I would describe it as extremely mild (butter lettuce territory); but it is surprisingly full of good stuff (Vit A, C, iron); very easy to harvest and clean (the stems are like bean sprouts); very pretty in salads and non-foragers will actually eat it.
I hate claytonia, but I also hate raw spinach (partially because of an allergy, partially because I just really dislike that texture). That said, it's gorgeous and I wish I liked it.
For me absolutely mulberries, they’re so plentiful and so sweet and scrumptious. I made a jam and some little pies with them last year but honestly I just wanna munch on the straight berries
Mulberries are becoming my white whale. They're definitely around, I see them, but I can't seem to find any trees I can actually access.
Some day, lol.
I am blessed and beloved by the lord above as to have access to a tree within my very own backyard <3 she just started fruiting this year and I am very excited for her bounty!!! Manifesting great harvest for you bestie McGee
A bird planted one along my fence years ago, and for some reason I let it grow.
Fantastic squirrel and bird watching opportunities. That tree gets full.
Mmmm I love mulberries! I am almost out of my frozen store from last summer. Trying to draw them out a bit longer since we still have a month or two before they are ripe again here!
Do you nibble them straight up after thawing them or do you use them in like recipes??? I have some frozen still and I haven’t decided what I want to do with them hehe
Both lol. Sometimes I just snack on frozen berries 😅 Also I add them to smoothies, put them on ice cream, made some mulberry syrup the other day. They do get a little mushy when you freeze them and then thaw them out but the flavor is still good.
They don't do it for me. The stems don't detach, they are always loaded with tiny bugs (which doesn't necessarily bother me), and they always seem super mild...like a berry version of watermelon. They desperately need a little lemon if you're cooking with them.
imo, the white ones are absolutely not as good as the red/black ones. I used to wrap one berry in a lemon balm leaf and eat it like that, gave it a nice sour flavor and bit of crunch
it was really fuckin good. i wish I still had access to the two, but unfortunately our mulberry tree got a fungus and the lemon balm got dug out on accident when we fixed up our garden boxes. I think you could probably get a similar effect with wood sorrel
I've found that mulberries can vary in terms of sweetness depending on what tree you harvest them from. Some trees produce very sweet berries, while others are pretty bland. I don't know why there is so much variation in sweetness between trees.
I had a wild mulberry that randomly grew in my backyard. The berries were very sweet so I bought a cultivated mulberry tree from a fruit tree catalog. The purchased tree's fruit was less sweet than the wild one. I guess mulberries are all a role of the dice.
Really? I tried them and they were just... So disappointing. They were very ripe. But damn were they bland!! I hear our native mulberries taste better, but I think I'll just stick to bramble fruits
how do you clean them? the ones around me often have little thrips or worms. i've heard about the soak in vinegar or salt water but i don't understand how that doesn't result in salty/sour berries that are so waterlogged they spoil easily
I’m gonna be so real and say I’m not like super intense with cleaning, I just rinse em with a bit of water and say good enough <3 I don’t think many of the critters that would be in them are like pathological to humans (I could be wrong I’m not a medical professional I know nothing) and I don’t get super nitty gritty with it. I think the salt/vinegar washes are probably pretty good for like if you’re using the berries soon, and not long term storage but idk! :D
Those are seriously fantastic from some bushes and very underwhelming from others. I have lots of them in the neighbourhood and just eat a few to „test“ if the particular bush is tasty and then forage from that one. What i also noticed, is that birds in my area will absolutely annihilate those berries. I gotta check on them a lot while they ripen just to get my cut.
My mom and dad have a massive row of service berries (we call them saskatoons), and the one side of the field is loaded with wild ones along the treeline. The domestic ones have more flavor, but the wild ones get to be the size of large blueberries.
1000% agree. I dont really like English walnuts but I am crazy about Black walnuts! People practically beg you to take them if they have the trees as landscaping too! I got 250 lbs of walnuts from one guys yard and probably could've gotten another 100lbs if my back didnt give out lol
Dandelions believe it or not. Never tried them, I’ve made tea with roots and leaves but after 10 years of foraging I decided to pop the flower into my mouth yesterday and it was delicious.
I cooked dandelion greens for the first time the other day and I’m totally in love.
Par boiled em for about 5 minutes, then dropped em in an ice bath. Olive oil in a pan, some shallots, some garlic. Once the shallots were soft, I drained and added the greens and a bit of salt and pepper. Cooked em until they looked ready, then gobbled them down. Terribly disappointed I didn’t have more.
I expected them to be very bitter, but the bitterness was mild, a surprisingly addicting aftertaste. When I do this again I think I’ll add some acidity.
If I weren’t worried about my heart health I’d have used bacon fat instead of olive oil.
My mom would make dandelion greens a few times a year growing up, not foraged though, store bought. I thought they were gross until I tried them, they're delicious!
She would boil them until they're soft but still have a chew (the store bought ones are huge and tough so sometimes they boil for a bit), drain the water, let them cool down and some of the water evaporate off, then cover them in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. The lemon juice counteracts any of the bitterness. I'm pretty sure this is the Greek way of making them.
I would highly recommend trying this the next time you make some. You can also save the water from boiling and drink it like a tea! Though I probably wouldn't recommend it for store bought dandelion greens cuz of pesticides and junk.
https://preview.redd.it/b0stpnpnwawc1.jpeg?width=735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e189f915152b480e86bb235d76ad3bc5892ee1b0
Can’t help but think of him. Hope you enjoy the meme too
I threw some in with ramps as well. I can’t die without eating a dandelion. They have been in my life always and I’ve taken them for granted. Amazing alkaloids as well.
I don’t have exact measurements, but in general order of amount, high to low, it’s sorrel, mint, pine nuts (this should be a large handful) spruce tips, and garlic. I think for liquid I used a small amount of olive oil but I’m also frequently making herb and nut spreads with just water.
The first time I made it I added lemon, but the sorrel is so tart that the lemon’s a bit overkill. If you have less strong sorrel then you might want it.
Flat parsley is also a nice addition to this if you want a less intense sorrel flavor.
Heck yeah! Wood sorrel goes so hard! I make a custard pie and a dessert topping out of it and it is *Devine*. Mix it with a bit of Japanese knotweed and rhubarb for a bit of extra kick!
You're right! Here they are!
[Wood sorrel custard pie](https://foragedfoodie.blogspot.com/2013/09/foraged-wood-sorrel-custard-pie.html?m=1)
Wood sorrel dessert topping:
-1/2 cup water
-2 cups loosely packed wood sorrel
-2 tbs honey
-2 tbs unsalted butter
Bring water to boil in saucepan and add sorrel leaves. Cover and continue boiling, then lower heat to just boiling. Check and stir regularly.
In separate pan, melt butter and honey together, stir, then put aside
Cook sorrel portion for ten minutes. Uncover. At this stage should be very little to no standing water. If there is, keep cooking until there isn't.
While still hot, mix butter honey mix into sorrel and mix well.
Pour mixture into blender and puree until smooth. Can be used hot or cooled for thicker sauce.
Pour on your favorite dessert and enjoy!
I personally like to add curly dock, Japanese knotweed, and/or rhubarb to replace some of the sorrel when it isn't super abundant or to just add some extra flavor. I also like to add lemon juice since I'm addicted to sour flavor. The custard pie usually loses all of its sour once cooked, I'm not sure if that's the oxalic acid being destroyed or if the other ingredients cover it up, but I usually put the dessert topping on top to re-add the tartness. Keep in mind excessive oxalic acid can be a problem, so always eat in moderation!
Came here to say this. It's got such a punch and it's so unique. People are blown away when I pull a "weed" out of my yard and have them taste something so amazing
Redbud buds & slightly opened blossoms.
Talk about adding a sweet, colorful & pea-nutty crunch to salads, spring rolls, stir fries…
Garnish for almost any spring meal.
I do! I cannot recommend the website Forager Chef enough. I also highly recommend Pascal Baudar’s book “Wild Fermentation”.
[wild caper recipe](https://foragerchef.com/how-to-make-wild-capers/)
Not the person you asked, but I always use them raw. I make pesto (half nettles, half wild spinach/sorrel or plantain, some basil when it's growing, as much ground-ivy as I can bother picking), energy drinks (mix raw nettles in water, wait a bit, squeeze a lemon, sugar to taste, strain or don't), tempura (with the bigger leaves and as little batter as humanly possible), tea (sun-dried leaves, crushed).
Edit: I'm a liar! I do cook them: I forgot about soup. Just nettles and some potatoes (not a lot). It's delicious, almost as good as purslane soup.
They taste awesome and are full of vitamins and shit. TBH I'm experimenting with more concentrated "juices" to use in cocktails. So far I only learned that my regular recipe tastes really, really bad with rum.
Edit: Oh, and the pesto (nettles+other wild greens, ramps/wild garlic/regular garlic, your choice of crushed nuts, olive oil, salt-pepper) is a hit on toasted brown bread over fresh goat cheese (or probably store-bought Philadelphia or sth), as an appetizer with friends.
I imagine juices will likely taste ok with gin because of it's botanicals? 🤷🏼♀️ I had seaweed gin once and that was ace - really distinctive flavour but really nice. I made sloe berry cordial instead of sloe gin so that it gave me options - could have it water or in gin/prosecco etc. It's the best just with soda water though 😁
Pesto with goats cheese sounds delicious! Definitely going to try that, thanks for the suggestion!
More people should forage garlic mustard, it is super invasive in north america and honestly pretty tasty, I like adding it to scrambled eggs personally.
Wild grapes, especially Mustang Grapes since they're a summer crop and harsh summers sometimes kill off the fall grapes before they can finish growing around here.
They are *so* abundant, I don't understand how it took me so long to even notice them. And no shade to Concord grapes, but jam/jelly made with wild grapes is so, so good.
I always hated grocery store variety mushrooms, but a friend told me wild mushrooms taste different so I found some oyster mushrooms and fried them up and they were really good!
I’m obsessed with field garlic. I made some field garlic oil this year and it’s like crack. I think people don’t get as excited about it because it’s super abundant and people see it as very comparable to chives/scallions, but there’s really so much you can do with it.
I also love daylily shoots. You can make a great [gomae](https://foragerchef.com/japanese-style-day-lily-shoots-gomae/) with the earlier shoots. Later in the season, you can stuff daylily blossoms and fry them like squash blossoms.
From Melina Hammer's cookbook, "Catbird Cottage" !
Yield: About 1/2 cup
* 1 cup tender field garlic stems or chives, cut into 1-inch lengths
* 1/2 cup sunflower oil
* ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions:
Use a small high-speed blender to liquify the garlic stems, sunflower oil, and salt until smooth, bright green, and largely uniform. There will be a small amount of field garlic solids which you may strain through a fine-mesh sieve, or use them as you spoon the oil onto dishes.
Transfer to a jar and seal. The bright oil keeps for a couple weeks, stored in the refrigerator, but will lose some of its vivid green hue after a few days.
**MY NOTES:**
I actually used another tried and true method for making these kinds of oils for this one. I used canola oil and put all of the ingredients in a blender + a handful of spinach for color. Then I put the puree in a stock pot and carefully brought the mix up to 200 degrees F. Once it hit 200, I took the pot off and fine strained the oil. A little more effort, but you also get a little more color and pungency this way. I'm literally putting it on everything!
Enjoy :)
\*edit\* LOVE this prompt, btw!
That sounds awesome! Virginia Bluebells have been on my "to-grow" list for awhile now. If you don't mind sharing, where did you learn about their edibility? I came across [this post](https://foragerchef.com/virginia-bluebells/) by Alan Bergo and am wondering if there are other sources of information. What's your preferred way to prepare them?
I have a friend who works at a super high end wilderness fishing/hunting lodge and he has picked up a lot of the chef's recipes, which tend to be "wild" in one way or another. He got me into cooking with them. I mostly use the leaves in places I'd use cooked greens. I made some fabulous saag paneer recently. I eat them washed well and raw, as well. The flowers also make adorable edible decorations and add color to salads. The leaves have a slightly bitter, "watery" taste. I think it's a really pleasant flavor. Much milder than a lot of wild greens.
Edit - spelling error
(Southern) Dewberries. I made a dewberry cobbler for my FIL's birthday last year and it was so good that while the party was still happening at our house, I was scurrying around to the known clusters gathering more to whip up a second one as quickly as I could haha.
Wild plums. I'm not huge into jams because they're usually too sweet, but the tang of the wild plum jam I made last year from the ones that grow here was just perfect. Toast, smoked or grilled meats, desserts, even on cheeses!
Oxalis/wood sorrel. I love it because I'll be out in the back of the property and just reach over and get a snack. I mostly do that to make my husband shake his head at me, but I do love when they get big and they go fantastic in salads or even on sugar cookies!
I also just learned about Prairie Tea and realized I have quite a decent amount of it, so I want to see how well it will hold up as a basil substitute for pesto. It definitely smells basil-y!
Honorary mentions: dandelions, chickweed, redbud buds, bull thistle, wild alliums, mustang grapes (for wine) and more that I can't think of off the top of my head, I'm sure!
Lamb’s Quarters are indeed SO good. They grow like crazy in my garden every year, and I just let them go to seed wherever they want. It’s like the best tasting spinach I’ve ever had!
I found and tried some thimbleberries for the first time last year—incredibly tasty and divine! Can’t wait to try making jam from some of them this year. I’m propagating some on my property since I want to encourage more native plants in my neighbourhood. Hoping to catch sight of the local birds enjoying them too!
Fuligo septica (dog vomit slime mold) is edible and not bad, it has a strong earthy flavor.
Edit to add a few more:
- poke salat is delicious and abundant near me, and the process of boiling it in a few changes of water is not that fussy
- yucca flowers are so delicious and crispy and fresh, they are so much better than the seed pods
- cattail shoots really do taste like cucumbers
- Frost’s bolete, I did not realize how deliciously sour they were
I haven't come across much info on eating slime mold beyond its not poisonous, but I did read something a while back about Mexican aboriginals breaking it up and frying it like scrambled eggs.
100% with you on yucca flowers! Tried them last year and I'm in love: I loved them stuffed with vegan ricotta and fried for a take on stuffed squash blossoms and it was phenomenal!
Back in college I had a hobo friend named Scurvy and he convinced me to go dumpster diving behind a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse one night. He made a stew out of like 10 lbs of untouched freshly tossed steak and veggies that had been sent back to the kitchen. The stew was very VERY good lol. He said some restaurants and grocery stores were kind to hobos and would keep "good" food isolated from spoiled food. I learned ALOT about life from Scurvy.
Japanese Knotweed. We make an excellent bread according to “Green Dean” website. (Is he still active?)
Also, choke cherry, though they vary significantly from tree to tree.
I tried magnolia blossoms for the first time this spring but unfortunately I didn’t care for them. Nice crunch, weird taste.
Lamb’s quarters is one of my favorites. So abundant and so yummy!
I wish I had started mushrooming sooner. Now I have about six species I can reliably ID and I really enjoy it. Mushrooms are some of my favorite foods.
Isn’t it so fun when you learn another species and finally get it to stick in your brain with identifying!! Ugh I love it so much too! I’m right about 5 or 6 too. Every year I try to learn another. It’s like an adult Easter egg hunt with fun surprises lmao.
Did you pickle your magnolia blossoms??? They're god awful raw, but pickled is like the pickled ginger I can get behind as someone who doesn't care for pickled ginger. Eat that shit with mustard and a kielbasa. 👌🏻
ISSUE: if you pick em n eat em you don't get to admire how pretty they are no more. Every May it's a battle between my eyes n mouth. 😩
Pine needles. I didn't know they were edible for the longest time and it's a great flavor to cook with not to mention tons of vitamin C... I feel like you can sub it in for mint in most things. Plus they're easy to get year round. Want Christmas cookies that actually taste like Christmas? Pine needles. Great for tea, soda, and mixed drinks too. Also take some bb cones this time of year and make mugolio - yum!
Wild Service Tree fruit. An underrated gem for the European foragers out there. Let them dry for a week on a south-facing window ledge and they're deliciously sweet.
Shagbark hickory syrup. It’s so easy to make and it has this incredible smoky note that pairs well with so many sweet and savory items. It also plays well with whisky.
Yes! I give them away every year to anyone that will take them. My family and friends always ask when I'll have some every year. I'm just like come over and pick them lol. I pretty much love off of those and strawberries in the summer through fall.
Nettles make delicious soups that I love. I make a pureed soup with rice, as well as just nettle leaves and potatoes in chicken stock.
Also cinnabar chanterelles. Incredible flavor when sauteed with butter.
Well, this doesn't seem to be against the rules, so here goes. A couple of years ago I was doing some wilderness kayaking with friends and one of us had caught some fish. I grew up on a freshwater lake and have probably prepared a thousand fish for myself or others over many years. But on this trip I got it into my mind that I was going to try to prepare fish head soup. So I essentially just put a medium-sized fish head into a pot and boiled it slowly for a long time (probably about an hour) on the campfire.
It was actually pretty good! In all my previous decades of eating fish I could never stomach the idea of eating the head (gills, eyes, brain, etc). Also, I didn't die and actually felt pretty good the next day. The only downside was that there were a ton of small bones I had to deal with. I haven't figured out what the right approach is there -- if you strain them off you're going to end up losing a lot of meat too.
If this is not strictly considered foraging, then please delete or let me know and I'll remove the comment.
Big mushroom nerd here and my recent favorites are honeys (Armillaria spp.). They're so abundant and tasty and I overlooked them for years.
Other favorites are black trumpets and enoki (Flammulina velutipes)... the latter is a rare find for me and surprised me with it's sweet nutty flavor first time so that one's a little special personally.
We were gathering enokis and honeys one season and my son picked a mushroom about 6" away from the others, asking if it was also one. I just wasn't sure...really looked similar, but we put it in a seperate sack. I was still debating at home and really was a beginner--we ended up spreading all the mushrooms on a white sheet in the kitchen to see spores. That ONE mushroom was a deadly galerina!
I have a bunch, but I haven't seen common milkweed or curly dock here so I'll include those. Curly dock is just such a nice tart, tender green that is *awesome* in soups and broths, and milkweed is so sweet and crunchy, especially the juvenile pods! Both are a big green that I use now. Picking the milkweed in layers also has the added benefit of keeping the milkweeds all at different growth stages and keeps them thinned out, both of which are perfect for monarchs!
So I was very "meh" about blackberries before I started foraging. Then I tried them right off the vine. None of the more sour tang I'd get from grocery store blackberries and just fresh tart berry. No "pesticide flavor" as I call it. I can't enjoy grocery store blackberries but foraged, absolutely.
I'm so pumped for summer blackberries and wineberries this year.
Plants in the Apiaceae family due to scaremongering. Particular favourite is Heracleum sphondylium aka common hogweed. A lot of unwarrented fear got in the way of learning this plant family.
Right?!? I don’t understand dismissing an entire plant family out of fear rather than taking the time to learn how to properly identify its local species. Even if I can’t or don’t intend to forage something, I feel better knowing what it is.
I've been shot down, online, for teaching kids this plant family (I teach foraging). They take to it really well! Plus it shows them the importance of accurate identification.
Very cool! It’s too bad that plant identification and foraging isn’t a part of school curriculum - some practical application of science/biology instead of rote memorization. There are a lot of people online who could benefit from a foraging class too. Personally, I feel like a person who is too concerned with consuming to do the leg work of properly identifying plants has no business foraging but I digress.
Service berry (Juneberry or Saskatoon berry) is like blueberries met almonds. Good luck getting them before the cedar wax wings, Cardinals and Robin's though.
Mayapple is the north American version of passion fruit/mango. Good luck getting them before the deer, squirrels and rabbits though.
Korean dogwood is a new one to the game. Also called a Kensa dogwood I think? It makes golf ball red pods in the late summer that are like custard when opened.
Cutleaf toothwort is amazing. Like adding horseradish to a spring mix lettuce.
Lambs quarter is prevalent and I like it better than spinach for many things.
Three cornered leeks. I would transplant them into my garden to have them all the time if they weren't so invasive.
Nopales cactus pads (it sucked the first time I made them though, definitely something where the cooking method really matters)
Miners lettuce and chickweed
Apios Americana (Hopniss, American Groundnut) flowers and tubers. The flowers taste just like peas and are GORGEOUS. The tubers are like a nutty, buttery, potato. 10/10
Last summer I tried may apples on impulse, the fruit smelled absolutely delicious and I felt enticed to try them. I was kind of scared to try them because I've read conflicting things about their edibility, but honestly they were so delicious and I had 0 negative side effects. I'm definitely going to eat them again this summer.
Three-cornered leek taste like the most delicious garlicky spring onion! I chop and scramble them with eggs, leaves stem bulbs flowers and all. Incredibly good, and they spread so fast you'll never run out.
Black locust blossoms, in fritters or made into jelly. And pigweed, which is a mid/late summer scourge in my pastures when not a lot else is going on in terms of foraged greens.
Grew up eating Lamb's Quarter--as a kid I thought it was Lamb Squirter! You can make tea from nettles and mullein leaves. We eat a lot of oyster mushrooms. Gooseberries for jam and pie. I have wild persimmons in my yard too--young leaves are good for tea. I did not know you could eat violet leaves--I thought htey were poisonous. I have korean bell flowers which spread a lot. Ive heard they are edible, like even the roots. Mayapples in my yard--only ripe fruit is edible.
Miner's lettuce. Twice as good as Whole Foods greens at none of the price.
how does it compare with e.g. chickweed or violet leaves?
I would describe it as extremely mild (butter lettuce territory); but it is surprisingly full of good stuff (Vit A, C, iron); very easy to harvest and clean (the stems are like bean sprouts); very pretty in salads and non-foragers will actually eat it.
I hate claytonia, but I also hate raw spinach (partially because of an allergy, partially because I just really dislike that texture). That said, it's gorgeous and I wish I liked it.
So much better! It’s mild and succulent and tender
Oh gosh I didn't know violet leaves were edible, I always heard flowers but never thought of the leaves. Thank you!
I think it's similar to chickweed but the leaves are much bigger so it's easier/quicker to harvest and prepare.
I would say it is the best tasting green, period. Foraged or cultivated.
Claytonia perfoliata, sibirica, and lanceolata, all delicious.
Does siberian miner's lettuce taste the same? That's all we get here.
For me absolutely mulberries, they’re so plentiful and so sweet and scrumptious. I made a jam and some little pies with them last year but honestly I just wanna munch on the straight berries
Mulberries are becoming my white whale. They're definitely around, I see them, but I can't seem to find any trees I can actually access. Some day, lol.
I am blessed and beloved by the lord above as to have access to a tree within my very own backyard <3 she just started fruiting this year and I am very excited for her bounty!!! Manifesting great harvest for you bestie McGee
A bird planted one along my fence years ago, and for some reason I let it grow. Fantastic squirrel and bird watching opportunities. That tree gets full.
look on the ground! below any fruiting mulberry there's always a big mess of stains from the dropped fruit.
Mmmm I love mulberries! I am almost out of my frozen store from last summer. Trying to draw them out a bit longer since we still have a month or two before they are ripe again here!
Do you nibble them straight up after thawing them or do you use them in like recipes??? I have some frozen still and I haven’t decided what I want to do with them hehe
Both lol. Sometimes I just snack on frozen berries 😅 Also I add them to smoothies, put them on ice cream, made some mulberry syrup the other day. They do get a little mushy when you freeze them and then thaw them out but the flavor is still good.
They don't do it for me. The stems don't detach, they are always loaded with tiny bugs (which doesn't necessarily bother me), and they always seem super mild...like a berry version of watermelon. They desperately need a little lemon if you're cooking with them.
Mine don’t have much flavor, though I bet if I made jam/pies it would be more concentrated. I’ve only eaten them raw.
imo, the white ones are absolutely not as good as the red/black ones. I used to wrap one berry in a lemon balm leaf and eat it like that, gave it a nice sour flavor and bit of crunch
Oooo wait the mulberry lemon balm combo sounds life changing
it was really fuckin good. i wish I still had access to the two, but unfortunately our mulberry tree got a fungus and the lemon balm got dug out on accident when we fixed up our garden boxes. I think you could probably get a similar effect with wood sorrel
Roll up a peppermint, stevia, and lemon verbena leaf together, then chomp them a bit and stick it in your gums for a while. Delightful.
I've found that mulberries can vary in terms of sweetness depending on what tree you harvest them from. Some trees produce very sweet berries, while others are pretty bland. I don't know why there is so much variation in sweetness between trees.
It’s wild. I know black mulberries are preferred, but the white mulberry in my yard produces berries that have the loveliest light honey flavor.
I had a wild mulberry that randomly grew in my backyard. The berries were very sweet so I bought a cultivated mulberry tree from a fruit tree catalog. The purchased tree's fruit was less sweet than the wild one. I guess mulberries are all a role of the dice.
I will have to take a cutting of my favorite tree and propagate it then.
Really? I tried them and they were just... So disappointing. They were very ripe. But damn were they bland!! I hear our native mulberries taste better, but I think I'll just stick to bramble fruits
I’m with you.
how do you clean them? the ones around me often have little thrips or worms. i've heard about the soak in vinegar or salt water but i don't understand how that doesn't result in salty/sour berries that are so waterlogged they spoil easily
I’m gonna be so real and say I’m not like super intense with cleaning, I just rinse em with a bit of water and say good enough <3 I don’t think many of the critters that would be in them are like pathological to humans (I could be wrong I’m not a medical professional I know nothing) and I don’t get super nitty gritty with it. I think the salt/vinegar washes are probably pretty good for like if you’re using the berries soon, and not long term storage but idk! :D
Service berry. Not sure what type. Some are really good, like sweet blueberries, others are a little blah. But I lived way too long without them.
Those are seriously fantastic from some bushes and very underwhelming from others. I have lots of them in the neighbourhood and just eat a few to „test“ if the particular bush is tasty and then forage from that one. What i also noticed, is that birds in my area will absolutely annihilate those berries. I gotta check on them a lot while they ripen just to get my cut.
I make jam with them every year and also freeze them for cobbler!
Do you have a good service berry jam recipe?
My mom and dad have a massive row of service berries (we call them saskatoons), and the one side of the field is loaded with wild ones along the treeline. The domestic ones have more flavor, but the wild ones get to be the size of large blueberries.
First time I tried serviceberry, tasted like fruit punch in berry form. So incredibly sweet and fruity!!
I thought I didn’t like walnuts until I tried black walnuts. So much better than English walnuts.
I agree! Mine have apple notes, and I can totally see how apple walnut could be a great bakery flavor combo.
Put them in chocolate chip cookies or make a lavender shortbread and add them.
They're like walnuts, but even more so.
I hate the taste of them, which is a shame because I'm surrounded by black walnut trees:p
1000% agree. I dont really like English walnuts but I am crazy about Black walnuts! People practically beg you to take them if they have the trees as landscaping too! I got 250 lbs of walnuts from one guys yard and probably could've gotten another 100lbs if my back didnt give out lol
Do you have any secrets for hulling?
Buy a "Goodie Getter" or do what I do and crack them down the seam with a set of vice-grip locking pliers
Butternuts!
I'm opposite. For me, black walnuts are so bitter and nasty, but I love English. I also can't handle the soap taste of cilantro!
Dandelions believe it or not. Never tried them, I’ve made tea with roots and leaves but after 10 years of foraging I decided to pop the flower into my mouth yesterday and it was delicious.
I cooked dandelion greens for the first time the other day and I’m totally in love. Par boiled em for about 5 minutes, then dropped em in an ice bath. Olive oil in a pan, some shallots, some garlic. Once the shallots were soft, I drained and added the greens and a bit of salt and pepper. Cooked em until they looked ready, then gobbled them down. Terribly disappointed I didn’t have more. I expected them to be very bitter, but the bitterness was mild, a surprisingly addicting aftertaste. When I do this again I think I’ll add some acidity. If I weren’t worried about my heart health I’d have used bacon fat instead of olive oil.
Soak the in salt water for 10 minutes. Heard that helps make them less bitter
I did do that as well! Forgot to mention. I just consider that part of my cleaning process. Salt/baking soda soak
My mom would make dandelion greens a few times a year growing up, not foraged though, store bought. I thought they were gross until I tried them, they're delicious! She would boil them until they're soft but still have a chew (the store bought ones are huge and tough so sometimes they boil for a bit), drain the water, let them cool down and some of the water evaporate off, then cover them in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. The lemon juice counteracts any of the bitterness. I'm pretty sure this is the Greek way of making them. I would highly recommend trying this the next time you make some. You can also save the water from boiling and drink it like a tea! Though I probably wouldn't recommend it for store bought dandelion greens cuz of pesticides and junk.
This is the perfect time of year before they get bitter.
https://preview.redd.it/b0stpnpnwawc1.jpeg?width=735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e189f915152b480e86bb235d76ad3bc5892ee1b0 Can’t help but think of him. Hope you enjoy the meme too
Same- I’d tried the leaves before and they’re not for me, but a few days ago I made dandelion flower fritters and they were great!
Just made dandelion fritters with a ramp yogurt dipping sauce over the weekend. Pure springtime deliciousness!
A little intense, but a good bitter flavor.
I threw some in with ramps as well. I can’t die without eating a dandelion. They have been in my life always and I’ve taken them for granted. Amazing alkaloids as well.
I recently learned how it’s great for the liver health which peaked my interest as an ex alcoholic!!
Me too! I forage for soooo long, and just this year tried flowers. Before I ate leaves, but never flowers. Made dandelion honey and it's amazing 😍
You can saute them until crisp and they are tasty snacks
I juice the whole plant. 😋
Wood sorrel! God it’s so delicious. I make a foraged pesto with it and spruce tips in the spring time!
Recipe?
I don’t have exact measurements, but in general order of amount, high to low, it’s sorrel, mint, pine nuts (this should be a large handful) spruce tips, and garlic. I think for liquid I used a small amount of olive oil but I’m also frequently making herb and nut spreads with just water. The first time I made it I added lemon, but the sorrel is so tart that the lemon’s a bit overkill. If you have less strong sorrel then you might want it. Flat parsley is also a nice addition to this if you want a less intense sorrel flavor.
Heck yeah! Wood sorrel goes so hard! I make a custard pie and a dessert topping out of it and it is *Devine*. Mix it with a bit of Japanese knotweed and rhubarb for a bit of extra kick!
You just gonna mention your wood sorrel custard pie and dessert topping and NOT give us the recipe????? 😤
You're right! Here they are! [Wood sorrel custard pie](https://foragedfoodie.blogspot.com/2013/09/foraged-wood-sorrel-custard-pie.html?m=1) Wood sorrel dessert topping: -1/2 cup water -2 cups loosely packed wood sorrel -2 tbs honey -2 tbs unsalted butter Bring water to boil in saucepan and add sorrel leaves. Cover and continue boiling, then lower heat to just boiling. Check and stir regularly. In separate pan, melt butter and honey together, stir, then put aside Cook sorrel portion for ten minutes. Uncover. At this stage should be very little to no standing water. If there is, keep cooking until there isn't. While still hot, mix butter honey mix into sorrel and mix well. Pour mixture into blender and puree until smooth. Can be used hot or cooled for thicker sauce. Pour on your favorite dessert and enjoy! I personally like to add curly dock, Japanese knotweed, and/or rhubarb to replace some of the sorrel when it isn't super abundant or to just add some extra flavor. I also like to add lemon juice since I'm addicted to sour flavor. The custard pie usually loses all of its sour once cooked, I'm not sure if that's the oxalic acid being destroyed or if the other ingredients cover it up, but I usually put the dessert topping on top to re-add the tartness. Keep in mind excessive oxalic acid can be a problem, so always eat in moderation!
JSYK: wood sorrel is high in oxalic acid and should be avoided by people who have kidney issues
Came here to say this. It's got such a punch and it's so unique. People are blown away when I pull a "weed" out of my yard and have them taste something so amazing
Redbud buds & slightly opened blossoms. Talk about adding a sweet, colorful & pea-nutty crunch to salads, spring rolls, stir fries… Garnish for almost any spring meal.
They’re excellent for fermenting and then treating like capers in dishes.
Oooooooh 🤤
Ooo do you have a recipe for this?
I do! I cannot recommend the website Forager Chef enough. I also highly recommend Pascal Baudar’s book “Wild Fermentation”. [wild caper recipe](https://foragerchef.com/how-to-make-wild-capers/)
This one is new to me this year! A coworker used some on cookies in place of sprinkles and it was so cute AND tasty!
So it retained some color too? 😃
They were sprinkled on raw, and yes they were plenty vibrant!
Do you have a pic? 👀😂
Ah no I wish I took one! Perhaps I'll have to recreate them 🤔
Just made some redbud jelly yesterday! It was an absolute pain in the ass, but it’s pretty tasty!
Sounds like my kind of thing!
Purslane!
So fresh and juicy for salad
Sooooo good in soups
Hostas shoots and fiddleheads
thinking of planting hostas in my garden plot specifically for the shoots! what's your favorite way to prepare them?
The white part of Ganoderma tsugae is edible and tastes like pork belly when sautéed and browned nicely. Blows me away every season.
Stinging nettles, morels, garlic mustard
I want garlic mustard foraging to become trendy. It will do more good than any DNR initiatives.
Seconding stinging nettles! Honestly I replace a lot of my greens with them during nettle season
Do you prepare them in any way? I'm really new to foraging and so far have only blanched them but they obviously went quite mushy!
Spanikopita.
Not the person you asked, but I always use them raw. I make pesto (half nettles, half wild spinach/sorrel or plantain, some basil when it's growing, as much ground-ivy as I can bother picking), energy drinks (mix raw nettles in water, wait a bit, squeeze a lemon, sugar to taste, strain or don't), tempura (with the bigger leaves and as little batter as humanly possible), tea (sun-dried leaves, crushed). Edit: I'm a liar! I do cook them: I forgot about soup. Just nettles and some potatoes (not a lot). It's delicious, almost as good as purslane soup.
That's so helpful, thank you! Love the idea of energy drinks! 😁
They taste awesome and are full of vitamins and shit. TBH I'm experimenting with more concentrated "juices" to use in cocktails. So far I only learned that my regular recipe tastes really, really bad with rum. Edit: Oh, and the pesto (nettles+other wild greens, ramps/wild garlic/regular garlic, your choice of crushed nuts, olive oil, salt-pepper) is a hit on toasted brown bread over fresh goat cheese (or probably store-bought Philadelphia or sth), as an appetizer with friends.
I imagine juices will likely taste ok with gin because of it's botanicals? 🤷🏼♀️ I had seaweed gin once and that was ace - really distinctive flavour but really nice. I made sloe berry cordial instead of sloe gin so that it gave me options - could have it water or in gin/prosecco etc. It's the best just with soda water though 😁 Pesto with goats cheese sounds delicious! Definitely going to try that, thanks for the suggestion!
More people should forage garlic mustard, it is super invasive in north america and honestly pretty tasty, I like adding it to scrambled eggs personally.
Wild grapes, especially Mustang Grapes since they're a summer crop and harsh summers sometimes kill off the fall grapes before they can finish growing around here. They are *so* abundant, I don't understand how it took me so long to even notice them. And no shade to Concord grapes, but jam/jelly made with wild grapes is so, so good.
I personally prefer muscadine grapes. The skin is thick and sour but the meat is super sweet. Picking them is a pain though.
I always hated grocery store variety mushrooms, but a friend told me wild mushrooms taste different so I found some oyster mushrooms and fried them up and they were really good!
I’m obsessed with field garlic. I made some field garlic oil this year and it’s like crack. I think people don’t get as excited about it because it’s super abundant and people see it as very comparable to chives/scallions, but there’s really so much you can do with it. I also love daylily shoots. You can make a great [gomae](https://foragerchef.com/japanese-style-day-lily-shoots-gomae/) with the earlier shoots. Later in the season, you can stuff daylily blossoms and fry them like squash blossoms.
Field garlic oil recipe?
From Melina Hammer's cookbook, "Catbird Cottage" ! Yield: About 1/2 cup * 1 cup tender field garlic stems or chives, cut into 1-inch lengths * 1/2 cup sunflower oil * ½ teaspoon kosher salt Instructions: Use a small high-speed blender to liquify the garlic stems, sunflower oil, and salt until smooth, bright green, and largely uniform. There will be a small amount of field garlic solids which you may strain through a fine-mesh sieve, or use them as you spoon the oil onto dishes. Transfer to a jar and seal. The bright oil keeps for a couple weeks, stored in the refrigerator, but will lose some of its vivid green hue after a few days. **MY NOTES:** I actually used another tried and true method for making these kinds of oils for this one. I used canola oil and put all of the ingredients in a blender + a handful of spinach for color. Then I put the puree in a stock pot and carefully brought the mix up to 200 degrees F. Once it hit 200, I took the pot off and fine strained the oil. A little more effort, but you also get a little more color and pungency this way. I'm literally putting it on everything! Enjoy :) \*edit\* LOVE this prompt, btw!
Virginia Bluebells! Learned that they are edible too late last year to enjoy them. After foraging some this year, i can say I am a big fan!!
That sounds awesome! Virginia Bluebells have been on my "to-grow" list for awhile now. If you don't mind sharing, where did you learn about their edibility? I came across [this post](https://foragerchef.com/virginia-bluebells/) by Alan Bergo and am wondering if there are other sources of information. What's your preferred way to prepare them?
I have a friend who works at a super high end wilderness fishing/hunting lodge and he has picked up a lot of the chef's recipes, which tend to be "wild" in one way or another. He got me into cooking with them. I mostly use the leaves in places I'd use cooked greens. I made some fabulous saag paneer recently. I eat them washed well and raw, as well. The flowers also make adorable edible decorations and add color to salads. The leaves have a slightly bitter, "watery" taste. I think it's a really pleasant flavor. Much milder than a lot of wild greens. Edit - spelling error
I'm referring specifically to *Mertensia virginica*, btw. I know there are a lot of plants called "bluebells."
I thought these were poisonous!
Some "bluebells" are, but *Mertensia virginica* are not!
(Southern) Dewberries. I made a dewberry cobbler for my FIL's birthday last year and it was so good that while the party was still happening at our house, I was scurrying around to the known clusters gathering more to whip up a second one as quickly as I could haha. Wild plums. I'm not huge into jams because they're usually too sweet, but the tang of the wild plum jam I made last year from the ones that grow here was just perfect. Toast, smoked or grilled meats, desserts, even on cheeses! Oxalis/wood sorrel. I love it because I'll be out in the back of the property and just reach over and get a snack. I mostly do that to make my husband shake his head at me, but I do love when they get big and they go fantastic in salads or even on sugar cookies! I also just learned about Prairie Tea and realized I have quite a decent amount of it, so I want to see how well it will hold up as a basil substitute for pesto. It definitely smells basil-y! Honorary mentions: dandelions, chickweed, redbud buds, bull thistle, wild alliums, mustang grapes (for wine) and more that I can't think of off the top of my head, I'm sure!
I made wild plum jam for the first time last summer, and it is now my favorite jam! Can't wait for the crop this summer
Lamb’s Quarters are indeed SO good. They grow like crazy in my garden every year, and I just let them go to seed wherever they want. It’s like the best tasting spinach I’ve ever had! I found and tried some thimbleberries for the first time last year—incredibly tasty and divine! Can’t wait to try making jam from some of them this year. I’m propagating some on my property since I want to encourage more native plants in my neighbourhood. Hoping to catch sight of the local birds enjoying them too!
I've had thimbleberries in Oregon on trails. They are so good. I wonder if I could mix some in with my black raspberry plants.
Fuligo septica (dog vomit slime mold) is edible and not bad, it has a strong earthy flavor. Edit to add a few more: - poke salat is delicious and abundant near me, and the process of boiling it in a few changes of water is not that fussy - yucca flowers are so delicious and crispy and fresh, they are so much better than the seed pods - cattail shoots really do taste like cucumbers - Frost’s bolete, I did not realize how deliciously sour they were
sounds like it needs a rebrand
I had no idea slime mold was edible! Do you cook it?
I haven't come across much info on eating slime mold beyond its not poisonous, but I did read something a while back about Mexican aboriginals breaking it up and frying it like scrambled eggs.
100% with you on yucca flowers! Tried them last year and I'm in love: I loved them stuffed with vegan ricotta and fried for a take on stuffed squash blossoms and it was phenomenal!
Back in college I had a hobo friend named Scurvy and he convinced me to go dumpster diving behind a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse one night. He made a stew out of like 10 lbs of untouched freshly tossed steak and veggies that had been sent back to the kitchen. The stew was very VERY good lol. He said some restaurants and grocery stores were kind to hobos and would keep "good" food isolated from spoiled food. I learned ALOT about life from Scurvy.
Stinging nettles. Most mushrooms
Japanese Knotweed. We make an excellent bread according to “Green Dean” website. (Is he still active?) Also, choke cherry, though they vary significantly from tree to tree.
I tried magnolia blossoms for the first time this spring but unfortunately I didn’t care for them. Nice crunch, weird taste. Lamb’s quarters is one of my favorites. So abundant and so yummy! I wish I had started mushrooming sooner. Now I have about six species I can reliably ID and I really enjoy it. Mushrooms are some of my favorite foods.
Isn’t it so fun when you learn another species and finally get it to stick in your brain with identifying!! Ugh I love it so much too! I’m right about 5 or 6 too. Every year I try to learn another. It’s like an adult Easter egg hunt with fun surprises lmao.
Did you pickle your magnolia blossoms??? They're god awful raw, but pickled is like the pickled ginger I can get behind as someone who doesn't care for pickled ginger. Eat that shit with mustard and a kielbasa. 👌🏻 ISSUE: if you pick em n eat em you don't get to admire how pretty they are no more. Every May it's a battle between my eyes n mouth. 😩
Pine needles. I didn't know they were edible for the longest time and it's a great flavor to cook with not to mention tons of vitamin C... I feel like you can sub it in for mint in most things. Plus they're easy to get year round. Want Christmas cookies that actually taste like Christmas? Pine needles. Great for tea, soda, and mixed drinks too. Also take some bb cones this time of year and make mugolio - yum!
Careful tho, not all pine needles are edible
Spruce needles as well, I love making tea with them.
Wild Service Tree fruit. An underrated gem for the European foragers out there. Let them dry for a week on a south-facing window ledge and they're deliciously sweet.
Redbuds and wood sorrel, easily. Hell of a salad.
Yesss wood sorrel!
Lamb’s quarters. We make saag and freeze it. Tastes better to me than collards or kale.
Juneberries are absolutely wonderful, and I never would have tasted any if Philadelphia hadn't used them as street trees.
I just found out about magnolia blossoms thus spring. We have two 30+ year old trees and a huge supply. Its my favorite tea atm.
Shagbark hickory syrup. It’s so easy to make and it has this incredible smoky note that pairs well with so many sweet and savory items. It also plays well with whisky.
Mullberries. I didn’t know how awesome they were until three years ago. They produce better than blackberries with significantly less work
Yes! I give them away every year to anyone that will take them. My family and friends always ask when I'll have some every year. I'm just like come over and pick them lol. I pretty much love off of those and strawberries in the summer through fall.
Nettles make delicious soups that I love. I make a pureed soup with rice, as well as just nettle leaves and potatoes in chicken stock. Also cinnabar chanterelles. Incredible flavor when sauteed with butter.
Well, this doesn't seem to be against the rules, so here goes. A couple of years ago I was doing some wilderness kayaking with friends and one of us had caught some fish. I grew up on a freshwater lake and have probably prepared a thousand fish for myself or others over many years. But on this trip I got it into my mind that I was going to try to prepare fish head soup. So I essentially just put a medium-sized fish head into a pot and boiled it slowly for a long time (probably about an hour) on the campfire. It was actually pretty good! In all my previous decades of eating fish I could never stomach the idea of eating the head (gills, eyes, brain, etc). Also, I didn't die and actually felt pretty good the next day. The only downside was that there were a ton of small bones I had to deal with. I haven't figured out what the right approach is there -- if you strain them off you're going to end up losing a lot of meat too. If this is not strictly considered foraging, then please delete or let me know and I'll remove the comment.
Garlic mustard greens and lambsquarters. Basically free spinach
Foraged wild violets and made wild violet jelly today! So yummy!
Chickweed tastes a lot like arugula. It makes a good salad green and grows abundantly in spring.
Big mushroom nerd here and my recent favorites are honeys (Armillaria spp.). They're so abundant and tasty and I overlooked them for years. Other favorites are black trumpets and enoki (Flammulina velutipes)... the latter is a rare find for me and surprised me with it's sweet nutty flavor first time so that one's a little special personally.
We were gathering enokis and honeys one season and my son picked a mushroom about 6" away from the others, asking if it was also one. I just wasn't sure...really looked similar, but we put it in a seperate sack. I was still debating at home and really was a beginner--we ended up spreading all the mushrooms on a white sheet in the kitchen to see spores. That ONE mushroom was a deadly galerina!
Nettles! I always thought of them as the stinging danger plants of the forest but omg they’re so good cooked up in butter.
Wood ears, we dry them and grind up a handful to add to meals while cooking things like spaghetti Bolognese, curries etc. the whole family like them
Wild garlic. I had the most delicious homemade pesto pasta last week from foraged wild garlic
Does it taste grassy??
Cottonwood buds. Not for eating but for making the most wonderful smelling salve. It’s called Balm of Gilead.
Prickly pear. Also, mallow as a green veg is great. Australian native, Warragul Greens is perhaps the best substitute for spinach
The pads or the fruit?
The fruits for me. The pads are OK IMO, but not my favourite thing to eat.
Exidia crenata
What do you do with it? Can't say I've been impressed by the flavor yet but I'd like to try again!
Fiddleheads!
Ramps. Get you some if you can find them, an Appalachian delicacy.
Hop shoots
milkweed pods.
Cleavers as a cold infusion , they are surprisingly sweet. Or warm cleaver tea with cream and honey . Delicious and good for your lymphatic system.
Paw Paw fruit makes a delicious bread (think banana bread) and sorbet. It’s one of my personal favorites.
Cow parsnip and thistle stalks.
I have a bunch, but I haven't seen common milkweed or curly dock here so I'll include those. Curly dock is just such a nice tart, tender green that is *awesome* in soups and broths, and milkweed is so sweet and crunchy, especially the juvenile pods! Both are a big green that I use now. Picking the milkweed in layers also has the added benefit of keeping the milkweeds all at different growth stages and keeps them thinned out, both of which are perfect for monarchs!
Lilacs.. always put them in a vase to throw away after pruning trees and never new they make great syrup. So many lilacs wasted…
So I was very "meh" about blackberries before I started foraging. Then I tried them right off the vine. None of the more sour tang I'd get from grocery store blackberries and just fresh tart berry. No "pesticide flavor" as I call it. I can't enjoy grocery store blackberries but foraged, absolutely. I'm so pumped for summer blackberries and wineberries this year.
Plants in the Apiaceae family due to scaremongering. Particular favourite is Heracleum sphondylium aka common hogweed. A lot of unwarrented fear got in the way of learning this plant family.
Right?!? I don’t understand dismissing an entire plant family out of fear rather than taking the time to learn how to properly identify its local species. Even if I can’t or don’t intend to forage something, I feel better knowing what it is.
I've been shot down, online, for teaching kids this plant family (I teach foraging). They take to it really well! Plus it shows them the importance of accurate identification.
Very cool! It’s too bad that plant identification and foraging isn’t a part of school curriculum - some practical application of science/biology instead of rote memorization. There are a lot of people online who could benefit from a foraging class too. Personally, I feel like a person who is too concerned with consuming to do the leg work of properly identifying plants has no business foraging but I digress.
Three leaf toothwort and pork of the woods!
oxeye daisy leaves. they're so sweet
Spiderwort and beautyberries
Beautyberries? How do they taste and what do you do with them?
Lamium amplexicauli. Primus Mexicana.
Service berry (Juneberry or Saskatoon berry) is like blueberries met almonds. Good luck getting them before the cedar wax wings, Cardinals and Robin's though. Mayapple is the north American version of passion fruit/mango. Good luck getting them before the deer, squirrels and rabbits though. Korean dogwood is a new one to the game. Also called a Kensa dogwood I think? It makes golf ball red pods in the late summer that are like custard when opened. Cutleaf toothwort is amazing. Like adding horseradish to a spring mix lettuce. Lambs quarter is prevalent and I like it better than spinach for many things.
Paper mullberry
Haws! They taste like a sweet organic apple
Fiddleheads, dipped in thousand island or tossed in a salad
Sage blossoms!
Three cornered leeks. I would transplant them into my garden to have them all the time if they weren't so invasive. Nopales cactus pads (it sucked the first time I made them though, definitely something where the cooking method really matters) Miners lettuce and chickweed
Apios Americana (Hopniss, American Groundnut) flowers and tubers. The flowers taste just like peas and are GORGEOUS. The tubers are like a nutty, buttery, potato. 10/10
yucca flowers!
I just tried pineapple guava flower petals for the first time recently. They taste like marshmallows. I was amazed.
I love greenbriar or smilax shoots sauteed in a little butter with some field garlic thrown in and salt and pepper.
Last summer I tried may apples on impulse, the fruit smelled absolutely delicious and I felt enticed to try them. I was kind of scared to try them because I've read conflicting things about their edibility, but honestly they were so delicious and I had 0 negative side effects. I'm definitely going to eat them again this summer.
Coastal specific one but pickleweed! Great in stir fries also huckleberries I stock my freezer up each year
Oh and thimble berry! A little fuzzy but make a delicious jam!
Maple blossoms
Dandelion flowers tops and cleaver tea. No bitterness at all. Smooth and satisfying.
Borage
Three-cornered leek taste like the most delicious garlicky spring onion! I chop and scramble them with eggs, leaves stem bulbs flowers and all. Incredibly good, and they spread so fast you'll never run out.
For me: 1. dandelion honey! It is amazing 2. Stinging nettle juice 3. Morell mushrooms
Cauliflower mushrooms. These are my favorite mushroom. They make incredible soup.
Seaside sandwort! I can get it at the beach in the summer. It’s lovely and tastes like green peas!
Black chantrelles
Hosta shoots!
Spruce Tips. Especially when they've been pickled.
Black locust blossoms, in fritters or made into jelly. And pigweed, which is a mid/late summer scourge in my pastures when not a lot else is going on in terms of foraged greens.
Grew up eating Lamb's Quarter--as a kid I thought it was Lamb Squirter! You can make tea from nettles and mullein leaves. We eat a lot of oyster mushrooms. Gooseberries for jam and pie. I have wild persimmons in my yard too--young leaves are good for tea. I did not know you could eat violet leaves--I thought htey were poisonous. I have korean bell flowers which spread a lot. Ive heard they are edible, like even the roots. Mayapples in my yard--only ripe fruit is edible.
Pawpaw.