Sustainable foraging

[Mz.Gypzy]

I just got this book as an early Christmas present from my Sister, we both want to start wild foraging.

I know some basic medicinal plants, I am looking forward to learning much more about this subject and getting some field experience.

My Grandmother used to can and pickle all kinds of stuff she foraged from the outdoors, I wish she had written a book of recipes and notes.

The book seems like it's going to be a good guide!

 

[Cosmic Playground]

My personal favorite is plantain. Superbly medicinal in so many ways.. specifically if you have digestive issues like myself. It seems to grow everywhere in my area (front range, CO). I am a landscape manager so my personal technique to access safe, pesticide-free weeds is simply taking care of them myself. It's sort of a covert weedy plant garden operation I got goin.( My boss is certainly not aware of this..8) ) Not so much foraging as it is gardening but it does the job.

 

[Coja]

My personal favorite is plantain. Superbly medicinal in so many ways.. specifically if you have digestive issues like myself. It seems to grow everywhere in my area (front range, CO). I am a landscape manager so my personal technique to access safe, pesticide-free weeds is simply taking care of them myself. It's sort of a covert weedy plant garden operation I got goin.( My boss is certainly not aware of this..8) ) Not so much foraging as it is gardening but it does the job.

What do you do with the plantain though? It's not an easy herb to integrate into the diet regardless of how common it is.

 

[Cosmic Playground]

I simply juice it. I'm sure it would go well in smoothies also. I do the same with parsley and cilantro, as those tend to be difficult herbs for me to consume by other preparation methods due to bitterness.

 

[hixidom]

Collecting wild edibles is rewarding, but if you're just looking for free food then dumpster diving behind grocery stores is definitely the most efficient way in my opinion.

 

[Cognitive Heart]

Collecting wild edibles is rewarding, but if you're just looking for free food then dumpster diving behind grocery stores is definitely the most efficient way in my opinion.

Yes, very rewarding! I feel it is important to note that most wild edibles contain vast amounts of nutrients, all with different methods of preparation. Most wild edibles need a large harvest, right time of year, etc. So that's one benefit to collecting food behind grocery stores. Many plants can be easily turned into flour, too. Such as the family of poaceae(grass). Or picking fruit, small and large. There are over 400 kinds of grasses, all of which are edible but with different preparations.

It's fair to express that most humans will choose familiar food over unfamiliar survival skills, though.

 

[Coja]

^ Yup, foraging definitely takes some self-education, time, effort, dedication and passion if it's not needed for sustenance. Morels and ramps popping up now in zones 7-6, those rhubarb tasting/asparagus looking shoots of Japanese Knotweed will be shooting up in abundance soon too. Only have wild chives coming up so far.

 

[○]

I was hiking with a good friend several days back. I had forgot all about it, but wild onion was all over; still in the early stages being early in the season yet, but still picked handfulls and chowed down.

tastes soo good
:want:

 

[gnome.]

i have linked this in chat some, and i'm not sure if it is elsewhere on the forums but i felt it fit -

Falling Fruit

A massive, collaborative map of the urban harvest uniting the efforts of foragers, freegans, and foresters around the world. Explore and share information about the sources of free food in your neighborhood.

fallingfruit.org

find and map fruits in your area :want:

 

[Coja]

Picked a packed gallon of pre-flowering garlic mustard (pulled them up by the roots as the soil was nice and moist, then plucked the stalks from the roots and tossed the roots on the hiking trail to be trampled and hopefully killed off), made two pints of garlic-mustard vegan pesto and still have a good sized back of de-stemmed, rinsed and dried leaf. I'm tempted to do a cream of garlic-mustard soup/bisque as I think the sharp edge flavor would go great with a creamy soup. The pesto is good, better than market brand pesto ... but not nearly as good as vegan garlic scape pesto.

 

[Dante]

If you live in a cold climate you are probably still in time to tap birches and other trees.

Here were I live it's wild garlic (Allium ursinum) time, there's so much that you can make kgs of delicious pesto to store in the freezer.

There's also lots of young and super fresh yarrow (Achillea millefolium), sticky willie (Galium aparine), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), parietaria, dandelions, cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), henbit (Lamium amplexicaule), false nettle (Boehmeria) and of course nettle.

Be extra careful when you pick wild plants!

 

[○]

Hunted around for some threads like this, figured this would be one of the best places to post this.

Yesterday I came across some [Pleurotus ostreatus] oyster mushrooms, young, no flipped edges yet, probably good time to pick. Going back today.