Greens and foraging

[pigeonseed]

I'm thinking of branching out more into eating wild veg. I'm getting a bit bored with french beans, kale and courgettes - I don't even have a glut, it's just that week in week out we eat the same 3 veg!

I was thinking of trying cooking dandelion leaves, I saw a recipe for bacon and dandelion. Sounded nice.

Also I saw some (extremely expensive) burdock seeds for sale - and I thought, as it grows wild I'd probably better dig one up and try it. SO I might keep my eye open for some. I haven't really noticed any, but it's not the sort of plant you notice, I suppose!

Is anyone else foraging this summer? And what are you doing with it cooking-wise?

[pigeonseed]

[Jeannine]

We forage, or rather we used to when I was more able, there is lots out there


http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,30009.0.html

XX Jeannine

[pigeonseed]

Thanks Jeannine - I see from that thread you were a mega-forager as well as a self-sufficienter and now squash expert. You are really too impressive!  :)

Mostly we tend to go for wild fruit, because it's easy (and maybe the sweetness appeals to our ancetral foraging instincts) But we don't make that much use of leaves and roots. Lots of the things you can find wild are very strong-tasting, and you don't want to eat much of it. There's not much bulk in wild food - maybe that's a good thing!

Jeannine - in the other thread, you said you couldn't find some things and were unsure about the full range of locally edible wild food. Have you thought about whether local native Canadians have more ideas about foraged food in your part of the world? Seeing as they've perhaps been foraging more recently than Europeans, they might know more? I don't know how you contact them though!

Anyway, I'm going to cook dandelion like spinach this week, with potatoes and rice. I'll see what that's like.

And of course, I'm going to be eating kale, courgettes and french beans!!! ::)

[Jeannine]

Honey I am ok finding fiddleheads to wild plums etc, it is my health that stops me getting out there and searching, I love beach foraging too, we are doing that next week.

XX Jeannine

[pigeonseed]

Oh that's good - I think beach foraging was one of the things you said you were missing in that old thread. Sorry to hear about your health stopping you doing all of it though.

By the way I did cook a mix of leaves with potato - dandelion, sorrel, a few tiny chard leaves from a plant gone to seed and some coriander, also in flower. A leaf medley we could call it. It was delicious and a great success with the family.

So I am happy to add dandelions to my repertoire.  :)

[Jeannine]

It is not going to stop me..I am determined,I will get myself to the waters edge if I drop dead doing it.

I shall nail boards to the bottom of my crutches if I have to so I don't sink in the sand :D

I think I will be OK wading waist high in the water catching crabs in a net as the water is quite buoyant.If I fall I am an excellent swimmer.

Anyway one way or another I am going.. even if I just sit and shout instructions to John. The rule says I have to take part in the searching to get my quota for the day if disabled so I will roll aoround on the wet sand and dig with my nose!! I shall buy one of those long handled picker upper things for picking up oysters as I don't have to dig for them. Large cockles are only two or three inches under the surface so I can sit in the sand for those too.

See how determined I am.

We didn't go this year, by the time we got settles and organised we had missed the really low tides in daykight hours, after MidMay they are either in the dark or not low enough. We were planning to go over in this next few days just to hunt for crabs, but not the rest till Spring.We can catch crabs year round off a jetty with a collapsible basket thing or an old bike wheel, but we ave to cross the line to get to a beach where we can wade for them

Yep roll on the Spring.. I bet it is safer than foraging on land actually.

Any ideas how to get a wheelchair over soft sand :D :D

XX Jeannine

[artichoke]

Pigeonseed, my family is not too keen on unfamiliar leaves (pathetic, isn't it....) so I tend to chop my foragings into a strong flavoured casserole where they melt away into the gravy and add bulk and flavour which no-one can suspiciously pin down to "eating dandelions". And I've layered them under the tomato and cheese in a home made pizza, and made Greek pies with filo pastry, feta and "mystery greens". If anyone asks, I say it is spinach.

It's a treat being in the Greek countryside in spring. Athenians come out in droves to forage as their parents and grandparents did before them, and a solicitor once gave us a very interesting lesson on the various leaves around us that he was collecting. It's a serious business. I wish I had listened more carefully. All over the mountain were people, bottoms up, foraging for the delicate wild greens of early spring.

[pigeonseed]

I like the image of the Greek bottoms in the air!

Yes some countries have become more squeamish about found food than others. My friend who grew up in Yugoslavia is very delicate and prissy about many things, and her nickname is princess! but she's totally happy about eating wild alexanders and other hedgerow greens.

Picking blackberries is one of the more acceptable things over here, but I have even met people who found that idea disgusting. Which is really sad.

At the moment my toddlers find lots of food unpalatable, so it's all much of a muchness to them - supermarket or hedgerow, it's all deeply suspect. So I might as well forage!

[small]

There's copious watercress in a sluggish stream/ditch near us, but the only people who I've ever seen foraging it are a Chinese family. I think we have all been brainwashed into being scared of picking anything wild - Ecoli from watercress, lead emissions on blackberries, and then there is the whole 'is it legal' issue, we know we can't pick wildflowers.......so what about hazelnuts......and as for mushrooms, I for one don't have enough confidence in my identification skills.  I suspect we are just not hungry enough......

[bazzysbarn]

Can you eat the berries on the hawthorn?

[nilly71]

We went out as a family on Saturday to a local wood. We mainly took pictures of different plants to find out if we could eat them. It was nice getting out with the boys and teaching them what the different trees were.

Since then I have opened my eyes to the different trees/bushes when walking/driving and have found Pears, Bullaces, figs and a few other stuff that i know about on the routes that i use every day.

This is the little book we have just bought and well worth the £2.49(inc del) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007183038/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0002201593&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0TTYJDRP0RBWSSDXJ5KE

Neil

[artichoke]

<< I suspect we are just not hungry enough......>>

That's it. I have mentioned before my time in Oman, researching and illustrating edible plants, and A) trying to eat them (horrible unless ravenous)  and B) trying to stop local people eating them out of sheer habit.

I have been frightened off watercress by 1st husband (vet) going on about sheep fluke, parasites, blindness and Death....

[pigeonseed]

hmmm blindness and death... that's dampened my appetite a bit. Packet of crisps anyone?

That book looks good Neil - very cheap for that sort of thing!

[kypfer]

Can you eat the berries on the hawthorn?

Hawthorn berries are edible, they have a rather large stone and the skin is quite thick, but unlike some other berries neither is poisonous, so shouldn't cause you a problem ... they're just not to my taste.

If you "Google" for "hawthorn berry recipe" you'll get quite a few hits.