Edible plants

[JRogers]

Anyone have any experience using naturally occuring edible plants in their diet?

My experiece has been limited (some fiddleheads, Indian cucumber and mushrooms while camping), but I am thinking of trying some new stuff. I bought a few books and might try to incorporate some of the easy to find plants- oak trees (acorns), nettles, cat tails, dandelions...

Anyone ever go out foraging for things other than berries?

[syadasti]

In the Northeast you can find:

Mustard Garlic (plant and seeds), Field Garlic (whole plant), White Pine (green needles for tea - fights scurvy), wineberries, low and high bush blueberries, wild strawberries, Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot), Yellow mustard, violets, wood sorrel, sheep sorrel, wild asparagus, chickweed, speedwell, false solomon's seal, solomon's seal, black birch, honey suckle, brambles (and other varieties of black and raspberries), mulberries, gil over the ground, burdock, wild grapes, mayapple, pawpaw, narrow/wide leaf plantain, rosehips, sugar maple, spicebush, sumac, sassafras, various clovers, milkweed, jewelweed, common mint, peppermint, mullein(also works great as natural TP), and other stuff I can't recall off the top of my head. In case you are wondering I studied this stuff for 14 years (over a decade ago though)...

Mushrooms are bad news - stay away. Even experts get ill or have died.

[SkaredShtles]

Frikkin' hippies... :D

I'd like to be able to identify fungi - last summer up in the mountains was absolutely stellar for fungus.

[aviatorsman]

Besides berries, just some yummy 'shrooms :monkeydance:

[narlus]

eggplants.

[JRogers]

Frikkin' hippies... :D

I'd like to be able to identify fungi - last summer up in the mountains was absolutely stellar for fungus.

Yeah, actually the only place I've eaten mushrooms I found on the trail was in Crested Butte last summer. We found CRAZY amounts of mushrooms in the mountains while riding. Several pounds of chantrelles and porcinis were had without much trouble. I wouldn't have even tried them, but we had a local guy with us who knew alot about them.

[SkaredShtles]

Yeah, actually the only place I've eaten mushrooms I found on the trail was in Crested Butte last summer. We found CRAZY amounts of mushrooms in the mountains while riding. Several pounds of chantrelles and porcinis were had without much trouble. I wouldn't have even tried them, but we had a local guy with us who knew alot about them.
Yeah. We did a 40-ish miler up by Breck last summer and saw unbelievable amounts of 'shrooms. We probably could have picked 50 lbs of portabellos if we'd been able to identify them.

[valve bouncer]

Is bacon a plant?
We used have a show in Australia called "Bush Tucker Man" which as the title suggests was all about finding naturally occuring food. He was a major in the Australian Army and went around eating the crookest stuff you can imagine. The worst was mangrove worms.

[maxyedor]

I went foraging the other day while out on a road ride, found myself some oranges. But I was riding near an orange grove, so I don't think it counts.

[JRogers]

I went foraging the other day while out on a road ride, found myself some oranges. But I was riding near an orange grove, so I don't think it counts.

Haha...I think I was guilty of that crime when I lived in Vermont...lots of apple orchards around...

[ito]

Haha...I think I was guilty of that crime when I lived in Vermont...lots of apple orchards around...

If I lived in Vermont I would have foraged me some Ben & Jerry's.

Never been much for foraging, but there are a few Sierra hikes I've done where the meals consisted laregely of fresh caught trout. That wasn't half bad, though I have a feeling they taste better than some of the weeds I've seen eaten.

Termites, straight out of the log, are probably the strangest thing I've foraged (backpacking class for school).

The Ito

[Bushwhacker]

My Dad makes a lot of home made wine. His very first recipe was for dandelion...he raided every yard in the neighborhood trying to come up with enough of the damn things to make a batch. It was kind of comical to think of my 60 year old father, sitting in a yard, picking dandelions. The hard part was the 2 to 4 year wait for the stuff to mature. It ended up being extremely tasty though.

[Red Bull]

forgive my dyslexia, i thought you said "edible pants"

[syadasti]

Termites, straight out of the log, are probably the strangest thing I've foraged (backpacking class for school).

I forget the species, but I've eaten live ants that taste like lemon drops. There isn't too much to them though since they are so small :D

[llkoolkeg]

I can think of one...

[boostindoubles]

liberty caps?