Trout lilies!

Now as I had stated in my last article, Japanese knotweed is my favorite spring shoot. But as far as favorite spring woodland plant in general, the prize goes to trout lily. Between its leaves and flowers immense beauty, feeling of satisfaction when finding a patch of it, and its versatility as a wild edible make this plant one of my favorites of all time. The leaves are good, but leave a bit of a tingly feeling in the back of your throat if you eat too many (we are talking multiple pounds here), but my favorite part of this plant are the corms, found underground. These are fairly small, and trout lily colonies can take decades to establish, so be sure to not over harvest. However they are a great trailside snack. I find them slightly similar to day lily tubers. So next time you are taking a walk in the woods and you see plants that look like ramps (Or leeks if you are unfamiliar with ramps) With a spotted pattern and yellow flowers, at least take a moment to appreciate their beauty.

Time for my Favorite Spring Shoot

Its that time of year, the time of year of Japanese Knotweed. If you are not familiar with the plant, it is an invasive species that grows up to 8 feet tall in the summer. It has heart shaped leaves, and in early summer, white flower clusters. Right now, if you were to drive by a patch of it, all you would see would be the skeletons of this plant. But if you looked closer, right at the bottom of these stalks would be red-green shoots from 1-5 inches tall. These are amazing as a replacement for rhubarb in any recipe, and holds just as well as a vegetable. I served it at my aunts wedding shower a year ago in a stir fry, and it was delicious and everyone loved it. So next time you walk by this highly invasive plant give it a try. You will be doing yourself a favor as well as our local ecosystem. This plant will choke out all other life in a certain area if left untamed, as nothing around here but me eats it. 

Happy foraging

Ezra

Spring is Coming

I personally love when everything starts to thaw. It is the start of spring, when everything begins to grow again. And for a forager this means a lot. Winter is often a dead time for foraging in Pennsylvania, and I can rarely, if ever forage in the winter. Today has marked an end of that. The first forage of the season happened today.  I was hiking in the woods near my house with a friend, and I found garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), 
(Garlic mustard roots- Photo by Ciaran Rooney-Gatmaitan)
one of the first wild edibles of spring. When it is young it has 5-10 little leaves, slightly resembling wild violets. However wild violets leaves are heart shaped, and have smooth stems. Garlic mustard, later in the season also grows flower stalks that can grow up to 2 feet tall. Pick these when young for a delicious tender, garlicy, and mustardy tasting trail snack. These also can be cooked in olive oil for a side to any meal. 
The specimen that I had stumbled upon were still small with no flower stalks (for those of you wondering try in 2-3 weeks). With these the best way to use is to either use the leaves to make a pesto, (Note to anyone who has interest in doing so- Use basil with it, or else it will be unpalatable). For pesto prepare the same way you would basil pesto, just substitute about 1/5 to 1/3 of the basil for the garlic mustard leaves. Another great way to use the young garlic mustard is to use its roots, which are fairly small. However they have quite a strong taste, and you can use them anywhere you would use horseradish. 
As earlier states, spring is coming so expect more posts more constantly. Hope you enjoyed and happy foraging

Staying sustainable in winter

       Often in winter, as foraging is often not possible, it is important to remember to stay sustainable. I have found that sprouting is a great way to do this. It may not be as instantly satisfying as foraging is, but it is a great project to get started on in your free time. As far as seeds to sprout I would recommend either lentils or barley, but beans are also a great choice.

PS Old Mans Beard (Clematis vitalba) is in its full glory right now, grab some for a winter bouquet

Foraging for a feast

       For fathers day, I decided to make my dad a foraged lunch. I had never cooked a formal wild food meal for anyone, although all of my family has had some of my wild food at some point. I was torn about what to make, so I figured I would just see what I found. It just happened that a few days before fathers day we were going to fonthill, a castle made out of cement, and there were 50 acres of forest surrounding it. I figured there would be some wild edibles, and there were. I found tons of spicebush (middle left in the picture), tons of dock (middle middle in the picture), a little bit of stinging nettle (middle right in the picture) and some daylily buds and tubers (tubers not illustrated, buds bottom middle). I also found narrow leafed bittercress, some mulberries that I ate on the spot, and some burdock.
       Fathers day came around faster then expected, and I had to get some stuff around my neighborhood to round out the meal. I got some lambs quarters, some field garlic, and some wild ginger (found that in the wissahickon). to prepare all of this goodness, I made iced spicebush tea, dock chips (like kale chips but with dock, and I coated the dock leaves in soy sauce that was infused with wild ginger and field garlic), and stinging nettle broth that I boiled the daylily tubers in. For the lambs quarters I made creamed lambs quarters, using a recipe for creamed spinach. This was incredibly good, and I had enough for everyone, not only my dad. I also made a narrow leaf bittercress salad. It seemed to have turned out really well. Have fun foraging and good luck to you all!
   

The Numerous Wild Edibles

              The Numerous Wild edibles

  
  I had always realized there were a lot of wild edibles out there, but I didn't realize how many until a few friends challenged me to see how many wild edible plants I could identify on the way home from the pizza parlor. I got some challenges to identify 15-20 plants. I surprised myself by identifying over 50 edible plants. Over the span of two blocks, there is enough food to feed the whole neighborhood. I wish the knowledge of foraging was more well known. My hope is if as many people as possible start foraging we would become more self-conscious about the food that surrounds us all.
       For this to happen we also need to spread the news that wild edibles are not rare. As I demonstrated earlier they are very plentiful, and most of them are very easy to identify. Wild food goes beyond dandelions and wood sorrel, no matter how great tasting they are. I hope you all good foraging!
                           
                                                                                                 Showing the abundance of milkweed.    
                                                                                        source:http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com/2012/04/dead-horse-bounty.html

first time eating lambs quarters

First time trying lambs quarters! (Chenopium album)

  source: http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/read.php?2,153920,153989 

    For the first time, I tried lambs quarters. I have been living with this weed in my garden since I was born, and had even glanced over it in all of my foraging books, but I had never associated this edible goodness with the horrid weed. however, one day, it clicked. I was looking through a field guide, in my front yard, and came across lambs quarters in the guide. It suddenly occurred to me that this might be the obnoxious weed that I had seen my entire life. I however did not harvest any and dismissed it to do another time.
    About a week later, my dad had been looking through my books and recognized it. This gave me the driving force to harvest some, and prepare it. My aunts 30th birthday was coming up, so I figured I would make a dish with it. I simply steamed it, put a little butter and salt on it, and put it out. I tried some, but it was gone in under five minutes. It was one of the most successful wild food dishes that I had ever served at a party.
    Since then I have been looking for a chance to make it again. I have not had a chance, but I loved what I tried.