Wild Foraging

[me&thegals]

I love it--eat the invasive species to death! I haven't used garlic mustard. I actually don't even know for certain what it looks like, but they have festivals for it here in the parks occasionally and have entire menus using the stuff. Pesto is one food that sticks in my mind.

Wild asparagus here for a week now--Yay! So far, my poison ivy is under control, just a few itchy spots here and there.

This week is nutty, but I really hope to get out in the woods a lot of Sat or Sun with my family as my M-day present to hunt for morels. We're getting drizzled on, so that should be perfect, especially if we get a little heat now.

MTN--Thanks for the report on the dehydrated teas. I've used catnip in a fresh tea and thought it was gross. I will try it again dehydrated. I planted some lemon catnip last year, so maybe there will be enough to try drying that. I will try drying dandelion leaves, too. I wonder how they would be crushed and sprinkled into chicken soup next winter?

While I'm out looking for morels, I really want to find some ramps. I think they're around here. I just need to do some picking and sniffing.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hey me--just a quick note and I hafta go..... I find with just a touch of honey and lemon, almost anything is drinkable, although I have had the catnip without.

 

[Blackbird]

Nettles are going to sting no matter which way you strip them. The tops of the older leaves generally don't sting much but the bottoms and the stalks do.
We have areas that get 6 feet tall of nettles and we've had to wade and plow through - it's not fun, don't do it!

 

[Tallman]

The wild oats in Kansas headed out about a week ago so I took a knife and cut off a bunch for the dehydrator. This little grass grows about one and a half feet tall so I cut off the top eight inches or so, and dried it. I have read that the stem is the most nutritious part; however I used head, stem and whatever blade came with it. So far I have dried a gallon, and I plan on drying another gallon since we like it so well. It has a very mild, smooth flavor, and we drink it without honey, sugar or additive. It's just the straight stuff, and very good.

Here is a site about the benefits of oat straw tea if anybody is interested.

http://www.teabenefits.com/herbal-tea-benefits/oatstraw-tea-benefits.html

 

[freemotion]

Oh, I love that site, I use it all the time! I don't have access to wild oats here, I haven't seen them in my travels. So I am planting some in the garden. Can't wait to try them. I might get one more batch of nettles, too.

Picked some voilet flowers, picked and picked and picked and dehydrated to a half cup!

 

[Tallman]

Picked some voilet flowers, picked and picked and picked and dehydrated to a half cup!

Yup! Once that dehydrator wrings the water out there ain't much left.

 

[Mackay]

In my search on how to make bark extracts I came upon this site and it is really fine! This woman has a lot of knowledge and good links on herbals and foraging.

http://www.prodigalgardens.info/index.htm

She knows about foraging and links to other sites that have a DVD on foraging. If you look up Burdock you will find that link.

Its the only site I could find that told how to make bark extracts. I would like to learn how to make pine bark extract and she had good photos.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Just came across this thread and loving it. We used to forage all the time when I was growing up. We used to be able to go anywhere and not worry about permissions. We regularly went hiking with backpacks filled with lunches and come home with backbacks filled with goodies we came across.

I still forage as much as possible now, but it is a lot more difficult.

 

[Mackay]

Farmer Denise, I remember up state NY as a child. We use to forage for blueberries and black berries.

I link I posted above talks about foraging for cattail shoots and cattail pollen. I had no idea one would even consider eating that stuff! It grows all over up state NY. You should be able to have a feast. Check out the cattail pollen biscuits!

They also talk about how to use burdock. I have that in my yard. Burdock root is an excellent anticancer remedy but they say its good in soups, stews and sautees.

 

[BeccaOH]

In my search on how to make bark extracts I came upon this site and it is really fine! This woman has a lot of knowledge and good links on herbals and foraging.

http://www.prodigalgardens.info/index.htm

She knows about foraging and links to other sites that have a DVD on foraging. If you look up Burdock you will find that link.

Its the only site I could find that told how to make bark extracts. I would like to learn how to make pine bark extract and she had good photos.

I LOVE this site. It got me excited about foraging last year, and I found a class east of Akron to take on basic foraging.

I started eating instead of fighting the plentiful purslane in my garden.