What do you forage?

[FarmerJamie]

I've found few edible wilds here but, turkey tail just last week oh, I love a pan of sauted mushrooms. I buy them

I remember back in the 70s when locally there was a bunch of wild mushroom poisoning cases. My dad was teaching me to forage and then mom put her foot down and refused to use any wild mushrooms. Took me 10 years to get over the fear of mushrooms. No such issue now!

 

[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.

 

[Mini Horses]

Madame financial advisor??? Love it!

 

[Hinotori]

Madame financial advisor??? Love it!

Definitely told all those lonely men what to do with their money

 

[flowerbug]

Definitely told all those lonely men what to do with their money

i'm sure there were also lessons about inflation and deflation...

 

[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...

 

[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.

 

[flowerbug]

a pretty easy mushroom to hunt and identify is the morel, out west i think you have more of the darker ones that show up.

you can also get them to grow on your own property if the conditions are favorable. when you go out and hunt some when you pick them when you rinse them off before cooking keep the rinse water and spread it around your property. within a few years you should see some results.

 

[Hinotori]

We have white and brown ones. I've picked both. But I've picked on both sides of the Cascades and in the Blue Mountains.

I think false morels are easy to identify, but was taught all the poisonous look-alikes we have pretty young.

Biggest danger mushroom hunting is the commercial mushroom hunters. They will shoot anyone they think is mushroom hunting. Dad usually went along as a watch for them and cougars while we picked.

 

[Rillowen]

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?

We are in southern MO, we also have tons of blackberries and other bramble berries! I harvested 6 lbs by myself last year, going to bring the kids this year. We also have several black mulberry trees around here, which fruit at the same time and can be easily mixed into the bramble berries. (3lbs last year, but the county sent some men to spray the roadside and sprayed the best tree before we could harvest. )
We also harvest black walnuts and persimmon in the fall, got 20 lbs pulled last year! The walnuts are a bit of work, but so good and good for you, and already preserved! The neighbors forage for mushrooms, but I'm still nervous on that. They love their morrels, and hen if the woods though!
Wild garlic, sumac berries and sassafras leaves are great flavorants. Pineapple weed, perilla, and rose petals and hips (for teas). And I have been accumulating some herbal medicine type things too. Persimmon is my favorite though, love that mushy orange after the first hard frost!! This year I have it marked on the calendar to go look for the pawpaws and king nuts that are supposed to be around here, missed it last year.