Foraging

[jaybee]

~

foraging definition (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/foraging) ...'the acquisition of food by hunting, fishing, or the gathering of plant matter.'


Just stumbled on this interesting and charming video about Stinging Nettle Seeds.... I've made Nettle Tea and added nettle leaves (usually the young tops) to soups and stews but this is the first time I've heard about collecting + using the seeds...

Stinging Nettle Seeds: Nature's Hidden Gifts 🌱 - Harvest, Health Benefits & History(10:45)

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29 Jun 2024
Stinging nettle seeds are one of nature's greatest gifts! 🌱 Bursting at their little green seams with vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, adaptogens, and more! 💚

Enjoyed for centuries as a wild and free source of food and medicine, nettle seeds can be eaten fresh, sprinkled on meals, blended into smoothies and pestos, infused with honey, or added to any dish you fancy. 🍯

Although these seeds are little, they have big health benefits. They are able to: 👇

🌱 Boost Energy and Vitality
🌿 Enhance our Immune System
🌱 Improve Skin and Hair Health
🌿 Support Kidney and Urinary Health
🌱 Boost Mental Clarity and Mood
🌿 Balance Blood Sugar and Hormones
🌱 Provide Anti-inflammatory Benefits


:heart:the amazing wild nettle plant:heart:


now often described as a Super Food... so humble yet so powerful....


:thumbsup:


*please feel free to add info, tips and stories about foraging....*

[Ewan]

Wild-plants-which-are-beneficial (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?118819-Wild-plants-which-are-beneficial.&highlight=wild)

Similar topic. :highfive:

[Sunny]

I once went on a foraging hike with Sergei Boutenko in a state park in Northern California. But at the end we couldn't eat anything. Some parks spray their plants with pesticides, which makes them too toxic to eat. Something to keep in mind.

[Abondance]

I once went on a foraging hike with Sergei Boutenko in a state park in Northern California. But at the end we couldn't eat anything. Some parks spray their plants with pesticides, which makes them too toxic to eat. Something to keep in mind.

:facepalm:

I wonder what kind of crazy thinking can lead to the application of pesticides in protected natural areas...

[jaybee]

Wild-plants-which-are-beneficial (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?118819-Wild-plants-which-are-beneficial.&highlight=wild)

Similar topic. :highfive:


Thanks - yes it is a very similar topic - and if I'd seen it before starting this 'foraging' thread I might have added my post about Stinging Nettle Seeds it to that one.... but maybe it can stand alone with tales of foraging that may be of interest....?

Re Nettle Seeds....I have now collected some Seeds - and eaten some straight off the plant! There is a bit of a sting on some of them - and I did get a couple of stings on my tongue - that was a bit painful - but I had some Peppermint Tic Tacs in my bag and that soothed my tongue down a bit - but today I pulled some off the plant again and ate them (chewing them well) and although there's a bit of a low level stingy (ish) sensation it's not bothering me at all...

The female and male plants are fairly easy to identify - and as the big gnome ... I mean man.... :) said in the OP video it's the female seeds that we want - there are tiny flowers on the males to pollinate the females...but it's the female seeds that are collected for use...

When I was collecting them the other day a couple and their teenage son stopped and asked me what I was doing - so I told them and they seemed very interested in it all - so that's nice talking to people about it and all learning something together - - - -

:thumbsup:

[jaybee]

.

The Mighty Bramble..... such a strong and successful wild plant - with prickles! .... sometimes big ones... if the plant is quite mature - ouch - :)

The harvest of blackberries has been good all August (here in the Midlands, England where I live ...)... I've made 3 batches of blackberry and apple jam and today made some cordial for the first time .... it's cooling now and I intend to mix it with either sparkling spring water or Indian Tonic Water - I strain the boiled and cooled blackberry mix to eliminate all the seeds and other 'woody' matter - so it's a Jelly Jam - the apples are also local, some from my own garden...

I can't sing the praises of 'Rubus fruticosus' enough - the flower is beautiful white to a delicate pink.... then comes it's fruit...the blackberry...

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2e0a27_fecec0dba39940e8a5771c05995db0fc~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_350,h_263,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/2e0a27_fecec0dba39940e8a5771c05995db0fc~mv2.jpg


The flowers appear from late spring through summer, and sometimes into autumn. They have five petals, visible reproductive parts, and can be white through to pink

source ... https://www.foragingcoursecompany.co.uk/post/foraging-guide-blackberry


https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2e0a27_f6a10caec91348b784d1d643228f3865~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_350,h_263,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/2e0a27_f6a10caec91348b784d1d643228f3865~mv2.jpg


The multi-segmented (or aggregate) fruits appear in summer through to autumn. They are formed of lots of individual spherical fruits, or duplets, and mature green, then red, and finally a deep purple-black. same source as above...


It's a good present to give to friends and neighbours and it feels special to share something locally sourced and home made - so far everyone has loved the jelly jam!... I got most of the blackberries from some bushes just around 5 metres away from where I live and you don't get more local than that - :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've always thought that a trained and woven bramble bush would make a good shelter or even home in the right circumstances - it grows so quick and thick... it would be protective with the thorns, pretty in the spring and provide fruit late summer...but that's a bit of a Magical Forest Fantasy I suppose... it would need covering, insulating and heating in winter....

Given the chance Brambles would soon take over - probably take them about 3 years to cover large areas... Maybe this is where the story of Sleeping Beauty came from - :idea:...

[shaberon]

Some parks spray their plants with pesticides, which makes them too toxic to eat.


One aspect of "foraging" would certainly be free access.

I don't think even California has "public grazing lands"?

Here, we have a lot of pick-your-own blueberries, which will run you $3-5 to fill a basket from someone else's plants.

What we have been foraging lately is mushrooms. Not me personally. My friend is in mushroom school, and what is interesting here is that when you know how it works, it is pretty easy to find edible mushrooms at a distance. You can easily walk around and harvest. Some of them are unappealing, others are a bit tasty. I haven't tried anything that is going to compete with culinary mushrooms in terms of desirability.

This practice varies greatly by area.

Around here, we have a transplant of a thing that's not a true dandelion, but, the root of either is edible, and each has been used this way for ages. You are basically planting a lawn of "edible weeds" rather than "decorative grass". Then you just forage the yard.

Currently I am at an impasse because at this property, we let our goats free range. Mushrooms are something they do not like, so that is about all that is left. You know, from this experience, I start to imagine the art of the Shepherd and what that must be like. I guess you are trying to steer them away from the garden. That makes a division of labor. And how are you going to forage your lunch in the middle of a herd.

[jaybee]

Some parks spray their plants with pesticides, which makes them too toxic to eat.


One aspect of "foraging" would certainly be free access.

I don't think even California has "public grazing lands"?

Here, we have a lot of pick-your-own blueberries, which will run you $3-5 to fill a basket from someone else's plants.

What we have been foraging lately is mushrooms. Not me personally. My friend is in mushroom school, and what is interesting here is that when you know how it works, it is pretty easy to find edible mushrooms at a distance. You can easily walk around and harvest. Some of them are unappealing, others are a bit tasty. I haven't tried anything that is going to compete with culinary mushrooms in terms of desirability.

This practice varies greatly by area.


thanks - I tend to steer clear of foraging for mushrooms and fungi - but I'm probably being over cautious because with some basic knowledge I would think it's easy to avoid the ones that can harm or kill you... (fingers crossed :) ) ... years ago I did find and cook Giant Puffball (https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/giant-puffball/) - you can't easily get that and the Death Cap mixed up............ (hopefully)

I actually have dried mushroom every day (x2) ..... Lion's mane ..... I buy the capsules from Ebay ....after hearing about it's medicinal properties especially the ones regarding brain function and neurogenesis.... these things are very subtle regarding effects, but I do think it's doing something beneficial...

Just looked to see if you can find Lion's Mane wild in the UK (can't remember ever seeing it ) and apparently you might be lucky to see some BUT it's very rare and a protected species - you can ONLY photograph it not pick it -

Dramatic Fungi !!

https://www.wildfooduk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Lions-Mane-2-720x540.jpg

pic and info source (https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/lions-mane/)

I hear you can buy kits to grow it at home though...


shaberon....

Around here, we have a transplant of a thing that's not a true dandelion, but, the root of either is edible, and each has been used this way for ages. You are basically planting a lawn of "edible weeds" rather than "decorative grass". Then you just forage the yard.

Currently I am at an impasse because at this property, we let our goats free range. Mushrooms are something they do not like, so that is about all that is left. You know, from this experience, I start to imagine the art of the Shepherd and what that must be like. I guess you are trying to steer them away from the garden. That makes a division of labor. And how are you going to forage your lunch in the middle of a herd.


Fancy your goats not liking mushrooms.... when goats will eat just about anything !! - they must have their reasons and know best - though in saying that......years ago I was very involved with a local Farm Animal Sanctuary - the goats were all real characters ..... one day I arrived and the vet was due to come because a little gang of them had wondered off into a far field and eaten something poisonous by stretching right over the fence (this was the theory but now as I remember...could it have been fungi they ate?) ... they were all REALLY ill..... so the vet comes and the biggest one Bill even managed to eat the plastic tube that was being put down his throat to flush out his stomach... !! .... they all had their stomach's pumped and they were all ok...

[palehorse]

It is an interesting thread about foraging, since the title does not say much but obviously "foraging" I think it gives room to explore it.

I want to share something I often see in Thailand, here we have the "Foraging Season" for some edibles like wild mushrooms, bamboo shoots and others specific rain dependent species harvested during the raining season, and then you have every day foraging for plants like: moringa, betel leaves, morning glory, sadao (bitter leaf), hibiscus, wild tamaring (grows only around river banks - like water a lot), maprang fruit (sour and sweet -depending on ripeness), lotus flower (entire plant is edible), taro (some grows in the wild), butterfly pea (this one was growing in my gate, no idea how it just started from nothing), among many others found in the wild.

I know people here that their diet is fully based on wild plants like the ones before mentioned, they are in great shape, they hike up the hills sometimes twice per day, quite a feat, so foraging is part of their daily life and with that comes good health!

[rgray222]

Everyman’s rights, also known as “jokamiehenoikeus” in Finnish, refer to the right of every person to enjoy outdoor pursuits in nature, regardless of who owns or occupies the land. This concept is deeply rooted in Finnish culture and law.

Key Principles

Public Access: Everyone has the right to access and use nature, including forests, lakes, and other areas, without needing permission from the landowner.
No Charge: Using everyman’s rights does not incur any costs or fees.
Minimal Harm: Activities must not cause more than minimal harm to the landowner, the land, or nature.
Respect Nature: Users must respect nature and its habitats, keeping pets on a leash, not littering, and not disturbing wildlife or their habitats.
Allowed Activities
Walking, skiing, or cycling in nature
Riding a horse in nature
Staying temporarily or overnight at a reasonable distance from homes
Picking forest berries, mushrooms, and plants (except protected species)
Swimming and using boats in lakes and the sea
Fishing with a rod and line (subject to specific regulations)
Walking, skiing, or driving a motor vehicle on frozen lakes, rivers, and the sea

https://i0.wp.com/thegoodoldway.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/chanterelle-2585107_1920-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1

Every year we forage for berries, herbs and mushrooms. The sauce that is made, primarily for fish from chanterelle mushrooms is to die for.

Here is a lovely BBC video that shows one of the better chefs in Finland foraging for ingredients
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0hgf0p5/into-the-wild-everyman-s-right-to-forage-in-finland

[Ankle Biter]

I came across a potentially very useful web-site about foraging, I think on another PA thread.?

Potentially very useful because its depth and success depend on the collaboration of all its users and engaging in the spirit of sharing.

Basically an interactive world map where you can submit locations where foraging is possible and the bounty that awaits, plus add locations you've stumbled on yourself.


Here:
https://fallingfruit.org/