The official foraging thread

[mattmmille]

Just foraged about 4-1/2 lbs of wild muscadine grapes...hoping to make some wine this year. I'll need more grapes, though. I've done(state fair award winning) jelly in the past.

We have 4 circular "courts" in our neighborhood that had crab apples in a round, planted center of each court...planted probably 40years ago. The the HOA management company surprised us one morning a couple of weeks ago...Friday at 7 a.m. crew went through and cut them all down and a guy followed them with a stump grinder. I was SO pissed!!! I was the only one really using them...but they started me into brewing via fermenting cider last Fall. I had previously done crab apple butter and a (2nd place award winning) jelly that I entered at our state fair last year, too. Two neighbors, one of whom I barely know, still have crab apple trees on their own property...now I am going to have to go beg.

I'm too scared to forage mushrooms around here...I don't know enough about then to tell good from bad. One mistake could be my last, so I won't risk it...but I've seen some pretty ones!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I forgot all about this thread. A couple weeks ago I picked 15lbs of wild huckleberries, they're sooooo tasty!
Regards, GF.

 

[mattmmille]

I did get enough grapes for a small batch of muscadine wine. With the bag of crushed grapes, the volume is about 3 gallons. Probably a little more than 2 after the bag comes out and all the racking.
My neighbor told me to pick all the crab apples I want...so I filled a couple buckets...Probably 30lbs or more. I have started a 2 gallon cider with half crabs and half pink cripps with Edinburgh Ale yeast, a couple cinnamon sticks, a few cloves and a drizzle of molasses. Should be tasty!

 

[julioardz]

During some recent hikes, I picked prickly pears and the fruit off of Texas Persimmons and Turk's caps. I came across a few Mexican plum's that were ripe. Most of these I eat raw. The prickly pears were made into a syrup that I use to flavor sparkling water, smoothies, and margaritas for my wife.

 

[mattmmille]

I had never heard of Turk's Caps before, so I Googled...interesting plant! you can use leaves, flowers and berries for various things. I've made Fuzzymittensbrewing's Hi-Nelson Saison with Hibiscus, using dried hibiscus flowers. I'll bet it would be great with the Turk's Caps dried flowers and/or berries!

 

[Weezy]

Berries and shrooms here! I also scam up birch twigs for birch beer.
Looking forward to small game hunting season. This will be my sons first year. God bless my grandfather for passing on the passion.

although, its difficult to get out for shrooms beyond the woods behind my.property. Just no time. There's a company in Pittsburgh who collects (buys) foraged flood goods for resale to local restaurants. They love mushroom runs.

 

[mattmmille]

Any ideas what this is and if it's edible? Spikes on the leaves are deadly, like it's protecting gold!

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

Lots of boletus mushrooms and chantrels here at the end of berry season

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

Birch beer? Sounds interesting. Got a description and recipe?

 

[julioardz]

Any ideas what this is and if it's edible? Spikes on the leaves are deadly, like it's protecting gold!

Looks like yucca to me.

http://www.desertusa.com/flora/datil-yucca.html

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Any ideas what this is and if it's edible? Spikes on the leaves are deadly, like it's protecting gold!

Yes, It's a type of yucca, looks like Spanish Bayonet. ONLY the flower, stalk & fruit are edible; the rest is toxic to humans, but you can use the root for soap, the leaves & fibers for baskets & cordage. You can "break" off a sharp tip & slowly pull it back towards the center of the plant & the attached fibers will peel off with it. BINGO! You've just foraged a 1 time use sewing needle with thread attached. Have a look at this:
http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/yucca.html
Regards, GF.

 

[julioardz]

I had never heard of Turk's Caps before, so I Googled...interesting plant! you can use leaves, flowers and berries for various things. I've made Fuzzymittensbrewing's Hi-Nelson Saison with Hibiscus, using dried hibiscus flowers. I'll bet it would be great with the Turk's Caps dried flowers and/or berries!

Turk's Caps grow wild around me, but I see them used more and more as ornamental plants in gardens. I have several growing in our garden. I selected them because they attract hummingbirds and butterflies, plus they do very well in shade and tolerate the extreme heat, drought, and sporadic winter freezes we get in Texas. Mine don't fruit as often as the ones I come across in wild. I may start collecting the flowers to try them in a tea.

 

[unionrdr]

We have Adam's Needle growing in the garden around the lamp post. Yucca Filamentosa. They grow stalks of upside down cream-colored flowers. The tubers it grows out of underground remind me of Batatas. I wonder if they're edible? Wiki says the cherokee use them to stun fish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_filamentosa

 

[mattmmille]

Yes, It's a type of yucca, looks like Spanish Bayonet. ONLY the flower, stalk & fruit are edible; the rest is toxic to humans, but you can use the root for soap, the leaves & fibers for baskets & cordage. You can "break" off a sharp tip & slowly pull it back towards the center of the plant & the attached fibers will peel off with it. BINGO! You've just foraged a 1 time use sewing needle with thread attached. Have a look at this:
http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/yucca.html
Regards, GF.

Cool link, thanks! Pods /fruit felt pretty tough. Probably been there awhile...guess I'll leave 'em alone this year. Found a persimmon tree Saturday in the woods by a local park. No ripe fruit yet. Haven't seen one of these in decades! You never forget it if you ever bite into a underripe persimmon!

 

[julioardz]

I've never forgotten the taste of green persimmons. It's like biting down on chalk and chasing it with vinegar. The Texas Persimmons are similar. They're not ready until they're black and practically falling off the tree. Anytime before that and they will bite back.

I'm really enjoying this thread. I grew up in Southwest Texas/North Central Mexico. As a kid, I remember picking loquats, mulberries, prickly pears, cactus pads, pequin peppers, mesquite pods, and of course pecans. Now I'm in central Texas and often come across Texas persimmons, Mexican plums, Turks Caps, and others I remember from my childhood. I took a trip to Colorado last summer and my buddies and I collected and ate wild strawberries, boletes, including some nice king boletes, and some oyster mushrooms. We came across a few cool fly amanitas, but didn't dare to try those. I've picked and eaten a few wild mushrooms in Texas, some russulas and clytocybes. My goal is to find some morels. It's been some time since I've come across mulberries and would like to gather some of those as well.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

You never forget it if you ever bite into a underripe persimmon!

Ain't that the truth! Instead of the cinnamon challenge, it should be the green persimmon challenge. I remember when I was a kid, we'd cut long switches & sharpen 1 end, stick a green persimmon on the sharp end & whip the switch to hurl the persimmons at each other. It was all fun till somebody caught one in the eye or the crotch. :cross:
Regards, GF.

 

[unionrdr]

It took a few years to see what the little trees growing in the old garden space in back were. Mulberries! Gotta get some to put in a hefe next year...makes great jam too.

 

[dinnerstick]

aside from heaps of mushrooms, mostly porcini, been picking bilberries (=~ blueberries), wild cranberries, and sloes for sloe gin / patxarran

 

[gratus fermentatio]

aside from heaps of mushrooms, mostly porcini, been picking bilberries (=~ blueberries), wild cranberries, and sloes for sloe gin / patxarran

Real bilberries?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry
I had my 1st taste of bilberry a couple years ago & absolutely LOVED them! I've only seen them as "Bilberry nectar" (juice blend) here in the US, sure would like to get some real berries & maybe some plants. I wonder if they'd grow in containers? We've got blueberry, huckleberry & red currants growing wild here in MT, but apparently no bilberry.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

Real bilberries?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry

Most of the unfarmed land mass in Finland is forest covered by bilberry (mustikka) plants. Just come on over for a visit and get you some ;-)

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Most of the unfarmed land mass in Finland is forest covered by bilberry (mustikka) plants. Just come on over for a visit and get you some ;-)

I've been wanting to make bilberry wine since I 1st tasted bilberry nectar, but as that's my only source of juice, actually a juice blend, and it's rather pricy, about $10 per quart, I'm going to have to wait on that. I did add 25oz of the bilberry nectar to a blackberry/blueberry wine I'm making; should add a nice depth of flavour without being obvious.

I'd love to visit Finland someday! Doubt it'll actually happen tho. I'd love to try reindeer, Finnish blood sausage & cabbage rolls, kalakukko, etc...
Some things I might be able to make a reasonable facsimile of here with US raw foods, but others, like the blood sausage, would be difficult, if not impossible for me to make.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

Some things I might be able to make a reasonable facsimile of here with US raw foods, but others, like the blood sausage, would be difficult, if not impossible for me to make.

Blood sausage is "mustamakkara". I eat it quite often, love it grilled (or pan fried) with some lingonberry jam.

Here's a recipe and video:

http://moro.aamulehti.fi/2013/03/28...herkullista-verimakkaraa-katso-ohje-ja-video/

You can use google translate if your Finnish is rusty and ask me if anything is unclear.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Thanks for the link Podz! The blood is the only thing that I might have a problem obtaining, everything else I can get easily. I'll have to make a few calls to slaugherthouses & se if I can get blood from them. What animal's blood is traditional? We mostly have beef or pork here in the US. I'm not hunting this year, so deer blood is out.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

I guess either cow or pork blood would work, myself I'd use cow blood. They sell plastic bottles of cow blood here in the supermarkets in the frozen section, mainly for the purpose of making blood pancakes.

Pretty easy to get blood, though. Just buy a large roast beef or some other large cut of meat like a sirloin and let it sit overnight in your fridge. That should give you about half a liter of blood. After that, just cut up the meat how you want it and freeze for later usage.

 

[dinnerstick]

they are basically european blueberries.... but i guess subtly different. and the flesh is darker so they stain your face more! i would hazard a guess that they would grow in the same potting conditions as blueberries; here they thrive in acidic/sandy/boggy ground more or less like highbush blueberries. the dutch in general don't forage, there is an unfortunate idea that anything from the woods kills you, in a land with so little woods, weird, anyways more for me.

 

[dinnerstick]

previous post related to billberries. forgot to quote.

Blood sausage is "mustamakkara". I eat it quite often, love it grilled (or pan fried) with some lingonberry jam.

i am about to make my first blood sausages! with dried pigs blood and backfat

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

Thanks for the link Podz! The blood is the only thing that I might have a problem obtaining, everything else I can get easily. I'll have to make a few calls to slaugherthouses & se if I can get blood from them. What animal's blood is traditional? We mostly have beef or pork here in the US. I'm not hunting this year, so deer blood is out.
Regards, GF.

check your local ethnic store. when i lived in SoCal i sometimes saw blood for sale at the asian markets.

 

[podz]

Oh, and on top of everything else we did yesterday, SWMBO picked a bucket full of stinging nettles and cooked them down. Bright green and pretty much like spinach. Good stuff, except for when it's alive and stings you.

 

[StonesBally]

Selling pork blood is illegal in the US, but it is the traditional blood used in blood sausages from Poland to Spain to the UK.

 

[podz]

selling pork blood is illegal in the us, but it is the traditional blood used in blood sausages from poland to spain to the uk.

ok. Why is it illegal in USA?