Anyone pick wild food?

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onethousandknives
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Joined: January 25th, 2013, 3:35 pm

Anyone pick wild food?

Post by onethousandknives »

Does anyone ever go out in the woods/abandoned land here and go looking for wild plants to eat? I find it kinda strange we think nothing really of going hunting or fishing, but will walk past wild fruit or greens and not even care. So far in an abandoned golf course by my house, I've found 2 mulberry trees, which I've made 3 pies out of the berries of, numerous blackberry and raspberry bushes, a crab apple tree, elderberries, and Concord grapes (hopefully they mature, I LOVE Concord grapes...) I've not really explored off the path yet. There's probably more. I only found the other mulberry tree and crab apple tree recently going off path.

For herbs, I found wild garlic on path (didn't try) and there's wild chervin which is invasive. Wild chervin is interesting as it tastes like a strong parsley when young, and when it's old it tastes pretty boring and lame. But when it's young it grows little shoots on the ground that look similar to parsley. I've also eaten dandelions, too. Those work well twice boiled, that'll remove most of the bitterness. Tastes more like spinach then. Also garlic mustard, something I need to try again in pasta or something. Another invasive weed that's supposed to taste good.

So far that's pretty limited, I know, but I got CRAZY high yields, considering I was just going out to abandoned land and picking them. In about 1/2 hour I got almost 4 cups of raspberries, for example, off of just one bush for 95% of them. They're wild, and "organic" too. They're nice dark purple, unlike the lame red store bought raspberries.

So anyone else into picking food like this? Also, going abroad, ever pick food like this in Asia or FSU? There's a lot of really neat Russian and Chinese medicinal herbs. I know in Japan, too, people actually kinda regularly go out and pick wild food, like it's more common than here. I think it's great fun to do, and it's healthy, and free. No money needed.
Jester
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Re: Anyone pick wild food?

Post by Jester »

onethousandknives wrote:Does anyone ever go out in the woods/abandoned land here and go looking for wild plants to eat? I find it kinda strange we think nothing really of going hunting or fishing, but will walk past wild fruit or greens and not even care. So far in an abandoned golf course by my house, I've found 2 mulberry trees, which I've made 3 pies out of the berries of, numerous blackberry and raspberry bushes, a crab apple tree, elderberries, and Concord grapes (hopefully they mature, I LOVE Concord grapes...) I've not really explored off the path yet. There's probably more. I only found the other mulberry tree and crab apple tree recently going off path.

For herbs, I found wild garlic on path (didn't try) and there's wild chervin which is invasive. Wild chervin is interesting as it tastes like a strong parsley when young, and when it's old it tastes pretty boring and lame. But when it's young it grows little shoots on the ground that look similar to parsley. I've also eaten dandelions, too. Those work well twice boiled, that'll remove most of the bitterness. Tastes more like spinach then. Also garlic mustard, something I need to try again in pasta or something. Another invasive weed that's supposed to taste good.

So far that's pretty limited, I know, but I got CRAZY high yields, considering I was just going out to abandoned land and picking them. In about 1/2 hour I got almost 4 cups of raspberries, for example, off of just one bush for 95% of them. They're wild, and "organic" too. They're nice dark purple, unlike the lame red store bought raspberries.

So anyone else into picking food like this? Also, going abroad, ever pick food like this in Asia or FSU? There's a lot of really neat Russian and Chinese medicinal herbs. I know in Japan, too, people actually kinda regularly go out and pick wild food, like it's more common than here. I think it's great fun to do, and it's healthy, and free. No money needed.
Good habits.

+1

Good info on CN, JP, RU as well.

We used to pick wild berries in Georgia. Mostly are raw but an occasional pie. Loved those vacant lots.

Random info:
Ordinary housewives pick medicinal herbs in Armenia. Lots of mulberries too.
Renata
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Joined: May 6th, 2012, 4:14 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by Renata »

I picked wild spinach here in Turkey & wild mushrooms with local women. Wild rosmary, lemongrass, dill and I ate grape leaves and grape-vines for the first time. It's lightly fruity & makes good salad.

Wild pigs & boars are pests here. They run in packs and just start eating fields of vegetables & vinyards. Since this is a muslim country they just shoot the pigs & bury them. All that organic, natural meat gone.

It's good business doning pest control here ... export the meat ... untapped market thus far, no one's doing it.
- It's easy to give, when you know what it's like to have nothing. -

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onethousandknives
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Post by onethousandknives »

I realized today how much money I saved today. I got a food scale yesterday for free at the end of a tagsale. I weighed my giant cup of raspberries I picked. It's exactly a pound. A pound of fresh farm raised raspberries are average $7.29 a pound. The wild ones taste better and are sweeter, and they're "organic" and "free range" even. Blackberries too, I got 4 ounces of. Blackberries are $5.18 a pound. So I saved about $9 off retail price for hiking around a place picking berries. I also got "exercise" too. It's possible though retail, since I've never seen black raspberries retail like that, that retail they'd be expensive, probably $10-15 a pound easily. I was questioning somewhat of whether or not it was "worth it" but I'm getting paid basically minimum wage in berries for picking them myself.

Also I tried burdock root today. That stuff is growing everywhere, and it's not bad in stir fries. I might try digging up some of the big ones and shredding and pickling the roots. It's not bad in a stir fry or whatnot.
Renata
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Joined: May 6th, 2012, 4:14 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by Renata »

Those berries grow naturally & in abundance, no need for pesticides actually on any of our crops.

Onethousandknives you're eating better than gormet' :D ... check online you'll find lots of uses & recipes for those beeries & the burdock root. Example; I always use berries as food colouring when cooking, like in red velvet cakes.
- It's easy to give, when you know what it's like to have nothing. -

- Develop a backbone, not a wishbone. -
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lokenyam
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Joined: May 10th, 2017, 12:10 am

Re:

Post by lokenyam »

onethousandknives wrote:I realized today how much money I saved today. I got a food scale yesterday for free at the end of a tagsale. I weighed my giant cup of raspberries I picked. It's exactly a pound. A pound of fresh farm raised raspberries are average $7.29 a pound. The wild ones taste better and are sweeter, and they're "organic" and "free range" even. Blackberries too, I got 4 ounces of. Blackberries are $5.18 a pound. So I saved about $9 off retail price for hiking around a place picking berries. I also got "exercise" too. It's possible though retail, since I've never seen black raspberries retail like that, that retail they'd be expensive, probably $10-15 a pound easily. I was questioning somewhat of whether or not it was "worth it" but I'm getting paid basically minimum wage in berries for picking them myself.

Also I tried burdock root today. That stuff is growing everywhere, and it's not bad in stir fries. I might try digging up some of the big ones and shredding and pickling the roots. It's not bad in a stir fry or whatnot.
what is the brand for your kitchen scale?
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