Anybody foraging? It's beginning to be berry picking time here. Black raspberries and mulberries. Berry picking is one of my favorite things to do and where I pick it's not easy, esp. the blackberries (over, under, through-ouch). I also cut yarrow(wild and in my garden) and picked wild rose petals. Anyone else having fun doing this?

-- Cindy(IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 09, 2000

Answers

When I was a kid, we used to have the woods in the state park (Skylands Manor State Park in NJ - used to be an estate that was farmland, then some sort of agricultural experiment station, and eventually that was turned into a state park and has the only botanical garden in NJ) all mapped out and we knew where to go to pick strawberries, raspberrys, blackberries, blueberries, asparagus, grapes, crab apples, and chestnuts.

We've only found the blackberry patches around here, but I haven't had much time to explore / forage since I've been busy fixing up the house, fencing, putting in the garden, etc.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), June 09, 2000.

I go blackberry picking in May here in SE Texas. I occasionally go Mayhaw picking, too, but not real often. The mulberries have just finished; didn't get any this year because they didn't taste too good. Wild plums will be coming along in another month or two, dependin on where in TX one goes; these are good for jelly and wine. That's about all the foraging I do; things like raspberries, apples, etc. generally don't grow wild around here. I did go to a blueberry farm the other day and got 26 lbs @ $1 lb, so I'll be set for blueberries for the year.

-- Hannah Maria Holly (hannahholly@hotmail.com), June 09, 2000.

Our black rasberries should be ready for picking in a week or so, its always a race between the birds and us with the birds generally coming out ahead in the raspberry picking. We wear rubber boots and lots of repellent as the chiggers are so bad. This year we are going to try to pick some black (sour) cherries but this will also be a race with the birds.

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), June 10, 2000.

It is wild blackberry time here in Okla. We always look kind of like the people in the glass booth grabbing at money blowing aroud this time of the year. Wild blackberries are nothing like the domesticated var.

-- Okie-Dokie (www.tommycflinstone@aol.com), June 10, 2000.

Huh -- the blueberries are barely out of bloom here! Oh, well, there are plenty of greens to forage -- my daughter and I usually eat them during the day when my husband is at work, as he doesn't like most green food, but we enjoy them, and they have more vitamins than what we plant in the garden! Sometimes wonder why we bother to plant anything!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), June 10, 2000.

Around here the blackberries are in bloom but a long way from having fruit. We enjoy pickin them when they're ready tho. An unusual thing this year tho. We've had spring boletes. Its a mushroom that usually is found in the fall. They're all picked and dried and we're waiting for more.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), June 10, 2000.

I love to pick the little wild blackberries, but they aren't ripe until late June here. I pick Blue Elder flowers and berries, wild rose petals (they smell wonderful dried and cured for a few months in a jar, as the fragrance intensifies w/time), and rose hips for jelly in the winter. I pick wild herbs quite a bit. Do mulberries grow here in Washington?

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 10, 2000.

It is pouring rain this week-end and my mulberry tree is just now trying to leaf out. We do have ripe salmon berries right now, if the rain didn't knock them to the mud. Everything else is still in bloom.

Our foraging comes in the fall with fruits, roots and mushrooms. With this cool rain, we will have tender greens for quite awhile. I love the miner's lettuce.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 12, 2000.

Fiddleheads in the early Spring, wild strawberries just starting to come in now, like Kathy our blueberries are just losing their flowers. Our main foraging comes in the Summer and early Fall when the wild blueberries and cranberries ripen in and around the bogs. I can't wait!!

-- Gary (Thormole@AOL.com), June 12, 2000.

I've foraged all my life. My favorite salad greens are garden chickweed and the larger forest chickweed. Favorite cooked greens: woods nettles (Laportea) and lambsquarters. Also ramps (wild onions). Blueberries/huckleberries, cranberries, apples, blackberries, raspberries, plums and grapes. I gather many wild mushrooms - with common sense and caution it's not hard (nor dangerous) to learn a few. Hickory nuts, walnuts, butternuts. I make a little maple syrup about every other year. I also collect, dry and use medicinal plants. There's all kinds of free, wholesome, healthful stuff out there, and a few hours in the woods is more fun than a trip to Foodland or Revco!

-- Sam in W.Va. (snorris@dnr.state.wv.us), June 14, 2000.

Does anyone know of any good sources (books or websites) that help identify the different types of wild foods in forests? This would be something I would be interested in doing. I know about blackberries and muscidines, but that is about it!!

-- Linda (botkinhomeschool@yahoo.com), June 15, 2000.

While walking one morning I noticed a large opened box on top of someone's trash can. I flipped open the flap and noticed air-tight unopened vending machine sized bags of Baked Lay's Potato Chips. (48 pkgs.) The expiration date on them was 10 hours prior to my arrival. Of course I took them home and enjoyed the treat! I am constantly amazed at all the waste out there.

-- Sandy (smd2@netzero.net), June 16, 2000.