Foragers Unite!

[DefunctTheory]

So, on one of our many walks with the dog, and we discovered the seasonal bounty we've been waiting for.

Chicken of the Woods! Glorious orange gold! Suitable for all cooking methods one would usually use chicken for (With the obvious exception of soups, as like most wild mushrooms, they do not take well to water). The colony is expanding, as you may be able to see, and we've found some possible new colonies as well, though none far enough along to harvest like this one. After yet another no-luck morel season, this is a welcome sight.

So, Escapist members who live near the wilderness... anyone else forage for goodies? Have any pictures, stories, or recipes to share for wild food?

Do you hunt? If so, what?

Berry picker? Mushroom picker?

Home gardener?

Comments or remarks?

Also, here's the dog in question. She is entirely unhelpful, in this context or any other.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

The standing joke about me when it comes to hunting is simply this: My wilderness survival skills are limited to finding reasonably -priced hotel rooms and getting stockpeople to look in the back to see if something is available.

The very concept of getting up early enough to go hunting is anathema to my existence, so that isn't happening either.

However, I do have a fondness for certain things unavailable to the supermarket shopper, so I rely on the kindness of family members and friends who _are_ willing to go and do those things I am unwilling to do.

I love venison steaks. And by love I mean there are certain (minor) crimes I do not consider unwarranted if the end result is a good, juicy, lightly salted and grilled venison steak. (excuse me while I take a moment to get lost in a blissful thought)

When I was younger, my mother would gather scar tissue, er I mean raspberries out from along the old abandoned railroad tracks in our area. She would gather mulberries as well. I do like raspberries but I can do without the poisonous snakes that dwell among them and the scars for having gathered them.

I've also tried eating dandelion flowers. For those who haven't heard of that, you wash the flowers thoroughly, dip them in beaten egg, roll them in flower and fry them up much like morels and then eat. Always make certain that the stem has been completely removed from the flower, though, so you can get all of the sap washed out. They have an . . .interesting flavor. Their taste is completely unique and I haven't come across anything that tastes even remotely similar. This recipe is also apart from eating wild greens with dandelion leaves mixed in.

 

[NPC009]

Nuts and berries for me. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, blackberries... Basically stuff that's stupidly expensive in super markets but easy to find in nature. I've tried offering some to friends from urban areas, but more than a few thought eating foraged food was weird.

 

[Shymer]

In the part of North Oxfordshire I live in there are miles upon miles of public footpaths lined with blackberries. There are sometimes a few left in the containers when we get back to the house. Family foraging. The kids also love picking strawberries, raspberries and digging up potatoes and parsnips from our allotment.

However, this is not wilderness - just countryside.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I love venison steaks. And by love I mean there are certain (minor) crimes I do not consider unwarranted if the end result is a good, juicy, lightly salted and grilled venison steak. (excuse me while I take a moment to get lost in a blissful thought)

I could never get into venison. Something about the taste rubs me the wrong way, though I struggle to describe what.

I do love deer jerky though. Wish I knew more hunters that didn't charge outrageous prices for their excess meat.

I've also tried eating dandelion flowers. For those who haven't heard of that, you wash the flowers thoroughly, dip them in beaten egg, roll them in flower and fry them up much like morels and then eat. Always make certain that the stem has been completely removed from the flower, though, so you can get all of the sap washed out. They have an . . .interesting flavor. Their taste is completely unique and I haven't come across anything that tastes even remotely similar. This recipe is also apart from eating wild greens with dandelion leaves mixed in.

I cannot stand dandelions. My parents love it, but the appeal is completely lost on me, even when fried in bacon fat.

Nuts and berries for me. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, blackberries... Basically stuff that's stupidly expensive in super markets but easy to find in nature. I've tried offering some to friends from urban areas, but more than a few thought eating foraged food was weird.

In the part of North Oxfordshire I live in there are miles upon miles of public footpaths lined with blackberries. There are sometimes a few left in the containers when we get back to the house. Family foraging. The kids also love picking strawberries, raspberries and digging up potatoes and parsnips from our allotment.

However, this is not wilderness - just countryside.

Well, animals do pee out there.

Of course, if an animal got anywhere near a berry to piss around it, they'd have eaten the berries while they were there, so it's all good.

The berries around here appear to be blooming in fits and starts, but we have deer out the wazzo so it's a struggle to get there first.

Anyway... went out with the dog again and found more stuff. I initially thought I'd found Hen of the Woods (A major find, and out of season I think), but I believe we've positively identified it as Black Staining Polypore.

We're going to steam a bit of it tonight (Not the best preparation, but it's only to get a bite out of it) to test it. If it tastes ok, and we don't spend the night shitting ourselves, I'm going to cut the whole bunch up and freeze it, along with the previously pictures Chicken of the Woods.

Here's a few more pictures of my unhelpful dog, for the animal lovers out there.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I don't forage or hunt. I just wanted to pop in and say that the way fungi look leaves me feeling very uncomfortable and slightly disgusted.

Like I look at them and think "that ain't food. Stop eating it. Oh God please."
"it's gonna kill me."

The fungus is gonna get us all, you'll see.

 

[DefunctTheory]

The fungus is gonna get us all, you'll see.

You have played a few too many hours of The Last of Us I think.

In any case, all the more delicious mushrooms for us. Chicken of the Woods in particular!

Update on that mushroom I posted before though - Tasted pretty good, but was tough as shoe leather. Guess it's too old. Sauteing up some of the orange stuff tonight though. Butter, salt and pepper for the win!

 

[MysticSlayer]

One of my roommates one summer used to collect mushrooms and leave them all over the house. He had a pretty odd fascination with various plants in general.

As for me: No. The closest I come is fishing, but for me, "fishing" consists of sitting in a boat for three hours with a fishing rod before partaking in the spoils I contributed nothing to.

 

[Roboshi]

Be VERY careful with bringing any kind of mushroom into the house as bringing in any form of mould can easily spread spores in the home and cause damage to your home. Obviously this depends on the species you're bringing in, but one of the biggest killers for your books and wallpaper is mould and fungus.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

That is some fantastic fungi you have there. And a lovely dog too! As long as she isn't too eager to eat everything she finds, like far too many others. I personally haven't lived rural for longer that I care to admit, though this is making me pine for past days (no pun initially intended).

You have played a few too many hours of The Last of Us I think.

In any case, all the more delicious mushrooms for us. Chicken of the Woods in particular!

Was about to say quite the same, fungi has a bad rep almost like Muslims in the West, damn media, always using cheap fear to appeal to the uneducated.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

Foraging in the someone else's property probably counts as theft, and it also counts as harming local environment here and it's punished up here with few hundred dollars of fine in Canada.

So I hope you know what you are doing.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

That is some fantastic fungi you have there. And a lovely dog too! As long as she isn't too eager to eat everything she finds, like far too many others. I personally haven't lived rural for longer that I care to admit, though this is making me pine for past days (no pun initially intended).

You have played a few too many hours of The Last of Us I think.

In any case, all the more delicious mushrooms for us. Chicken of the Woods in particular!

Was about to say quite the same, fungi has a bad rep almost like Muslims in the West, damn media, always using cheap fear to appeal to the uneducated.

Uneducated!? I'll have you know I dropped out of community college, good sir!

 

[Terminal Marque]

And here I thought that this was just a plotline in 'The League'.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Foraging in the someone else's property probably counts as theft, and it also counts as harming local environment here and it's punished up here with few hundred dollars of fine in Canada.

So I hope you know what you are doing.

I'm not doing anything illegal. Only foraging on our property, the cool neighbors property, and state land. And there's no law against harvesting mushrooms here in Pennsylvania, America.

It's fairly bonkers that a place would make foraging for plants and mushrooms illegal. Is Canada's ecosystem really that fragile and trashed?

That is some fantastic fungi you have there. And a lovely dog too! As long as she isn't too eager to eat everything she finds, like far too many others. I personally haven't lived rural for longer that I care to admit, though this is making me pine for past days (no pun initially intended).

She's a picky eater. She likes the raw ground beef/eggs/rice/other mixture we have to make by hand every two weeks, chicken feet, meat that's either been on a human plate or we can trick her into thinking has been on a plate, salmon skin, and dog biscuits (On a rotational basis, as she'll refuse to eat them if you try to feed her the same kind for too long). I've actually tried to get her to eat some of this stuff in the hopes she'd help track them down, but if its wild and isn't a fern, snow or a bee, she isn't interested.

As for me: No. The closest I come is fishing, but for me, "fishing" consists of sitting in a boat for three hours with a fishing rod before partaking in the spoils I contributed nothing to.

My Dad wants to go fishing sometime - Go get some bass and sun fish to steam. I want to get some trout for grilling, but there's no place nearby to do so that isn't swamped in other fishers.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

I'm not doing anything illegal. Only foraging on our property, the cool neighbors property, and state land. And there's no law against harvesting mushrooms here in Pennsylvania, America.

It's fairly bonkers that a place would make foraging for plants and mushrooms illegal. Is Canada's ecosystem really that fragile and trashed?

Nah, Canadians just take environment thing seriously.

Either that or to prevent over-foraging. There are lots of people who will do it if someone does not enforce that.
Of course, its not like I know those people or anything.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I should start foraging, but Florida is weird for things like that... I've got to brush up on my cursory knowledge from my youth/teen years when I could live off the land. Albeit the knowledge I had was mostly applicable to sub-tropical island survival and not mid-peninsular swamp...

 

[Recusant]

While I've always been something of a city guy, and even my more rural-ish moments, one who's smart enough to know he doesn't know enough to freely eat what he finds growing wild, I have had a few exceptions. I'll freely tell you that meat tastes better when you've killed it yourself.

And even as an urban dweller, there are dandelions. I love dandelions. Not for their flavor, but for the fact that people are constantly hitting them with poisons, toxins, and herbicides of the sort you'd sue a company for millions of dollars if they sprayed on you, and the dandelions just laugh. But the dandelions have to be killed, to make room for the grass- a European weed that can't naturally survive here, and so it has to be fed and watered (a good thing major parts of the country aren't going through a water shortage, right?) and taken care of- and then, when that care pays off and the grass really starts growing? They cut it down. Do they eat it? No, it's inedible. Do they bale it up and sell it, like hay? No, they stick in bags and pay someone to haul it away. It's conspicuous consumption in its purest form; there's a reason I call the stuff "capitalist weed". Meanwhile, they stop just short of napalm on the dandelions, and it barely slows them down- the dandelions you can eat every last part of.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

While I've always been something of a city guy, and even my more rural-ish moments, one who's smart enough to know he doesn't know enough to freely eat what he finds growing wild, I have had a few exceptions. I'll freely tell you that meat tastes better when you've killed it yourself.

And even as an urban dweller, there are dandelions. I love dandelions. Not for their flavor, but for the fact that people are constantly hitting them with poisons, toxins, and herbicides of the sort you'd sue a company for millions of dollars if they sprayed on you, and the dandelions just laugh. But the dandelions have to be killed, to make room for the grass- a European weed that can't naturally survive here, and so it has to be fed and watered (a good thing major parts of the country aren't going through a water shortage, right?) and taken care of- and then, when that care pays off and the grass really starts growing? They cut it down. Do they eat it? No, it's inedible. Do they bale it up and sell it, like hay? No, they stick in bags and pay someone to haul it away. It's conspicuous consumption in its purest form; there's a reason I call the stuff "capitalist weed". Meanwhile, they stop just short of napalm on the dandelions, and it barely slows them down- the dandelions you can eat every last part of.

Just as a small aside, the dandelion is also an introduced species. Apparently French colonists brought it over with them because they thought they couldn't live without it.

I love venison steaks. And by love I mean there are certain (minor) crimes I do not consider unwarranted if the end result is a good, juicy, lightly salted and grilled venison steak. (excuse me while I take a moment to get lost in a blissful thought)

I could never get into venison. Something about the taste rubs me the wrong way, though I struggle to describe what.

I do love deer jerky though. Wish I knew more hunters that didn't charge outrageous prices for their excess meat.

How deer meat tastes is very much dependent on what they have fed on. Here in Missouri, they get a lot of corn and taste very nice. Out west, near the Rocky Mountains, they feed on sagebrush and the taste. . . . well, it's not for me either.

 

[MHR]

Found some sweet latticed stinkhorn last summer. Quite fragrant and bold, but I'm not a vulture, so the stench of rotting carcasses didn't appeal to me as much as it did to the hundreds of flies crawling through it.

 

[RaikuFA]

Can't forage. I live in NJ, our mushrooms are like the ones in Dark Souls.

Also love your dog.