Winter Foraging

Do you forage late in the season? Late fall/early winter can be surprisingly productive. I know its not officially winter yet, but it is freezing and snowy where i live, so it’s basically winter. These apples I picked yesterday, about 60 pounds. They are from a tree by the hospital, I picked about 200 pounds so far and barely made a dent. They are sweeter and better than any apple i know. They survive 20 F degrees with no damage. Some froze, but then recovered.

There's lots of hackberries on the trees this time of year, and they make a yummy snack while out and about in the woods.

Cool! Supposedly I live right on the northern edge of hackberries’ range, but I’ve never seen them.

Hackberries are like a crunchy little sweet raisin. Very little "meat", mostly seed, but you can crunch the seed and eat it. The good ones have a reddish/purplish tint to them. The black ones have very little flavor.

Thank you for mentioning this! I am always glad to see your posts about this amazing foraging abundance that is around us.

Here there are some trees full of excellent crabapples. One of them I have permission to gather from (most are in people’s yards). The apples are soft, small, purple, and very good and flavorful. Maybe people have some near them? (image below) I almost wonder if “apple berries” is a better name than “crab apples” considering the wide range of apples considered “crab”. These ones are not really bitter or astringent when properly ripe. I think maybe they’re Malus baccata?

When there is no snow I pick dame’s rocket and garlic mustard, and if the ground isn’t frozen, parsnips. Watercress is also one that grows through the whole winter in the right places. And basswood buds can always be nibbled.

I see those apple berries all the time in peoples yards. Always wondered how they taste. Maybe I’ll have a chance to try some!

winter is great season to forage twigs for teas - sweet birch, spicebush, and sassafras are some of my favorites. and once the wood stove is going, it can be really nice to have a pot on, steeping/simmering, when you come back in from the cold.

my favorite crab apple has a yellow/orange fruit (inside and out) and would probably be a good cider apple. it’s sweet, and sour, and a bit tannic…probably not everyone’s preference, but a nice complex nibble.

have also been digging the first year roots of evening primrose when i find them.

I got about 15 pounds of apples today. I shook the tree and picked the (perfectly crisp) apples out of the snow.

I forage tree and shrub berries during winter: Things like cotoneaster, rose hip, hawthorn, and wild-malus. They may have fermented, or dried out, but they taste great, or seem nutritious, and make me happy.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I forage tree and shrub berries during winter: Things like cotoneaster, rose hip, hawthorn, and wild-malus. They may have fermented, or dried out, but they taste great, or seem nutritious, and make me happy.

Joseph, I am surprised to hear about cotoneaster. I have heard they are poisonous. But apparently not in your experience?

I also tasted a crabapple from one tree today and it had a very pleasant vanilla flavor. I haven’t had too many from that tree because the cores of some of them are mouldy.

There may be a couple hundred species of cotoneaster. The species that I have eaten my whole life seems perfectly edible -- in the modest way that I eat it.

Noticed some reminents of flower/seed heads still on the yarrow scattered about my place, decided to grab a few and give a chew...wow! They were soft and still absolutely full of zesty/citrusy flavor...a nice natural "wake-up and recharge kick" on a mostly calm, cloudy wet day here in Kentucky.

Also grabbed a mullein leaf to dry...I just love the vitality of some of these "weeds" as a couple recent freezes have put the hurt on some of the crop gardens, but these still stand strong.