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What got you all interested in wild edibles? | (Read 613 times) |
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jeangaut
Posts: 4
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June 17, 2007, 08:33:50 PM |
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Just thought I'd start another thread here so we can get some discussions going.....
Personally my family was not very adventurous about wild food or camping, so the first food I can remember collecting with them were of course blackberries. The patch nearest to our house out in Enumclaw was not Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) but was Evergreen Blackberry (R. laciniatus). So it was an early puzzle to me why -our- wild blackberries were different from the other blackberries that had the large leaves and green stems, or the native ones in the woods. On our property next to an anthill of red-headed ants was a Thimbleberry (R. parviflorus) bush, and I remember eating those too and liking them a lot (the berries, not the ants, just in case I lost you there!), with approval from my mom I believe. Mom told me Oregon Grape berries were poisonous though, incorrect but I would have defoliated her ornamental Mahonias if I had not thought that at 5 years old.
The neighborhood kids also would eat Red Huckleberries (Vaccinum parvifolium) and Salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) so I tried those growing up. to go to school.
We sucked the nectar from Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa) flowers found in the woods twining up the Red Alders, and from Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)blossoms. There was a Cascara tree that I knew of that fascinated me, it had an area of stripped bark that someone harvested to sell for medicine or use themselves, who knows. I don't remember trying Salal berries until much later, and mushrooms were feared, though we all knew of a pasture nearby that supposedly had liberty caps that older kids would occasionally get caught looking for.
Parents and kids agreed the white berries that grew by the bus stop were poisonous though, so no one tried them...apparently that is not true. We did pick copious amounts of Symphoricarpos albus to put on the asphalt every morning for the bus to drive over because we called Snowberry 'Popberry', since it gave a loud pop when bursting. Often we were just running them over with bike tires or jumping on them with our school shoes as we waited. Hey, this is a rural culture being documented....
I was interested in learning herbaceous plants and weeds....but I don't recall trying to eat them until past the age of 20. In the fields near my house I knew Ox Eye Daisy, Buttercup, Field Mustard, Tansy Ragwort, Queen Anne's Lace, Mullen, Bull Thistle, Foxglove, Fireweed, Bracken Ferns, Sword Ferns, Trilliums, Bleeding Hearts, Rushes, Canary Orchard Grass and of course Stinging Nettles. I remember collecting Chicory in bloom to try to identify it...and how quickly the flowers wilted!
Okay, someone else's turn.....
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1343
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June 18, 2007, 08:57:20 AM |
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The beginning ....
I wouldn't be surprised if we all started with blackberries.
I remember eating lots of a small, red berry that grows like weeds around here. I remember never asking if they were edible, but eating them anyway. I remember picking hundreds of them once, taking them home and having my mom throw them away because they might be poisonous. I'm still not sure what those berries are. I've asked a few people, but got only wild guesses as answers.
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Marilyn Queiroz
Administrator
Posts: 59
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June 18, 2007, 10:59:16 PM |
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Wild strawberries, wild raspberries in the field across the street from the house my Grandfather built when I was a kid. Wild mushrooms at my girlfriend's house when I was in college. Reading stories of people surviving on wild edibles.
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