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wild harvesting

Daily Foraging

Rebekah Harmon

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posted 1 year ago

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Happy spring, permies!!! This growing season, I have challenged myself to eat 5 veggies a day that I produce or forage. Since my garden is teeny weeny this time of year, that means I'll be foraging all I can in the beginning. From April to the end of September, I am trying this. I'm excited to see what I learn! And what new recipes I come up with. But mostly, I want to get in the habbit of eating what's seasonal. Of taking the time to bring home and prepare edibles I see. Of taking a big step away from the grocery store and the industrialized food system.

So far, I have prepared doc greens, mustard greens, mint, and evening primrose seeds that were all foraged. (Since I began April 1st)

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Rachel Lindsay

gardener

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Location: Tennessee

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posted 1 year ago

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Do you roast your dandelion roots before making tea from them, or no?

“If we are honest, we can still love what we are, we can find all the good there is to find, and we may find ways to enhance that good, and to find a new kind of living world which is appropriate for our time.” ― Christopher Alexander

J Garlits

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Location: Wabash, Indiana, Zone 6a

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posted 1 year ago

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You can dry dandelion roots and grind them up in a coffee grinder then brew like coffee, too. It’s pretty good.

j

Rachel Lindsay wrote:Do you roast your dandelion roots before making tea from them, or no?

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Rebekah Harmon

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posted 1 year ago

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Hello, Rachel! No, I didn't roast them. I haven't tried that yet. I'm not a coffee drinker, so I don't desire the feeling of a coffee. A cuppa tea is what I want most days

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Rebekah Harmon

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posted 1 year ago

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It's true, Jim! And I have several dried roots. However, they have to be sliced pretty thin before drying, otherwise a coffee grinder won't break them up. They get too tough

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Sara Hartwin

pollinator

Posts: 180

Location: SE USA, southern Piedmont Uplands, zone 8b

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posted 1 year ago

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I'm already enjoying the pictures. Seeing the end product of foraged food is helpful and encouraging from my beginner's viewpoint. Looking forward to lots more!

Aspirations: She seeks wool and flax, considers a field and buys it, girds herself with strength, opens her mouth with wisdom, and does him good all the days of her life. (pieces of Proverbs 31, NKJV)

Rebekah Harmon

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posted 1 year ago

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Spring is coming slower than I thought. So far, just dock, dandelions and mints are up. I'm finding myself relying heavily on items that I preserved last year in order to keep up this challenge. But I have been outside foraging more! And maybe it's a bonus that I'm watching nature turn green and noticing which things green up first.

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Rachel Lindsay

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Are there a lot of critters on and around your harvests, or have they not "woken up" yet?

Rebekah Harmon

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Hey Rachel! The doc I pick by the river has a bug bite here or there. The patch by the library is covered in holes. I'm not really sure what is eating them? But something is!

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Ezra Byrne

pollinator

Posts: 169

Location: Pennsylvania, USA

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posted 1 year ago

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5 a day is pretty ambitious, wishing you willpower and good luck! I have set the bar at 1 per day for myself for the last couple years, and I have found the greatest benefit is mental health and mood improvement from the whole process. During growing seasons I would say I average 3-5 a day, but I don't ever want to force stress around gardening and foraging, I want it to remain an organic process. I'm sure my nutrition is better for it, but the most noticeable change is definitely intangible feelings. Have you found yourself 'feeling' better?

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Allison Dey

Posts: 26

posted 1 year ago

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Our Dames Rocket is already producing flower buds. Nice cooked up as broccolini. The garlic mustard is already flowering, but still nice added to a chicken and potato bake.

Lexie Smith

Posts: 162

posted 1 year ago

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I admire your dedication! I don’t think I’m there yet but I would sure like to be. I am wildly excited by your pictures because I wasn’t aware that the dock growling all around the homestead is edible! I haven’t really explored foraging so much as I’ve been trying to learn herbalism so I would appreciate a suggestion for a guide, if you know of one that might cover the southeastern U.S.A.

Kim Martinez

Posts: 8

posted 1 year ago

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I love that you’re doing this! A mixed greens wild salad is great this time of year when most plants are not bitter. In addition to the ones you’ve named you can also add plantain, ground ivy, violet leaves and flowers, peppergrass, cress, garlic mustard, wild chives, shepherds purse, mallow, galinsoga, chickweed, bee balm, wood sorrel, lambs quarters and amaranth. Some tree leaves are also good when tiny. You can try hawthorn, sassafras and spice bush. These are from NE United States. Good luck foraging!

Rebekah Harmon

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Thanks, Kim! Depending on where you live, I think Walden Farmacy offers classes. I think Appalacian School for Natural Health is also SE USA. Since I live in the NE rockies, that about all I know. But that's a start!

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Kim Goodwin

gardener

Posts: 803

Location: 4200 ft elevation, zone 8a desert, high of 118F, lows in teens

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I'm so impressed!

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest coastal forests, where spring foods are everywhere. I moved to the mid-elevation desert SW, where though there is a wide variety of foragables, they are a "feast or famine" depending on the variable rainfall.

For example, the first year we were in this community we had heavy winter rain and a fantastic flush of pigweed amaranth and wild rocket. Then the next three winters had barely any rain and almost no spring greens. Almost no wild greens until late July or August.

Those years the rabbits and pecarries (similar to a wild boar) were so desperate they dug up plants left and right, ringed trees and ate every cactus they could find. Seeing a pecarry eat a cholla was impressive foraging. In that very dry year, the cholla did not bloom and so it wasn't able to provide the pinnacle spring crop, cholla buds.

I have learned a lot watching the animals and the choices they make in different years.

Currently this year, from our garden we are eating celery, self-seeded carrots, fennel, parsley, mint, Sylvetta (perennial arugula), cilantro, giant red mustard, green onions and bulb onions scapes. And small amounts of culinary herbs like sage, rosemary, thyme and the bee balm Monarda fistulosa. It tastes like oregano and lemon combined. We just finished picking asparagus and Mexican elderberry has just gone into full bloom, if you like flower fritters.

Bulb onion scapes come from bulbs I left in the ground and they are surprisingly juicy and delicious. They are good fresh or cooked. We've been making a lot of salsa and fajitas. And tuna salad.

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Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts. ~Wendell Berry

Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 1 year ago

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Thanks, Kim! Some of those I am not familiar with. But many of those will start popping soon. High-elevation, zone 4 dessert here, so some things are limited. But once the snow melts, there is always something to eat. We'll, til the freeze I guess.

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Suzanne Jabs

Posts: 52

Location: Willamette Valley, OR

posted 1 year ago

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Wow, what a great idea, 5 a day! I saw the price of greens in my local co-op this spring and decided to just eat from my yard. I have been stir-frying a lot of dead nettle, dandelion greens, nipplewort, and bittercress. I add them to scrambled eggs, make pesto, or just saute with some onion as a side. I do have one collard plant still going from last year, so I add that to the mix. I also have lots of garlic growing, so I have pulled a few early to add to my meal, though I have a lot of garlic stored from last year's harvest.

I also forage for stinging nettles every spring, but I forgot my gloves this year, so the harvest was small. I gave up after all my fingers were tingling!

Look forward to reading more about your 5-a-day journey.

Thanks!

Rebekah Harmon

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I visited warmer places this week, and had the opportunity to eat something besides dock and Dandelion for a couple days!! So grateful 😉 Elm seeds have popped there, and the stinging nettle is growing strong! I also found some tender trailside cleavers. 😋

I've also tried dandelion hearts this week. Like the crown section? Not bad. But I'm not sure it's worth the effort. If there were multiple crowns in the same area, brown slime stuff had to be picked out from between them. I was hoping for a crunch, but got a soft-ish almost fuzzy texture. Anyone else done this? Had better results?

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Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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Back at home, lambs quarters have come up in my greenhouse, so I had a whole salad this week. I used to rip these out and toss them. Now they are my fav. Green! Even tastier to me than spinach. And they grow more reliably with less attention. Goosefoot love, anybody?

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 1 year ago

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My elm seed cereal recipe:
https://youtu.be/JbmStZwBL8Y?si=qY1B2xXJ1WcjPfXf

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5139

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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posted 1 year ago

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We've been eating never ending soup for several months. Some beans, potatoes, onions. Very heavy on the wild greens. By the time stinging nettle was ready, we were all WOWED by the taste.

I think it's great even when not comparing it to dead nettle and creeping charlie.

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Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 1 year ago

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Hey permies! It's been awhile since I've posted in here. High school and Jr High track are kicking my butt! It's alright. I've been eating lots of greens from my two little greenhouse beds. And swiping elm seeds/stinging nettle whenever I can. Found out henbit is not nearly as yummy as dead nettle. Still palatable, tho! Maple blossoms are tasty! Dandelion salads are TOTALLY ON! I Found an unharvested parsnip in my garden as I planted raspberries and made a soup.

But the FUNNEST harvest of the past few weeks was definitely trout! My 5 year old thinks he should be fishing if he is awake, haha! His papa usually takes him (my dad) but he is in Argentina doing service. Kinda far away for a fishing buddy. So the kid bugs me every day to take him. I finally bought a license and headed out to a fishing hole. With my husband's advice, I baited and set my first line ever by myself. AND I CAUGHT A FISH!! Two, actually. It made a DELICIOUS supper. Doing that again, for sure.

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 1 year ago

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Oops, the pictures part.....

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Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 1 year ago

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Hello again, fellow foragers!

This past week, I visited Wheaton Labs and enjoyed myself! I had wild salads every day and enjoyed some lovage for the first time. Bootcamper Stephen shared it with me 🙂 now I must have my own patch! What wild foods have you "domesticated" before? Or brought home from a fellow gardener?

I delighted to share mushrooms that Sepper Clay found at base camp!! Yellow oysters. I waited a whole 12 hours for a lilac-colored spore print to be sure. Tasty! But I should have washed off all the dirt first... 😜

Since coming home, I have tried thistle roots harvested from my garden (sorta nutty!) and ... liver. I've never eaten liver before, even though I've raised rabbits for a few years. But Bootcamper Brian encouraged me. Not bad! But even my kids ate the pate, which surprised me.

Hopefully, morels are in my future harvests.... 🙏

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Stephen B. Thomas

master pollinator

Posts: 1395

Location: Wheaton Labs, Montana, USA

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Rebekah Harmon wrote:I had wild salads every day and enjoyed some lovage for the first time. Bootcamper Stephen shared it with me 🙂 now I must have my own patch!

Lovage is where it's at...!

Thanks once again for paying us a visit, Rebekah...!

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Rebekah Harmon

Apprentice Rocket Scientist

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 11 months ago

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Hey foragers!! I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because my daily foraging looks like this very plain, goosefoot (lambsquarters) and salsify and green onion salad. Last weekend, I had the AMAZING opportunity to to attend Thomas Elpel's Foraging Montana class, and I upped my foraging game! Both days, he showed us some amazing plants to eat which were growing all around us, thistle and raspberry burdock stem, cattail tubers and shoots, watercress, lily roots, yampa, and sweet cicely. All of these were new to me!

Each time we went out, we collected a salad greens bag, a tea bag and a saute veggie bag. We then brought it all back for terrific feasts of all kinds if foraged foods brought by class participants. I was surprised how varied the food groups were!! My favorite was blue Camas bulbs.

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Daphne Rose

Posts: 61

Location: Mid MI ( wish it was North carolina but hopefully soon!)

posted 11 months ago

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Today I picked about 25 lbs of berries.-
Juneberry(alnifolia, a landscaping specimen)
Blackcap raspberry
Mulberry
Red raspberry
Some of the berries in my grandmas kitchen(i picked more later)

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Daphne Rose

Posts: 61

Location: Mid MI ( wish it was North carolina but hopefully soon!)

posted 9 months ago

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Foraging update: August, most days picked 1-3 lbs blackberries. Now, pears are coming in, I picked 50 lbs so far in 2 locales. Also some early apples, and a big patch of purslane I found near an apple tree. Today i brought inabout 10 lbs apples and a big bag of purslane on my bike. The apples were all from the same tree and are very big,sweet, tart and yellow. Comparison of
apple with beefsteak tomato

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Rebekah Harmon

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Location: 4a, high mountain dessert

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posted 9 months ago

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I LOVE purslane, Daphne! How did you eat yours?

Being weird is easy. Making it mainstream is hard. Be brave! https://www.youtube.com/@healthygreenbrave

Daphne Rose

Posts: 61

Location: Mid MI ( wish it was North carolina but hopefully soon!)

posted 9 months ago

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I had purslane veggie soup for dinner yesterday and i am doing so again tonight. But, i still have about 10 lbs left!

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Daphne Rose

Posts: 61

Location: Mid MI ( wish it was North carolina but hopefully soon!)

posted 9 months ago

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Today’s forage
Apples, purslane

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Melinda Oosthuysen

Posts: 5

Location: Warner Beach, South Africa

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posted 7 months ago

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I'm new to foraging and new to this excellent site. I live in suburban South Africa in a sub-tropical climate. We have small patches of bush every now and again between the houses but they are far to dangerous to explore. In my tiny little cul de sac road, I have found an abundance. Gotu kola, gallant soldier, nasturtium, wild ginger, mulberry, black jack, amaranth, spekboom, amatingulu, dandelions, black eyed susan and that's just the tiny 7m x 2m patch and other smaller patches opposite my house and along my short road. I'm guerilla gardening along my road with nasturtium at the moment. At the moment I am settling down to a cup of lemon grass tea harvested from within my property and will later enjoy the impatiens cordial I prepared last night sprinkled with elderberry flowers. Hibiscus or Turk's cap tea is also an option. And then there's my purslane, jasmine, granadilla, surinam cherries, amatingulu, hostas, sorrel, waterberry and fleabane. I have potatoes, gem squash and butternut sprouting from my kitchen scraps and am about to nibble on a few male butternut/gem flowers and drymaria cordata. I know where to go to find pepper and pine trees. This is just the beginning and I'm so looking forward to learning more about the plant life around me. I'm in eden. Life is good.

lemongrass for tea

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