Forage Fellows 🍄🌱

My first time finding lobster mushrooms! A nice patch of them was on a path I walk several times a week. I picked the biggest ones and left some smaller ones that are still growing. I plan on checking back in a couple days.

I learned today that lobster mushrooms are actually a parasitic fungus!

Anyone have any recipe suggestions?

I recently found out that Screwbean Mesquite is ground into meal and flour and used in baking. As a kid we would chew on Mesquite Beans, but we never messed with these.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19329231

We’ve seen a lot of media chatter about these AI generated foraging books and unfortunately I think the danger is real. Be careful what information you absorb and make sure it is from a reputable source.

Although, to be completely fair, I’ve seen plenty of wrong or misleading information from books authored by humans as well.

The USDA's plant database shows something like 50-ish native viola species in Pennsylvania, where I live. As far as I can tell, they're all more or less edible, but what about the flavor? Are there any especially choice species that really stand out? Internet sleuthing doesn't seem to turn up much of anything. So far, I'm getting the vague sense that purple ones generally taste better than yellow or white ones, and that short species might be sweeter than tall species.

This seems like the sort of thing that somebody somewhere must have figured out by now, since violet used to be a pretty popular flavor. The classic liqueur Creme Yvette is very specifically flavored with these obscure Italian Parma violets, which implies that they must taste somehow unique. So what about the rest of them?

This is a little off the beaten track as far as usual foraging posts go, but I had a question. Has anyone tried spinning Eastern Tent Caterpillar webs into a usable thread/yarn? I'm definitely not one of those people who hates them and wants them gone; they're native here and relatively harmless, despite what naysayers would have you believe. However, they sure do make a ton of webs! I'm sure they could probably stand to part with a little here or there right? Like, after they're done with them?

Not sure if it would work, but if it is spinnable, seems like it might be a convenient local source for an ahimsa silk alternative.

I'm gradually working through my forage wishlist. Next up, persimmons! What's on your wishlist?

Just watch out for the mosquitoes, ticks, flies, leeches, thorns, and poison ivy!

Found in Cascadia/PNW in mid-August.

If it is indeed chicken of the woods (ie laetiporus), I'm curious as to which species.

Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/23666921

Another first. Will be doing the nibble test tomorrow.

I liked the print as it was kinda retro colorful, so I sewed it into a bag with toggle closure and belt loops. The canvas belt is also a revived old belt I got 25 years ago. My mum made me the little labels (I had to edit my name off them for the internet!)

Butter and garlic, yep, it's delicious! Don't judge my filthy forager nails lol

I live in the Rio Grande valley, not much to forage until the rains come in. But these New Mexico Olive trees grow all up and down the river, they are always so full of fruit. But they are painfully bitter.

...until recently, ramps (Allium tricoccum) have been a fairytale. I went to Vermont for a trip and my friend showed me her ramps field, although it was summer and they'd all died back to flowers. Well, hiking in an undisclosed location in east Tennessee today, I saw this. I rubbed my fingers on it and... YEP, RAMPS. Further down the trail it got completely boombastic with them. This is a random trailhead off a main road, so I suspect I've got a good chance of snagging a respectable harvest next season. So exciting.

Il know that bramble are eatable and I can recognised them perfectly but I couldn't bring myself to eat it. It feels to weird. I should'nt have forrage it.
I've made a flower-leave salad and mugwort fritters out of the rest.

publication croisée depuis : https://jlai.lu/post/6859176

Picking mulberries by the dumpster—mostly above my head but the ones I could reach were tasty.

The flower petals are feijoa—I recently learned they are edible and delicious. They taste like marshmallows.

Hope y’all are having fun and staying safe out there!

My wife and I walk our dogs on a trail along the Rio Grande every morning, and years ago I found this patch of Mountain Gooseberries. The birds usually get to the ripe ones before I do. I never pick too many to ensure the birds do have enough. As the patch has grown, and continues to grow, I eat more.

I almost missed fiddlehead season but was able to get out Sunday and collect a few that were still curled up tight.

I’ve heard there are a few edible species but we only harvest the ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris. I love them lightly battered and fried (after blanching) or pickled to go in bloody marys.

More info: https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2540e/

I've been thinking about collecting dandelion sap (y'know, the white stuff inside the stem) for a while, but I can't find anything about how to collect it because duckduckgo only shows unrelated results.

Anyone else finding these? Small but delicious.

Found some in the woods yesterday and looked them up. Apparently the fruit is very tasty, resembling Starburst. Have you tried it?

Some more info on season/edibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uovfSkeyfbA