Foraging

[Cammalu]

Thanks for the heads up on Thayers books Stinker. Foraging is one of many things I’ve been interested in but never seem to find the time to do anything about learning.

Any other good resources would be great

 

[RowanFae]

I too enjoy foraging.  I'm in the Olympic peninsula right now and finding tons of salmon berries, black berries, raspberries, fennel, and plenty of other stuff.  I do find, however, that I built up a knowledge of foraging in the southeast, and that knowledge doesn't travel so well.  I try to learn a bit in each new place tho.

Sidenote: for anybody is wanting to get into foraging ,I like to recommend Samuel Thayer's books on the subject. Really great introductory reads.

Yes, part of the allure of traveling is learning new edibles in different locations.  I don't know if anyone does this, but I would yell at my TV when watching The Walking Dead, "Why are you starving?  You just passed 6 edible plants!!!  )   

Thanks for the recommend.  I'm going to see if I can get that online from Barnes and Noble to read.

 

[Cammalu]

Rowan I’d love if you could point out what’s edible here on the farm besides what’s coming out of the garden.

 

[Beeps and eats]

You can also get the Audubon book on north American wild and edible plants.
It's quite a read but it's full of information.

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[Cammalu]

Thanks beeps. Where’s my thank button

 

[stinko]

You can also get the Audubon book on north American wild and edible plants.
It's quite a read but it's full of information.

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Another great book.  I keep that over as quick reference.

 

[Beeps and eats]

Right here, Thanks!

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[Dingfelder]

Propagation is a wonderful idea.  Plus, it gives me something else to learn about in regards to the indigenous plants.  I know that invasive species can often decimate the indigenous plants, so learning what grows naturally and 'belongs' in the area and cultivating/propagating it is something I would very much enjoy doing.

Blackberry is the number 1 invasive plant in Oregon.  Eat all you want and do whatever you can to eradicate it. 

As an invasive plant, it not only out-competes native species, but makes areas impassable, a big problem in Oregon where firefighters need to move quickly.  On that theme again, fire is almost impossible to put out in a blackberry thicket, as embers can lurk deep in it, well-protected by thick masses of thorns amid years of dry dead canes.  A bulldozer is the only safe way to put it out, but there are only so many bulldozers and so many places you can get them to -- and both blackberries and fires are everywhere.  Just the other day I had to help a friend evacuate. Fires can run for weeks in Oregon and California, even up further north too.

Broom is another menace here.  Big fire hazard.

The propagation idea sounds great, too.  If you want to ensure the survival of native plants, you might do better by always leaving some behind.  I do that with mushrooms.  It doesn't take many mushrooms to launch a lot of spores, but ... if you take all of them, you're just asking for trouble, IMO.  Who knows that you'll be the only one doing it whenever they pop up?

 

[RowanFae]

Yes, blackberries here in Michigan, really do get out of hand although I love to eat the berries.  Before I moved, my backyard had a wonderful overgrowth of blackberries and black raspberries and several Mulberry trees.  I would say I miss them, but they grow so abundantly along the bike trails that all I need to do is stop long enough to pick my fill.

You bring up a good point about the fire hazards and difficulties they cause in fighting fires, something I wasn't aware of. 

I've never heard of Broom, I'll have to look that up.

 

[wasanah2]

I envy you!!  Other than Blackberries (and there are none in my locale), I wouldn't know what's edible and what isn't.  A prof from my botany class said that 10% of all plants are edible, some are inedible and some of them are poisonous.  It's hard to tell which are okay and which are not.  I started looking at the website called Eat the Weeds by Greene Dean.  He tells how to check out to see what's good and what isn't.  Even so, I can't bring myself to try things that aren't for sure okay.

That prof who said 10% of plants are edible told us the story of how he was on a field trip as a freshman in his botany class, and one of the guys pulled a bit of greenery from the wild and threw it on his box lunch sandwich.  It was feathery like carrot tops.  Unfortunately, it was hemlock and it killed him.

That story kind of freaked me out on foraging, but the prof said if the SHTF and you have to forage, he said insects are safer and easier to get than game animals.  While 10% of plants are edible, 90% of insects are.

Eu.

 

[Cammalu]

Bleck. Insects. Not for me.

 

[wasanah2]

Bleck. Insects. Not for me.

Even if it were a matter of life or death, I don't think I could eat insects either.   That professor has ruined foraging for me...and he's ruined hope in case the SHTF someday.

 

[RowanFae]

 I don't know, most anything tastes good battered and fried 

Hemlock only looks like Parsnip/Wild Carrot if you aren't paying attention.  You shouldn't eat any plant, if you aren't paying attention.  Once you know what to look for, they actually look very different.  Helluva way to fail a Botany class, but at least he didn't have to contend with the student loan debt.

 

[Beeps and eats]

Join a local club that's in your area.
Not only will you gain confidence in plant species but will learn how to prepare some delicious meals also.

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[Moxadox]

Hmm. In my lifetime of study and outdoor living, and study with various teachers, I've noticed that each region does have its poisonous plants, but the friendly ones are much more numerous. Even the ones we don't eat are rarely outright poisonous. Mushrooms are not my forte. I know a true morel from a false one, but aside from that, I like my liver too much to test it on what I **think** might be an edible shroom. Except for the ones I grow in jars. But with the exception of hemlock and various nightshades, there aren't that many herbaceous poisonous plants, and the ones there are fall into categories. I did a project once in art school, drawing poisonous plants. It was really fun. Each one tends to have a peculiar identifying sign: the hemlock has a green stem with unique purple blotches. The problem is, the young shoots look just like any other umbelliferous shoots, and so we definitely should NOT put anything we can't positively identify on our sammies. I have many small field guides to specific types of things: berries, which I about wore out last summer in Oregon; deciduous trees and conifers according to region; southwest regional stuff; etc etc, and now you see why I had to get a bigger rig. There are certain things I cannot live without, and most of them are books about plants. Anyway, I find it goes into my brain better if instead of a large field guide, I take several small ones. That kind of chunks it down so I'm not so overwhelmed. Maybe that's why I love the desert so: it's so elegantly simple.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[Dingfelder]

I have many small field guides to specific types of things: berries, which I about wore out last summer in Oregon; deciduous trees and conifers according to region; southwest regional stuff; etc etc, and now you see why I had to get a bigger rig.  There are certain things I cannot live without, and most of them are books about plants.  Anyway, I find it goes into my brain better if instead of a large field guide, I take several small ones.  That kind of chunks it down so I'm not so overwhelmed.  Maybe that's why I love the desert so: it's so elegantly simple.

The Dire Wolfess

You want elegantly simple, get a Kindle.  For so many reasons I could go into great detail about but won't bore you, but also because one can hold thousands of books for 40 bucks on sale, and they'll all fit into your pocket at the same time.

It's only with the rarest exception that I would ever consider buying a print book again.

 

[RowanFae]

With Hemlock, the stems are hairless. Leaves shaped differently and the flower groupings more widely dispersed and yes, the purple/red mottling on the stem.

If you want to find a lot of poisonous plants, look in just about any nicely landscaped yard. For some reason we call the edible plants weeds and kill them only to replace them them poisonous plants. In the wild, edible (when I say edible, I'm referring to nutritional) plants are more numerous.

I am very much a novice, and started my interest in foraging a few years ago. If I get the opportunity to run across people (like Moxadox) I will so very much want to pick their brains.

There is an app that will identify plants from a picture. I wouldn't rely solely or heavily on it to keep one alive, but it is a nice tool to get you in the general ballpark of what to look up about the plant and those similar to it. I just recently learned about it, and haven't had a chance to really try it out much.

Because of my cognitive issues, I have to pull out all of the tricks to retain a memory so I watch tons of videos and take lots of notes and draw the plants in a notebook with barely legible notations all over the place. I have to do this several times, and cross-research the plants before I am brave enough to eat them.

Taking a Botany class has always been a dream of mine. Not so sure it would benefit me now, as hands on learning combined with all of the other tricks to recall And retain memories works for me and is way more fun. Besides, took me a while to pay off student loan debt. Ouch

 

[Weight]

Yes. I urge every one to learn safe mushrooms from a web forum.
Javelinas/peccaries taste nothing like chicken. They taste like rattlesnake.

 

[RowanFae]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary?wprov=sfla1

Javelinas are actually collared peccari, pecari tajacu in Latin.  They are related to Old World pigs, genus Suis, subgenus Tayasuis.  They are not the same as wild boar, which are feral.  Javelinas/peccaries are truly wild.  They range from South America to Arizona (I have encountered terrifying gigantic ones near Flagstaff, and really pushy smaller ones in Southern AZ).  They smell awful--you will often smell them before you see them.  If you feed them they will pay you back by biting you!  They are one of the only creatures that love to munch on prickly pear leaves (pads).  Next time you're in the desert, keep an eye out for prickly pear leaves with bite marks out of them.  That's from javelinas.  They taste about the way they smell.  Locals in Arivaca, AZ, where I camped last winter, made sausage out of them.

The Dire Wolfess

I'm not sure how I missed this post.  Thank you for information.  Fascinating.  They don't sound very appetizing.

 

[RowanFae]

Yes. I urge every one to learn safe mushrooms from a web forum.
Javelinas/peccaries taste nothing like chicken. They taste like rattlesnake.

Hmm, I've had gator, frog legs, squirrel, game and fowl.  I've never had rattlesnake, so no point of reference.  Not that I wouldn't eat it, if the opportunity arose.

I would never urge anyone to learn safe anything only from the web.  The web is a tool to find information, and that information is only as reliable as the source.   My preferred way to learn is hands on, with someone who is knowledgeable.  

Sarcasm is an art form here in Michigan, so I do enjoy it - but as I started this thread, I wanted to be certain to clarify my POV on the matter.

If your first sentence wasn't sarcastic, then I apologize for my assumption and need to  point out that we are not on the same page when it comes to advising someone about safe methods of learning