Foraging?

[sarasvati]

Being in dire financial straits (I've been unemployed for 7 months now and my employment insurance gives me all of $36 a week), I've been looking at ways to further cut back on expenses, and aside from cruising for sales and buying second-hand, I've started to give thought to the matter of foraging for food.

I'm lucky to live in an area where my choices are pretty decent when it comes to wild food. I know where I can get fiddleheads, rhubarb, rose hips, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, crab apples, chestnuts, and blueberries when the season's right, and though that may not be much, it helps me stretch my grocery budget just a little bit further. And that's really just what I know of off the top of my head. If I start looking around, I might find even more!

Does anyone here have experience with foraging? Interested in it at all? Tips and tricks you'd like to share? I'm a little nervous about starting to forage, mostly because I haven't done it before, and any encouragement is appreciated.

Comments

[jamethiel]

Yay foraging! Do avoid mushrooms unless you are really up on your species--too easy to mistake poisonous for good. The other thing you might want to consider is (if you have the space in your yard) dividing the rhubarb et al and bringing it home to your garden for future gathering ease.

[holyschist]

I've never foraged seriously, but I do nibble on wild things on a regular basis. I'd suggest getting a good guide to the edible plants of your area, preferably one that includes introduced weeds (many of which are edible). By "good" I mean one with a focus on edible plants, clear photos and descriptions, and that is easy for you to use to identify plants. The internet is a good place to find out what kind of stuff is in your area, but not so convenient for making field identifications (although if you can't afford a book, you could take photos and notes and go home and try to ID--I think there's more margin for error there).

This looks like a good site, and it includes Canada, although I haven't looked at the database so I don't know how many plant entries it has: http://www.wildcrafting.net/

I'm always very cautious unless I'm 100% sure of what a plant is. For example, on a backpacking trip once, we collected some little bulbs, some of which were definitely onions. Others were either tasteless or bitter, and since while some death camas is bitter, some isn't, we just didn't eat anything that didn't smell like an onion. Camas is one of those plants that is safest if you observe an area through the flowering season and mark the edible ones.

Some edible plants are not safe to consume in large quantities--fiddleheads (and not all fiddleheads are edible) are one of those.

If you have that much around in the way of fruit, you probably have pretty good options for salad greens as well.

With anything you haven't eaten before, start with eating a small amount to see if you'll react badly or if you might have misidentified (some people suggest a skin test first--I think it depends on how sure you are).

[white_aster]

Good idea! On the practical side, I'd just be sure that I'm not picking on someone's land (someone who'd care, really), and I'd also be careful to wash your finds, to cut down on contamination either from pesticides/herbicides or from wild animals. This post seems to have some good tips on what to look for to identify "contaminated" ground. Good luck! :D

[red_trillium]

A mixed suggestion here, some parks do have either native wild foods or introduced on them but there can be legal issues with collection. When I lived in the US I worked in a local park that had once been a ranch/farm. There were wild blackberries, pears and persimmons. Technically it was illegal for people to gather but I often turned a blind eye if people weren't stripping it to sell (ie--if they were taking small enough amounts that I could chalk up to being for their own/family use and not for resale). Check your local history, parks and laws. Firstly you might have a source of food you don't know about and secondly you don't want to end up on the wrong end of a ticket if someone does strictly enforce a "no gathering/no removal of plant life" rule.

[viklikesfic]

Good luck! I've wanted to forage for a while (I'm also unemployed and have no unemployment insurance) but unfortunately I live in a city that barely even has median strips, let along actual space with wild food. :-/ So I don't have tips but will send good vibes your way.

[merrily]

Hey! I haven't tried it before, but I did just read this article on edible weeds over at WiseBread, which might be useful to you. The internet can prob provide something more specific to your locale. Good luck! It's a worthy practice.

[moizissimo]

Another good idea is to ask people who have trees in their yards, if you can pick the fruit. Many people don't make use of all their apples/whatever, and are glad to get rid of it, so they don't have to deal with it on their lawns. :)

[exhausted_pigeon]

That's true! I used to have an enormous lemon tree and I'd have done anything to get rid of the lemons before they started attracting fruit flies.

[delladea]

Yes this! There is a neighbor down the road from us that has a monstrous pear tree who doesn't come close to using all the fruit it provides.

[rydra_wong]

Sort of tangential, but common_nature might be a great comm to post about your findings (and also to ask advice -- I'm guessing there are people there who know a thing or two about plant recognition).

[indywind]

A more urban sort of foraging...
If you live anywhere near a university or college with residence halls, find out when the end of the semester residence term ends. In my town, the college students must be entirely cleared out of the dorms on the Saturday after exams, so if they have a heavy exam schedule they don't have as much time to pack or sort for donation what they can't pack, and end up throwing away new, unopened, nonperishable food, and other useful items.

Peterson's field guide to edible wild plants is useful, and you should be able to get it from the library so you don't have to buy it.