A lot of people grow some of their own food but how many people on here forage for edibles, such as edible weeds, leaves, flowers, berries, mushrooms, etc? Where do you go to forage? Do you forage for your pets as well? I've always been captivated by foraging, I've done it ever since I was little, though not so much then because I wasn't positive what was edible and what was toxic when I was little. I would read books where characters lived off the land, like in Swiss Family Robinson and My Side of The Mountain and I found it really interesting and tasty! So I thought this would be a fun and educational topic to share recipes and tips on!
I never thought about doing this, but we saw it on tv and my husband, a former Boy Scout, told me we had edible things growing in the field behind our house. We have blackberries we've always picked. We also have elderberries. I've never done anything with those. The only other thing we used this year were chives. I suppose we'll get a little more adventurous each year.
The closest I came to foraging, was after a hurricane. We had no electricity for almost 2 weeks. It seemed everyday I had to go out and find a way to feed myself and my family. Not exactly living off of the land. But it sure felt very close.
Unfortunately, the urban area we live in does not afford us much opportunity for foraging. The concept really appeals to me as well. I would love to go foraging with my dad, though. He is pretty knowledgeable about plants and he grew up in the "country" and went foraging with my grandmother from time to time.
It's kind of a cool idea, but I live in a city. The only foraging I ever do is to search for discarded pennies on the street.
I don't for the most part. I do pick blackberries out back. And we do go "mushroom hunting" every year for morels. It's not to make up a large part of our diet by any means, though. It's just because we enjoy those foods and they're available in the wild, but not in the stores where I live.
My friend was trying to get me to eat some weed she pulled off of the sidewalk. I can't remember the name of it but I guess it's relatively common in Lebanese food. I don't have any problem trying that type of weed per se, but it was more of the fact of where she got it from. Some dog probably peed on it or something for all I know. I declined to try it, lol.
I have seen some interesting television shows about foraging, and I have realized a couple of things about foragers: 1) It is an activity that requires botanical knowledge (some of those plants are poisonous) 2) Successful foragers do not like to reveal the location of their hunting grounds I would love to learn more about foraging (I know what to pick and not pick in my area), but my options are currently quite limited.
I have the same kind of fear as you. I can't eat anything of the ground where dogs or other animals wander around. I live in the city and there are hardly any opportunities to forage. My son watches these shows on TV and is fascinated by them.
I do enjoy foraging at my local nature reserve. I'm fortunate enough to live a 5 minute walk away from the nature reserve and I go there to forage quite often. My favourite foods to forage are wild garlic in spring and blackberries in early autumn.
Hand me a femur and I'll give you age, sex, height, and weight. Hand me a mushroom and I'll panic - I mean it might be poisonous or something right?
We live in the mountains and over the years I have foraged for wild mushrooms. Yes, you really do need to know what is edible and what is not when it comes to mushrooms. Morel mushrooms are one of the most common ones that are sought after in our area but there are also a few others that are really good. We also have wild blackberries and huckleberries that we try to stock up and and freeze to use over the winter months. In the early spring, we can also get wild asparagus but it is slim pickings. We also do a lot of fishing and have good friends that hunt deer and share their meat with us. We have a guinea pig that we will pick grass and dandelion leaves for but only from areas that we know have never been sprayed.
I live near the woods. The distance from my house to the woods isn't very long, but it's still long enough to go by foot and I don't have a car. But when going with friends, we enjoy foraging some berries as we can't identify any mushrooms...
