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Besides the obvious hunting, clamming or fishing (and I realize these endeavors are not for everyone), I am curious as to what wild foods people may be harvesting to supplement their diet. I, for one, make use of the abundance of yucca blooms available in the spring. They are delicious in stir fry or steamed by themselves with a dash of garlic. And perfectly edible. Health Natural, Information for Natural and healthy living - Yucca
When in Oregon during the fall, we hunt for Chantrelle mushrooms. Fantastic grilled over an open fire!
I have also been known to collect wild mustard greens, wild berries and the elusive feral asparagus!!!
Is anyone else utilizing wild foods? If so, please provide links so we can all benefit from learning more!
My brother is big into mushroom hunting and gathering wild greens (we call them poke salad and they are good cooked in scrambled eggs).
Where I'm from, there are lots of native pecan trees and many people gather them. In a good year, my family gathers enough pecans from four trees to last four cooks through the year. Other years we get very little.
We used to get a lot of wild plums but it seems like they've mostly disappeared.
When I lived in the desert in Navajo country, they gathered pinon nuts. But it seemed like a lot of work for such a tiny little morsel.
soonerguy - Thanks! It's surely an interesting subject! When I lived in upstate NY as a kid, we had old growth rasberries, apples, pears, blackberries, even grapes. These had been planted ages ago. There was also a persimmon tree and wild strawberries in June. Us kids would disappear for the day and graze as we went along!
I gather mushrooms, lambs quarter, fiddleheads, apples and berries.
I remember growing up, taking a picnic lunch into the woods, with our halloween buckets, picking blueberries. We'd go home and mom would make a blueberry pie. When I had children, I wanted to give them the same experience, it's also a free and profitable family outing.
Now that it's just the two of us, we are planting berry bushes around the house..but still gather the other things.
oh, I forgot, we have been reading a lot about cat tails (and we have a lot of them) and will be working on finding ways to use them in our diet.
I used to get wild mustard greens and blackberries. For a while, I gathered wild mushrooms, but got scared off of that--they can be tricky to identify.
Once, on a bicycling trip around Block Island in the fall, we were miles from town and hungry. We found perfectly ripe rose hips growing by the the side of the road which made a nice snack.
Where I live now, there's a McMansion development that's not going anywhere due to the recession, and there are blueberry bushes there that bear so much fruit that we can't pick them all. These bushes are about 1/4 mile from my house, where for some reason the blueberry bushes that we've planted aren't doing well at all. :-(
wild gathering is a wonderful way to supplement your diet, however, often times people who are new and a little over exuberant in their gathering have a tendency to damage plants, their habitat and/or their ability to produce/reproduce. please be kind to your favorite plants- dont gather more than what you yourself need and be especially thoughtful to the plants life cycle (best times of year/month to pick, not to pick). i have seen too many plants that are overpicked and never able to come back, leaving none not just for me and other human beings, but the wild creatures and other plants that may depend on them as well.
wild gathering is a wonderful way to supplement your diet, however, often times people who are new and a little over exuberant in their gathering have a tendency to damage plants, their habitat and/or their ability to produce/reproduce. please be kind to your favorite plants- dont gather more than what you yourself need and be especially thoughtful to the plants life cycle (best times of year/month to pick, not to pick). i have seen too many plants that are overpicked and never able to come back, leaving none not just for me and other human beings, but the wild creatures and other plants that may depend on them as well.
Excellent points! We must all remember to "tread lightly" when in the naural places.
I used to get wild mustard greens and blackberries. For a while, I gathered wild mushrooms, but got scared off of that--they can be tricky to identify.
Once, on a bicycling trip around Block Island in the fall, we were miles from town and hungry. We found perfectly ripe rose hips growing by the the side of the road which made a nice snack.
Where I live now, there's a McMansion development that's not going anywhere due to the recession, and there are blueberry bushes there that bear so much fruit that we can't pick them all. These bushes are about 1/4 mile from my house, where for some reason the blueberry bushes that we've planted aren't doing well at all. :-(
good rule of thumb...if mushrooms have bugs on them they are safe to eat.
I'm just to scared of mushrooms anymore. I am even afraid of my 4 legged kids here eating them, so when I find them in the yard, I get rid of them.
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