Foraging

[yugogypsy1963]

I have a cousin who is a medicine woman, so I've learned a bit about wild edibles and plants to dry for tea, plants that are medicine and plants that aren't. My partner is an avid forager and is always adding wild greens to his soups and teas. (he's vegetarian) I know how to make tinctures and ointments with some medicinal plants--time to spend some time with my cousin learning more before I go travelling.

I'll also get some guide books and I'm planning on packing the herb books I have

I would eat Javelina if I was desperate, not afraid to try new things and I learned how to butcher small animals, though how I'd kill something that wants to kill me would be a challenge. Making sausage with them sounds like a good solution, a little seasoning and maybe smoking the sausages would make them more appealing.

Cheers, Lois

 

[wasanah2]

 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.

Dang, don't you know it.

 

[wasanah2]

I have a cousin who is a medicine woman, so I've learned a bit about wild edibles and plants to dry for tea, plants that are medicine and plants that aren't. My partner is an avid forager and is always adding wild greens to his soups and teas. (he's vegetarian) I know how to make tinctures and ointments with some medicinal plants--time to spend some time with my cousin learning more before I go travelling.

Lois, there are some poisonous plants that look a lot like the good article.  I may have already mentioned it, but if I didn't, if you have internet and time to look, EAT THE WEEDS, a really nice website has some good info on how to tell the difference.  Also it depends on where you are and when something is ripe to eat.   Definitely be sure to get some guidebooks.

I'm an Indian, and even historically, Indians died of starvation if they only relied on vegetation they found.  Historically, we cultivated crops (corn, beans and squash) to supplement game meats and fresh greens in season. Fish of course was a good choice, but very few energy giving carbs.  We also ate dogs, and I don't mean hotdogs.  Today, I haven't heard of this happening just because of the way dogs are considered a part of families.  But when I was small, people were still eating dogs.

We would never eat small animals such as rodents.  I suppose they wouldn't have enough meat to make it worthwhile.   Some birds were okay to eat, but usually only turkeys and pheasants and ducks (typical game birds).   Some birds are sacred and the small ones again, just not worth the trouble.  Also if you get a duck or bear or wild boar, make sure to render all the fat.  You need fat for survival and often there is too little fat in wild creatures.

You might also want to look into air drying meat and vegetation when you have an abundance.  Many good books on drying food out there.  I live in FL so I have to use an electric dehydrator due to humidity, but if you are in the west and in dry air, you can make a tray with screen or netting to preserve your excess.

One thing you learn in foraging is that if the energy you expend to process the food exceeds what you get out of it, you will be hungry.

I don't want to be a downer on this.  You can get by for a time, but eating exclusively off the land (minus cultivation) is almost, if not, impossible.  For a happy medium, you could buy some food and supplement it with fishing, hunting and foraging.  Right about now, you should be looking for BLACKBERRIES.  Yummm.  There should be some in many of the US states.  Dried blackberries keep well too.

 

[yugogypsy1963]

Wasanah2

I wasn't planning on trying to live exclusively on wild foods. Here in the PNW its damp, so anything I dehydrate is done in an electric dehydrator. Anything I dry will be kept in a tight sealing container

I got every blackberry in the yard I think and enjoyed them greatly. I've grown "Three Sisters" gardens several times here. If I find a long term place to stay I'll definitely have a garden and dry or can vegetables. I'll also go fishing if I can find a spot.

I am Metis, though I don't look it. My great-great Grandmother was Heiltsuk from Bella-Bella (Up the West Coast of this Island) My family roots are the Moody clan of the Copper Raven

My ancestors lived close to the sea so there were clams and shellfish as well as fish, game and wild foods. I live close to the sea on the East side of the Island, which unfortunately is becoming highly polluted and we're having trouble with fish farms giving diseases to our wild salmon. We're also losing our orcas, but have an over-abundance of seals and seal lions going after our salmon too.

Hychka (thank you) for your input and I hope we meet at a camp some day

Cheers,
Lois

 

[wasanah2]

Wasanah2

My ancestors lived close to the sea so there were clams and shellfish as well as fish, game and wild foods. I live close to the sea on the East side of the Island, which unfortunately is becoming highly polluted and we're having trouble with fish farms giving diseases to our wild salmon. We're also losing our orcas, but have an over-abundance of seals and seal lions going after our salmon too.

Hychka (thank you) for your input and I hope we meet at a camp some day

Cheers,
Lois

When you wrote about seals and sea lions, my first thought was that they must be LOADED with fat.   Contrary to popular opinion, fat is good.  Clamming is awesome and oh man, the crab pots and salmon!  Yes, you have an abundance of good food in the PNW. 

With foraging, yep, you'll have to dry everything in a food dryer.  If I remember the PNW correctly, there were blackberries on the sides of roads and parks and everywhere in August.  You might gather as much as you can because once they're gone, they're gone.  I was able to forage for some, but ours were ripe way early here in FL.  You also don't have sugaring in the PNW.  We don't have it here either, but up north when the sap runs, there's maple sugar.  I often wondered if one could sugar on public land.  If you tended to your sap buckets, I'd think you could "forage" it even on public land.

You might in your travels carry the sisters with you.  I often take the corn and make hominy of it and dry that in the food dryer.  It's healthier and faster cooking in that form.  If you have beans, you have a meal wherever you go.   For squash, I don't dry that.  Winter squash keeps well in a cool dry place.  You can carry those things with you and they will mix with whatever you forage.  OOoo, I just thought of something yummy.  Grind up the hominy to a powder and make a soup of it and then add foraged wood sorrel to it.  A very unique flavor, nothing like it.  100% Indian recipe.

Good luck!

 

[yugogypsy1963]

Yes we have nice fat seals and sea lions! I've never eaten it but would if necessary. Clams--I have to smoke and can those, can't eat them otherwise. and I can't just forage them, all the clam beds from here to the end of the Island are polluted. I'm going to make some simple crab traps with bike rims and net. I have a sailboat but I won't be putting it in the water to go fishing because all my $$ is going into the trailer right now and it costs $400 every time I have to have her moved and $125 for the lift fee to drop her back into the water as she has a deep keel

I do have a rowboat and can set crab traps in some quiet spots.

Yes, plenty of people picking blackberries around the roadsides. I have 2 or 3 favorite spots to go.

I will carry garden seeds with me, but no beans. They don't agree with me in any shape or form. When I grow the Sisters here, my partner eats the beans. I've been growing squash for years.We have a compost heap and there's a volunteer squash plant growing on it and I think we're going to have quite a few squash for winter. I've never made hominy, but am willing to try and I know we have wood sorrel growing in a few places around the yard and in the garden.

For Carbs I know how to make fry-bread

Spaghetti squash are my favorite because you can make a lot of different things with them. My Dad used to put a meatloaf in the seed cavity after he'd cleaned one. I make spaghetti sauce and use that and a friend of mine peeled hers, layered it in a pan and cooked it like lasagna. I've pan-fried it in butter, but usually I cook it in the oven (have to get trailer oven fixed--it won't stay lit)

I'm capable of hunting with a bow if I can get a license and I'm determined to go fishing somewhere. So I won't starve and will have a back-up supply of food for the days I either can't get out foraging, hunting, or fishing

Cheers
Lois

 

[MrNoodly]

<a href="https://ibb.co/99YMq6b"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/QFm56LP/1586014409-20200404.png" alt="1586014409-20200404" border="0" /></a>

 

[nature lover]

I love the dandylion. If it were a rare flower people would travel long distances to see it. But they spray chemicals over their lawns (that their children play in) to kill the beautiful thing. Pick the leaves before the plant flowers or they could be bitter. In PA we made a delicious "hot bacon dressing" for the traditional spring dandelion greens, oft said to be a spring rejuvenator. (notice we take the nutritious greens and add bacon and sugar in that dressing????) Be sure to pick your greens from a chemical and dog free lawn. The root is said to make a coffee like beverage when roasted - never tried it myself. BUT I often enjoy sipping dandelion wine made from those bright yellow flowers. Add some of the greens to any salad - give some flavor and nutrition to that commercially grown lettuce. I often like a fresh spinach and dandelion salad with a lite dressing.

After dandelion season comes the ramps - a very strong wild onion and not long after that comes morel season. If you have never ett (eaten) a wild morel sauteed in butter you have missed one of the best mushrooms God blessed us with. Oh ,the memories of long walks in the woods foraging are among the best I have.