Wild Foraging

[freemotion]

Don't forget that these teas are considered medicinal or tonics, and we are very used to everything ultra-flavored to disguise any unpleasantness. Maybe make a strong infusion and choke it down with nose held and a chaser ready!

Although if your gag reflex kicks in, it won't do ya any good!

 

[mrs.puff]

Does anybody eat Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)? I have lots growing around my area, but I've never tried em. Do you only eat them in the winter?

Purslane is really good, AND I read somewhere that it is like the only plant that grows it's own Omega-3s or somthing along those lines. I can't remember exactly. It's kinda lemony, and goes well in salad. There's a mexican recipe called "verdolagas con cerdo" (purslane and pork) which is excellent. Basically stewed pork and greens.

BTW--I must not be allergic to poison ivy, since I have never once had it, and I am around it all the time. I know I have touched it before.
I don't go out and experiment with rolling around in it though.

 

[me&thegals]

Yes! I forgot about sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes. Just got 17 gallons from my friend's garden. A note of warning: Be VERY careful if you actually plant this beautiful tuber. It is invasive. My friend digs up every single tuber she can find each spring, yet enough are hidden to provide about 15 gallons every single year. So, they can be eaten fall through spring, but my friend tends to dig hers in spring before they start sprouting.

I scrub mine, leave the skins on and chop into soup. Just made chicken soup yesterday with parsnips from over winter, green garlic and sunchokes.

They are very good shredded 1/2 and 1/2 with potatoes, then pan fried like hashbrowns.

They are also tasty shredded raw on salads, like jicama, or eaten raw since they are very crisp and crunchy.

My friend bakes them in the microwave and eats them like potatoes. I tried roasting them with other root veggies once but must have overdone the chokes. They ended up severely dehydrated.

They are very low GI food, very low carb, so they're a great treat for someone who watches their carbs.



What I believe to be purslane in my garden comes a bit later in the year. Does anybody else notice this? I bought seeds for it once, not recognizing it as the "weed" that already grows here. I read that about the omega-3s, too, and that's why I had purchased it. Looking forward to clearly identifying and verifying it this year and then snipping it into summer salads.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Can you describe the taste of the artichokes? I've never seen it or even heard of it growing wild. I will take a look around for it. I have had canned artichokes before, but don't know if they are the same.

 

[mrs.puff]

Mine comes out after the dandelions are already in high gear. Usually when my squash plants are just starting to look big, the purslane is best. I guess chickens are supposed to like it a lot, but mine aren't especially interested.

One of my favorites is the wild plums. I don't know exactly what variety they are, but they're pinkish purple, about the size of a jumbo olive, and have sour skins. I just pop them in my mouth, squish the pulp out, and spit out the pit/skin. I once made a jam out of wild plums and those tiny purple wild grapes. It was really good.

My absolute favorite is wild strawberries. I just go out and find a good patch and eat them right there. Delicious!

 

[mrs.puff]

Maybe you don't have sunchokes that far north in canada. (It cracks me up when you say "up north". I live "up north" in Iowa).
They are a sunflower sort of plant. Yellow flowers with yellow centers, on a very tall stalk with large pointy leaves. The tuber part is what you eat. I've never eaten them. I've heard that they have a certain type of sugar in them that can cause "embarrassing flatulence" in some people.:/

 

[me&thegals]

Can you describe the taste of the artichokes? I've never seen it or even heard of it growing wild. I will take a look around for it. I have had canned artichokes before, but don't know if they are the same.

These are not to be confused with the flowering artichoke plant that has green, multileafed artichoke flowers that are green.

These chokes are the tuber of a type of sunflower that grows wild around here, and apparently other places. It is a funky-looking, knobby, potato-like tuber. It would be incredibly hard to peel since it has so many knobs and twists and turns.

Hmmm.... How does a person describe flavor? I always marvel at the language of wine and cheese tasters since I have so little clue. I'm going to run upstairs and chow one quickly...hang on a minute....

Okay--I would say mildly sweet, very crunchy like a water chestnut, not starchy like a potato. There really is nothing strong about it, just a mild "arthichoke" flavor. Not bitter at all. Not salty. Mildly sweet. It's a very enjoyable snack to chomp on while it's in a raw and crunchy state.

 

[me&thegals]

One of my favorites is the wild plums. I don't know exactly what variety they are, but they're pinkish purple, about the size of a jumbo olive, and have sour skins. I just pop them in my mouth, squish the pulp out, and spit out the pit/skin. I once made a jam out of wild plums and those tiny purple wild grapes. It was really good.

We used to pick wild plums along a ditchline on the next road over. Then, the landowner chopped them down, completely removed all trees next to the creek nearby, dredged the ditch and uprooted the wild asparagus. The kids used to love those plums when we were on a walk or bike ride. VERY tart skins, though!

 

[mrs.puff]

OH man, doesn't that just make you mad! My three apple trees are in danger of being chopped down right now. They're not "mine", but near where a neighboring farmhouse once stood. It burnt a couple years ago, and now they're clearing out the lot. I'm really hoping they leave my trees there.

My cherry tree is at another neighbor's house (new neighbors--I hope they let me pick some this year) and my pear is out in the middle of a pasture where there used to be a farmhouse.

There used to be lots of plants out there, rhubarb, asparagus, fruit trees, all lost to bulldozers.

 

[me&thegals]

It is so sickening! This same neighbor is the one who chased me down the road in his truck, thinking I was some city person or something stealing asparagus from his ditch (I was on a bike at the time, for pete's sake. How far away could I have come from?!?)

Another neighbor died. He had wonderful, huge established rhubarb beds that he could never use, fencelines full of asparagus and a huge old apple tree on his fenceline that had these really great, tart apples, never sprayed, and when cut open never turned brown. I am ill at the thought of this getting mindlessly chopped down, which it was. It's distressing to think how much food out there is destroyed (think of the genetics lost!) by people who simply don't even know it is there.