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
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
