Wild Foraging

[FarmerDenise]

edited for spelling

 

[big brown horse]

My grandma and mother would slice cucumber ends off and just stick them onto thier foreheads to cool off!! It works to some degree, if you don't mind looking dorky!

Isn't it funny how we used to give directions in small town settings like "three corners at the top of the hill". Ours was "the four corner's store". I live just past "four corners". Or my favorite was a resturaunt called something else but everyone called it "the hill" because it was on the hill.

I have heard about eating cattail too.

 

[freemotion]

We pulled up some cattail roots to eat when I was a teen. They were all very wormy and we weren't that hungry!

 

[big brown horse]

We pulled up some cattail roots to eat when I was a teen. They were all very wormy and we weren't that hungry!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Anyone ever hear of choke cherries? We used to eat those too. Iliked them fresh from the tree. They had kind of a strange feeling/taste. Some like it, some don't. My grandmother made sweet syrup using those, as well as raspberries and blackberries. This would be mixed with vodka and enjoyed by all as a health tonic.
I guess after putting up with all of us kids (mostly teens) all day, they really did need it.

 

[FarmerDenise]

These days I do most of my foraging in my own backyard. There are plenty of weeds that come up that are quite good to eat. The neighbors blackberry vines are constantly trying to take over on our place, do to our judiciuos pruning back, we end up we a nice blackberry crop. The same neighbor also has lots of wild plums which hang over the fence. I pick those and can them in plenty of syrup to use as juice. I leave at least one pit in each jar for added flavor (that's what my grandmother told me to do, and I "always" do as my grandmother told me ) In the winter we let our field go and let the chickens out in it to forage on their own. But I also find a lot of goodies for us to eat. In recent years we have found that a lot of our garden plants come up wild as well. So we have parsley and dill growing all over. We eat the wild mustard, the chickweed, and a number of hearbs that I can't remember the name of at this moment.
We have purslane coming up in the front yard, but I tried it once and cannot stand it. I have serious issues with slimy food.
We go fishing and eat the fish we catch.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Anyone ever hear of choke cherries? We used to eat those too. Iliked them fresh from the tree. They had kind of a strange feeling/taste. Some like it, some don't. My grandmother made sweet syrup using those, as well as raspberries and blackberries. This would be mixed with vodka and enjoyed by all as a health tonic.
I guess after putting up with all of us kids (mostly teens) all day, they really did need it.

We LOVE choke cherries! When we lived up north, we had lotsa trees on our property. I used to pick them, DS loved them right off the tree too. I made choke cherry jelly , ans syrup out of them. The jelly was a big hit around here too. We all used to like it on our toast and pancakes.

I picked so many wild edibles when we lived up north. I bought a handbook, grabbed the kids and went foraging. We harvested marsh marigolds, fiddleheads, wild leek, chokecherries, highbush cranberries, blueberries, rose hips, hazelnuts, sweetfern, fireweed, wood sorrel, june plums (or serviceberries) arrowhead tubers, wild strawberries, wild raspberries, wintergreen, yarrow, mints, goldenrod, bunchberry, gooseberries, cattails, we tried to get to the wild rice, but the ducks got to it first., morels, and boletes.

Mind you, we didnt eat alot of most of these things, just enought to say that we tried it, and digging up the arrowhead roots was not a fun experience. alot of the stuff we just made into teas. But the kids and I had alot of fun, and great memories were made, not to mention that the kids learned about what all grew around them that could be food. I think years later, they would still remember alot of this.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Gooseberries and boletes, love 'em both. What did you do with the goldenrod and the fire weed? Do you remember? I brought back seeds of both from my last trip. I got them started in my yard, we'll see how they do. I just like the flowers.

 

[Tallman]

I picked two gallon of red clover blossoms and started drying them to keep for tea.

 

[big brown horse]

Anyone ever hear of choke cherries? We used to eat those too. Iliked them fresh from the tree. They had kind of a strange feeling/taste. Some like it, some don't. My grandmother made sweet syrup using those, as well as raspberries and blackberries. This would be mixed with vodka and enjoyed by all as a health tonic.
I guess after putting up with all of us kids (mostly teens) all day, they really did need it.

I'm having a "health tonic" right now!! I had a weekend chock full of 12 year old girls...Heck, I might have another tonic after this one!!