I've gotta admit that's tempting - we'll see.
Foraging
GoldenDormer those do look like a crabapple we have here (along with many other types). I'm unaware of the name but I go up to the collage every few years and rake em off the branches! I feel silly walking off campus with a huge bag full of crabapples and my kids trailing behind me nibbling on some as they go but so far no one has confronted me about it! They are very fragrant, sweet and tart. Just thinking of them makes my mouth water. My first preserves I ever made was with them. They are a very potent flavor enhancer if you add their juice to other jellies in place of a commercial pectin additive. They also add a lovely light ruby color if you are cooking them into a pale juice.
I was very excited when I found this post here hehe. I've been remembering my time as a kid up here in the mountains collecting things and having my Gramdma making stuff out of them. We did oregon grapes (the ones that hug the ground), wild raspberries, strawberries, service berries, chokecherries, sand plums, alpine goose berries, rose hips, osha, morels, shantrel (sp?), shaggy mains, puff balls and may other types of mushrooms. Grandpa did a lot of hunting back then and still gets out to fish now and then. I'm sure there are others but I can't recall the actual memories of gathering it. I was told that one year when I was really young we dug up the cattail patch for it's tubers.
Now that I have a young family myself I enjoy telling my sons what I used to eat. Hun grew up being super careful of everything wild so he kind of looks down on the foraging I do but he has yet to snub my service berry pie!
Now that I live in an apartment it does get a little hard to collect foods. I can scrape by on the crabapples and sometimes a few feral apricots on some hiking trails just outside of the town. What really burns me is I see all kinds of fruit trees in peoples yards and all the fruit is left to rot where it falls!.
Avasa,
What a delightful post.
I'm planning to ask my SIL to put mine up as a jelly or jam.
Hmmm...I wonder if she's reading this.
Avasa ~ Don't discount foraging. I was amazed the other day to have a friend tell me he had been gathering muscadines. I asked where he found a patch. I was told at a nearby historical site. They had planted the muscadine vines in accordance with those historical times. He asked permission and was told to pick all he wanted. He said others were picking also and there were still plenty. He got 3 gallons of them.
Any chance of asking the folks that have fruit wasting if you can pick some? Maybe tell them you will clean up what is on the ground or will share the harvest with them?
Ha yeah I've though of asking some people here in the neighborhood and I did do that a few times when my first son was past his grazing stage but I have 2 young children now and it is extremely hard to keep an eye on both of them and pick at the same time. Whenever I visit the store or library I get some kindly older moms telling me that they found cats easier to herd then children haha. If the kids were a little bit more behaved then I'd defiantly ask around. I saw some perslain the other day in a vacant lot but decided to not gather some because I'm kinda worried that they may have been sprayed. There was a dead thistle by the patch. I'm sure most of you all know thistles just don't up and die all the sudden!
Over in the forum Sustainable Alternatives there is an interesting thread about wild harvesting for food.
This message was edited Sep 17, 2010 8:22 PM
I saw an interesting dish today made with nettles. It's a paneer base, which is an easy cheese to make at home with milk and either lemon juice or yogurt.
Stinging Nettle Paneer
http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/2011/03/wild-indian-stinging-nettle-paneer.html
Paneer Cheese Making Recipe
http://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-paneer-cheese-making-recipe/
Thanks, darius. I'd like to try making the paneer. Haven't seen any stinging nettles anywhere near. I wonder if I could use lamb's quarters and/or arugula. Both are more distinctly flavored than spinach.
I don't see why not. And, try the paneer... it;s easy, and tasty.
When do you add the spinach?
When the recipe says "add nettles" just remember he's substituting nettles for spinach, so you'd prepare the spinach just like he does the nettles, and add it to the onion and spices in the pan when he says "add nettles"...
Thanks. I may try that one.
I'll update my first post in this thread by reporting that I baked another
loaf of bread using mesquite flour today. It is so yummy good! I'm delighted to have made this discovery. I hope my trees have a good crop of beans this year. Thus far I have purchased my supply of flour through Amazon.com/grocery. I substitute only 1/2 cup of it for the regular flour in my bread machine recipe. Next I want to experIment using it in cookies.
I'm glad someone has found a good use for Mesquite. Now if you could do the same for Huisache...
Almost time for ramps. We are picking our over-wintered garden when we can get to it. We've got turnips, collards, rutabagas, chard, kale, arugula and red and green cabbage. Sorta foraging. Also time for wild dandelions.
My sister sent me a book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen. It has a section on foraging. I have been out and about here taking pics of stuff and will compare it to the books pics. I think I found some wild watercress in my creek. Wish I knew where to look for Morels.
Announcing Beginner PNW Foraging Classes
Sign-up is now open for three beginner foraging classes this spring in the Cascade foothills near Seattle. Each class will be a three-hour trail walk (2 miles, easy terrain) with an emphasis on identification and food preparation. We'll examine dozens of wild plants and fungi that can be used in the kitchen. Trailside discussion will include notes on life cycle, habitat, season, harvesting techniques, processing, cooking, recipes, and putting up. Maximum 12 per class. The cost is $35, which includes a copy of the book, Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager.
The dates are:
* Friday, March 25, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
* Saturday, April 9, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
* Monday, May 2, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
To sign up or request more information, please email: finspotcook@gmail.com
Group rates possible.
Sounds fun, wish I could join!
Wow! So wish there was something like that here. I'd go for sure.
Darius, do ramps grow where you live?
I'm sure there are ramps in these hills!
@Cajun re: morels - I had them in my NE Tenn digs, right in the back yard (wish I did now!). They popped up around April. The environment was at the foot of an incline, in full sun, in deep grass before the walnut tree leafed out in the spring. I found these in the following photographs on 4.14.2009.
I found a lot more foraging type stuff in NE Tenn - bloodroot, fiddlehead ferns, watercress, morels, wild black and red raspberries and ramps. Here there don't seem to be any, or I've been too busy/distracted/depressed to find them. My hubby and I used to take walks with the camera and that is when I would find things.
Here is the largest one that we found in that batch. We also would find them along the edge of the road in the leaf litter, on our walks. I always carried a net bag in the Spring when we'd venture out.
It was still very cool this spring, as I have other photos around this time when the girls visited, and they are wearing jackets.
Make sure you either have a book, or closely examine photos on the Internet before munching down. While morels are absolutely delish, I went through them very carefully and threw out any that were even remotely iffy looking (there are false morels). Maybe next month I'll take a mosey around here and see if any are poppin' up!
Thanks so much for the pics and info. Good memories of your DH. I am glad you have them. We all need to take the time to make memories. Nobody knows what tomorrow holds.
I've never had enough dandelions at one time to do much with them but some cooks have found them to be quite versatile.
http://www.frugal-cafe.com/kitchen-pantry-food/articles/dandelion-greens-recipes.html
We don't have as many here as we did at the old place but we do have a few. I have never eaten them but may give it a try just for the sake of the experience.
That is a very interesting site. I added it to my favorites. Thanks for posting it.