Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Foraging for favorites

dankphishin

By dankphishin
in Food Traditions & Culture

 Share

Recommended Posts

IowaDee

IowaDee

Posted
Posted

Many years ago we were camping west of Deming at the City of Rocks State Park.  The rocks were full of grinding holes and we were amazed.  How I wish I had been in to forging when we camped our way across the country! At that  point in my life it was all about Hamburger Helper and Jiffy-Pop.

Wasn't until I found my first morel mushrooms in Iowa that I understood why people get so excited about it.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted

My final forage in New Mexico. Sad but also glorious! What a fun 8 years that this wilderness has given me. I've tended my favorite spots like a hen to its chicks. Each year my spots have become more robust and sustainable. This year I was rewarded with the absolute most perfect cattail pollen gathering ever! Water came just right in the spring, and has stayed away long enough for me to work my entire grove (much of which is normally too far out in the water to bother with). For those of you who hobby or dabble in foraging, please, always be respectful of your impact. Thank you Gila Wilderness!cattailmouth.jpg

  • Like 8

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted (edited)

Now that I'm in Missouri I'm mushrooming after each rain. These pics are from just one acre yesterday. I pulled about 3 pounds of oysters and 5 chanterelles. I may have to stop getting chants because I'm out of space (pickled, dehydrated)

Mush1.jpg

Mush2.jpg

A fairly rare (for these parts Boletus frostii

Mush3.jpg

Mush4.jpg

Mush5.jpg

 

Edited by gfron1 (log)
  • Like 12

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted

A favorite memory of foraging from when I was a kid: my mother and I had gone to the lake to go swimming. She tired of the water before I did, and was wandering about the bank when she found some wild scuppernongs (white muscadines). She searched the entire car for something in which to pick them, finding nothing. Not to be defeated, she took off the capri pants she was wearing (this was probably 1963 or so) and tied knots in the legs. 

 

Mama was not a small woman. We picked them full. Came home and made jelly.

 

Most of our foraging was for fruit -- blackberries, dewberries, crabapples, muscadines, scuppernongs. And for mistletoe at Christmas.

  • Like 10

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

@kayb,

 

Did you shoot the mistletoe down? That is what we did.

 

I planted some muscadine seeds on the edge of the woods, but they have a lot of competition. We shall see next year what happens.

Yes. Except for one notable year when Daddy's aim apparently was off. He shot up half a box of shotgun shells, gave up, and got the chainsaw out of the back of the truck.

  • Like 3

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MelissaH

MelissaH

Posted
Posted

We just did a little tandem bicycle ride on the Erie Canal trail. At one point my husband sat down on the trailside to stretch his hamstrings. When he got up, he walked down the embankment a short ways. I thought he was answering a call of nature, which I thought was awfully quick since the last pit stop, but instead he came back with a small handful of ripe black raspberries. Yum!

  • Like 7

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

Link to comment
Share on other sites
suzilightning

suzilightning

Posted
Posted

Out checking bluebird boxes yesterday and the wine berries were ready to pick!  Got about a pint from half a set of bushes.  More to pick later this week.  So far I am going to mix these with some almost over ripe peaches and put them over some ice cream or yoghurt.  I think I'll use the one I pick later to make steamed puddings like we did when I was a kid: make a batter, fold in the fruit, grease a bunch of coffee mugs, fill and place in a big pot with water 2/3 of the way up the mugs.  Steam while eating dinner.  Make a hard sauce and burn your fingers trying to get the hot pudding out of the mugs.  But that steaming pudding with the sauce melting into the cracks and crevices was so........yummy.

  • Like 5

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted (edited)
On June 20, 2014 at 3:40 PM, gfron1 said:

I'm pickling agave blossom right now.  Cattail pollen is pretty much done for the year which is too bad - its my favorite to gather.

agave.jpg

 

I'm not sure it's foraging, since I just went out my front door and snipped these off a plant in my front yard but here is my harvest of agave buds:

IMG_3660.jpg

About 1/3 of a cup.  I will be following the recipe for pickled agave buds from @gfron1's book, Acorns & Cattailsir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=151070968.  These are from a plant that was sold to me as Agave celsii 'nova' (I believe Agave mitis is the current nomenclature).  It started sending up a primary bloom stalk in Feb 2015 and has sent up a few smaller stalks since then.  I'm surprised it has lived this long after blooming but I think it's on its last legs and I'm not expecting any of my other agaves to bloom for quite a few years so I figured I should give these guys a try while I have the chance.

  

Edited by blue_dolphin (log)
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shelby

Shelby

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

I'm not sure it's foraging, since I just went out my front door and snipped these off a plant in my front yard but here is my harvest of agave buds:

IMG_3660.jpg

About 1/3 of a cup.  I will be following the recipe for pickled agave buds from @gfron1's book, Acorns & Cattailsir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=151070968.  These are from a plant that was sold to me as Agave celsii 'nova' (I believe Agave mitis is the current nomenclature).  It started sending up a primary bloom stalk in Feb 2015 and has sent up a few smaller stalks since then.  I'm surprised it has lived this long after blooming but I think it's on its last legs and I'm not expecting any of my other agaves to bloom for quite a few years so I figured I should give these guys a try while I have the chance.

  

 

AWESOME.  Yes, it's totally foraging.  Can't wait to see the results.

  • Like 1

First eG Blog-Winter 2011

 

Second eG Blog-Summer 2015

 

Third eG Blog-Hunting season Birds and Deer 2016, 2017,2018,2019, 2021, 2022

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wild_Yeast

Wild_Yeast

Posted
Posted

I'm jealous of everyone not living in a full blown desert region. Such bountiful harvests! I grew up in tropical Asia, I can confidently survive in the jungle foraging wild edibles and hunting wild game including reptiles and amphibs. Then fast forward 16 years I'm here in Las Vegas, all I can forage for are Stone Pine pinenuts. The surrounding open dessert are protected habitats so you can't just go in and help yourself to cactus fruits. There's no foliage to hide you from the Rangers patrolling all over lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...
gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted

Morels are literally days away from my in St Louis...They've crept up to lower-mid Missouri over the weekend. So i went scouting this morning and found the motherlode of Virigina Bluebells (ertensia virginica). Edible and some say they have a slight oyster flavor.

Bluebell.thumb.jpg.e2968d7ace2dfdf47ca99f93ff9a2641.jpg

  • Like 4

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TicTac

TicTac

Posted
Posted

Curious...

 

I know you moved recently yet you already have Morel spots?!

 

Or are you scouting for places you think they might grow?

 

Would like to learn more about what you look for (I know they like pines and places w recent 'burn') and how you make out.

 

Apparently there are tons of them in Southern Ontario, I have only found a few.  Elm Oysters on the other hand, I've got on lock down!

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, TicTac said:

I know you moved recently yet you already have Morel spots?!

Or are you scouting for places you think they might grow?

Would like to learn more about what you look for (I know they like pines and places w recent 'burn') and how you make out.

This year is going to be all general scouting as I learn new spots and the new seasons. What I'm most interested in right now is what lands are safe to harvest from in terms of pollution, and part of that is reading the history of a space to see what has happened previously on the land. For example, I found a nice park that apparently was a superfund cleanup site in the 80s and 90s. That's obviously a no go.  So that's my first priority.

 

Second, is learning the new plants. The one above is a good example. There was sufficient amounts of it that I could consider harvesting but I had never seen it. I took a picture and got it identified - this one was easy because it's all over the Missouri Native Plant Society facebook page right now - and will now go back tomorrow to harvest. In the meantime I've consulted my books including my book on Native American medicinal plants which might give me warning signs. This was not listed so I feel safe moving forward.

 

But to your question, New Mexico was not known for morels. I found them once in the nine years i foraged, and those were burn morels in early June. My knowledge from foraging in Minnesota is to look for dead oaks as a starting point. Here in Missouri I've heard a lot about southside slopes. If you're interested in learning more, find your local mycological society facebook page and watch what people are posting. They won't say where they got them but you'll learn seasonality and get help with identification.

  • Like 1

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, mm84321 said:

Happily discovered a rather fruitful strawberry tree during a bike ride today..

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

 

I don't THINK those are true strawberries; strawberries grow on a ground-level vine, near the ground, with different shaped leaves. I'm not sure just exactly WHAT these are, but would love to learn!

 

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, kayb said:

 

I don't THINK those are true strawberries; strawberries grow on a ground-level vine, near the ground, with different shaped leaves. I'm not sure just exactly WHAT these are, but would love to learn!

 

Arbutus unedo

dcarch

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
suzilightning

suzilightning

Posted
Posted

ohhhhh....... out checking some bluebird boxes and I was transported back to my childhood.  In an odd spot I found some wild asparagus and was able to harvest 8 thin stalks.  I brought them home, rinsed them well then ate them raw.  

  • Like 3

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted

Right now are the staples - cattail stalk, chicken of the woods mushrooms (cinnabars and chants are starting to appear), wild strawberries (ground not tree), and I'm preparing to explore gum trees...I think I'll be able to tease a liquor out of it ala nocino. Time will tell.

  • Like 1

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TicTac

TicTac

Posted
Posted (edited)

So far this season we have foraged for -

 

(Sustain-ably harvested) Ramps

Wild Celery

Garlic Mustard

Morel Mushrooms

Spruce Needle Tips

 

Lettuces and Arugula are starting to produce from a self started perspective.

Edited by TicTac (log)
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...