Back Yard Foraging, Fun And Healthy!

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Yvonne Smith, May 16, 2016.

  1. Texas Beth

    Texas Beth Veteran Member
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    I have always wanted to be knowledgable about foraging for plants. I know that there are edible flowers, but I am unsure which I ones I can eat and what nutrients they hold.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Today, Robin and I went out to the old quarry that is on the arsenal, and we found some of the wild plum trees and blackberry vines, and we got a start of both of those. We had gone out there a few years back, later in the summer, when the little plums were rips, and picked a bunch of them, which I made jam out of. I tried planting a start from one, and it survived the summer but didn't come back the next spring.
    This time, maybe we got the starts early enough in the year that they will live and hopefully come back again next year. The blackberries that we found the last time were very tiny, but that might have been because they didn't get enough rain; so I am hoping that the ones I planted will have larger berries if I keep them watered.
    Here is a picture of how the plums look when they are ripe that we took when we picked them before.
    FE7BC260-6287-497D-82A2-9DC2AF616176.JPG
     
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  3. Jeanee Burke

    Jeanee Burke Veteran Member
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    This is all so fascinating. I live in a town but it would be really good to know how to survive out in the wilds.
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Actually, there are quite a few foods that can be found that are edible, even when you live in a city or town. Most people have clover, dandelions, and green-leaf plantain out in their yard somewhere, and we also have wild onions that come up over the fall and winter season, which can be used like chives. In the spring, one of the earliest plants to show up is the violet, and both the leaves and the blossoms of violets are edible.
    Grape leaves, both wild and domestic are edible, as well as strawberry and raspberry leaves, which are sometimes used for tea.
    Even pine needles are edible, although not very tasty.
    A good place to start is with the"Eat the Weeds" website, and you can find just about everything you wanted to know about which foods can be foraged and eaten, as well as how to prepare them.
    Another great resource is Sergei Boutenko, who has a youtube channel, and he travels and gives talks about finding wild edibles and then using them in green smoothies.
     
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  5. Jeanee Burke

    Jeanee Burke Veteran Member
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    i appreciate all the information! I love grape leaves that are stuffed! I've had them many times. I haven't seen any dandelions lately but used to all the time when I was growing up. No one appreciated them or just didn't know what good they are.
     
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  6. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I'm not into foraging. When it comes to food selection or preparation, I'm a kept man. Give me a grocery list and I can do alright if the lister is only a phone call away.
     
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  7. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Living in Fresno, I'm surrounded by all types of fruit and nut trees....some only a couple blocks from me...huge orchards.

    Also vineyards and even olives but I'm sure if it came to surviving, People that own them would be guarding them with guns. :)...but maybe they would share. :)
    BTW, an olive right off the tree is so bitter that it's almost inedible...Ive tried one from an olive tree that wasn't on anyone's property.

    @Jeanee Burke ....I used to love a Greek dish made with grape leaves...think it was called dolmadakia.
     
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  8. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    When I was a child in our library of books was Wild flowers, reptiles, insects, and animals. I spent many hours reading through the books and then going into the countryside trying to find everything in those books. Building a wild flower garden in the back yard. Also had a book on edible plants and mushrooms I got scared off the mushrooms unless it was something that had nothing poisonous that looked like it. I think I made a mistake with one that looked like a wild onion/garlic one time and I think I have a sensitively to them from that time on. My library of books on natural things has grown a lot and have books on just about everything now and my children have pick up the same curiosity as I had.

    There was a friend of mine how was in the Hitler youth special forces and he said that what they taught them that you could eat almost everything that flies, crawls, swims, but leave the plants alone unless you know better.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Here is a great little video that shows what wild grapes look like, how to pick the best ones, and even how to make them into kind of a fried grape chip.

     
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  10. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    Knowing which wild plants are edible would be great for those stranded in the wilderness. For the rest of us, over the hundreds of thousands of years or however long humans have existed, our ancestors have cultivated the best of the wild plants so that they are now grown both commercially and in home gardens. :confused:
    Myself, I would much rather eat delicious food from the grocery or my garden than munch on dandelion leaves.:p
     
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  11. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Well, it looks like we do not have many foragers on the forum; but nevertheless, I wanted to share this great video with you all. Who knows.......maybe someone else will get the “foraging bug” and try it out, or we might get new members who are into natural sustainable foods.
    This video is about wild edibles that we consider weeds, and which grow abundantly almost everywhere.
    I believe that I have seen all of them at some time or another, but probably before I know that they were edible plants because I have only ever tried eating a few of these wild greens.

     
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  13. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    Beans and potatoes are plant food :D
     
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  14. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Many of the plants that we think of as weeds (think dandelion) were actually brought over to America by some of the first settlers here.
    Common plantain (plantago major) comes in at least two species (broad leaf and narrow leaf, also called lance leaf), and is found almost everywhere in the United States. It is so common that the Indians called it “White Man’s Footprint” because everywhere the settlers moved to, they brought plantain, and it thrived and spread over the area. We have both growing in our yard.

    We have several plants/weeds growing in our yard that I have harvested and used as greens, and I am pretty sure that there are probably more once I learn about them. I have harvest and eaten dandelion leaves, violet leaves, as well as the plantago leaves.

    Today, I decided to try and grow some in a planter, because the ones in the yard get walked on, and mowed down, so they are raggedy and scruffy, and the tender leaves do not get a good chance to grow. They are easy to uproot, so I took several plants, removed the chewed up leaves, and left the tiny ones in the center, and then I planted the starts in a container. If they grow okay, then it should be simple to harvest the fresh tender leaves for salads and stir fry’s .

     
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  15. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    You taught me about psyllium a while ago. My family used to forage, especially in the spring, for nutritious greens to "thin the blood" after a long winter. Dandelion was a favorite green and was usually wilted using bacon fat. Wife and I just had mixed lettuce out of the greenhouse prepared in the same way (mostly romaine) and in various locations where we have lived, we have foraged for greens, ramps, and "creasy greens".
     
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