark to use the wood.
Alder cones make really pretty decor in vases. As do any of the willows buds cut at the right time.
I have native lupins here I use for decor as well, but the ones in the marsh here get up over 5 foot tall with the flower spikes being up to 3 feet of flowers. Mom didn't believe me until I sent pictures.
I have comfrey that's gone feral here as well. The wild roses we have don't have good hips so I dont bother.
Mostly I collect berries for a few deserts or jams. We don't have a lot of the other berries anywhere close that I know. I'm thinking of getting some salmonberry starts.
There are some nice turkey tail mushrooms growing in one of the dead fir tree clusters, but they are no good for eating unless they grow on hardwoods. If I get the smokehouse going, all the alder would be good. Just have to strip bark to use the wood.
Alder cones make really pretty decor in vases. As do any of the willows buds cut at the right time.
I have native lupins here I use for decor as well, but the ones in the marsh here get up over 5 foot tall with the flower spikes being up to 3 feet of flowers. Mom didn't believe me until I sent pictures.
WildBird
Lovin' The Homestead
I know places I can pick wild plums, apples, elderberries, blackberries, and thimbleberries (for those who don't know it's like a wild raspberry).
I also pick wild yarrow and use it for beestings, cuts, bugbites, and such.
I also pick wild yarrow and use it for beestings, cuts, bugbites, and such.
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
thimbleberries i used to pick up north. a very unique flavor IMO. and very annoying in that you will see the perfectly ripe berry on the plant and go to grab it and the vibration of your foot on the ground or any nudging of the plant and it will fall off. kind of a sticky sweet flavor to me. i only wanted a few when i picked them.
the last time i picked them was on a hillside and had a nice bowl and was going for that last ripe berry when it fell off and i turned my ankle on a rock and dumped the bowl on the hillside and myself too.
the hillside is now a building and the railroad tracks and nice woodland along the bank of the canal were razed when they ran a sewer line along there and then replaced the railroad tracks by a paved bike trail, they lined the bank with poor rock from the copper mines (there's a huge amount of that laying around in piles up there).
right before i left that area i was walking along that new trail and i saw this very oddly shaped rock sitting there and so i picked it up and found out it was almost entirely solid native copper. i still have it as a parting gift after spending 15 years in that area and enjoying the history and the wild areas left and walking all those streams.
hmm, well back to thimble berries and foraging, the guys at the monastery up there used to buy (not sure if they still do) berries from people who would pick for them to make jams and then they sold the jams to support their monastery (i know they still do that
). they have a perfect location for it up there on the shore of Lake Superior... at one time i considered joining them.
the last time i picked them was on a hillside and had a nice bowl and was going for that last ripe berry when it fell off and i turned my ankle on a rock and dumped the bowl on the hillside and myself too.
the hillside is now a building and the railroad tracks and nice woodland along the bank of the canal were razed when they ran a sewer line along there and then replaced the railroad tracks by a paved bike trail, they lined the bank with poor rock from the copper mines (there's a huge amount of that laying around in piles up there).
right before i left that area i was walking along that new trail and i saw this very oddly shaped rock sitting there and so i picked it up and found out it was almost entirely solid native copper. i still have it as a parting gift after spending 15 years in that area and enjoying the history and the wild areas left and walking all those streams.
hmm, well back to thimble berries and foraging, the guys at the monastery up there used to buy (not sure if they still do) berries from people who would pick for them to make jams and then they sold the jams to support their monastery (i know they still do that
). they have a perfect location for it up there on the shore of Lake Superior... at one time i considered joining them.
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
i find it interesting to contemplate living someplace where you could plant out fruit tree starts and berry bushes of various kinds with some expectation that you might eventually be able to go back and get some harvest from them. around here that is a real gamble with all the deer grazing and once you start putting up protective fencing then you aren't able to do that very stealthily on other people's property or at the parks...
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Every fall, you can drive down the streets of the city near us (Klamath Falls) and see dozens of apple trees with fallen applies lying uncollected on the sidewalk and street. I get enough from the trees on our property, but if I didn't, I'd be knocking on doors asking if I could collect some.
