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rwc1969
07-16-2010, 03:34 PM
Pic 1 clockwise from top- Garlic mustard tops, ramps, asparagus shoots, cattail shoots, dryad saddle, curly dock, nettle tops, and in the center a little bit of cleavers.

Pic 2 throw it all in a pan with bacon bits

Pic 3 eat it!

Pic 4 morels getting cooked up for freezing

Pic 5 clockwise from top left- Common chanterelle, Day lily buds, milkweed buds, cattail spikes-the brown ones are too old, grape leaves, black trumpets.

rwc1969
07-16-2010, 03:53 PM
Pic 1 clockwise from top left- milkweed buds, cattail spikes, day lily buds- all cooked up. The brown cattail spikes tasted like insulation, but the green ones, not pictured were really good.

Pic 2 Chanterelles and Black trumpets in white sauce. Real good served over pork, chicken or fish.

Pic 3 Staghorn sumac berry clusters in a pail, cover them with water and...

Pic 4 ...you got sumac tea. This stuff is extremely refreshing on a hot day, even without sugar.

Pic 5 Japanese knotweed shoots. I can pick this by the truckload, but, in my opinion it's awful.

Rick
07-16-2010, 04:00 PM
It's quite evident, and photos don't lie, that there are far too many morels for you to bother with. I suggest finish cooking, freezing and ship to me. You don't have to thank me. That's just what friends do.

rwc1969
07-16-2010, 04:04 PM
Pic 1 Milweed buds ready for harvest. I ate a few bunches raw with no ill effect. Although, I advise against eating any parts of raw milkweed.

Pic 2 Roadside Milkweed stand

Pic 3 Milkweed pods ready for harvest. See the time frame between pics from bud to pod. It doesn't take long.

Pic 4 Harvested Milkweed pods. Perfect size and firmness for eating. The lighter is there for size comparison. I don't care what Sam Thayer says, they are mildly bitter. Although, I respect his opinions and experience greatly. Bees love these too and according to Steve Brill that's a good sign no insecticides, et cetera have been used as the bees are the first to succumb to such foolish things.

Everyone I know recommends cooking, but, I did eat a few of the tiny pods raw with no ill effect. They were actually less bitter raw. The flower buds and pods taste almost identical to each other. I think one boiling would remove the bitterness. I fried these in butter and served them with beef roast and "real" mashed potatoes. The bitterness was hidden by the roast gravy, but otherwise it was somewhat noticable. I think I have a heightened sense for bitterness though.

Pic 5 Dogbane. This is the Milkweed look a like. Makes a great cordage, but is poisonous to eat. The butterflies, and bees do love it though. Some of the old stalks from last year will still produce usable "on the fly" cordage. This is part of a 1 or so acre patch of it.

rwc1969
07-16-2010, 04:23 PM
Rick, I think we ate the last of the frozen morels a week ago. It was not a good year to say the least. But, I do have about 6 quarts of A-OK dried morels from last season. You are more than welcome to some. Just pm me your addy if'n you'd like.

Old GI
07-16-2010, 04:33 PM
Thanks a lot, RWC. The goes another keyboard, saliva and IT stuff don't mix. Those morels look wonderful. Enjoy.

rwc1969
07-16-2010, 04:37 PM
Pic 1 now that you've tromped all over the woods gathering all these goodies you're sure to be ate up by mosquitos, deer flies, army ants, chiggers, poison ivy and who knows what else. This plant soothes them all instantly and is edible too. Jewelweed!

Pic 2 Stinging nettle that has, from what I understand, grown a little too long in the tooth for eating. But, as WE always says it's good to follow them through the season. This one's growing right on the trail along with several others. Somebody's gonna get it.

Pic 3 this is the perfect stage for plucking. Stinging nettle!

Pic 5 I plucked quite a bit. Here's some. I only picked the tops and whatever leaves came with it. IMO this is the best green there is, wild or otherwise. I wish I would have harvested more, parboiled and froze it for later.

All the pics have timestamps so anyone interested should be able to determine the best time for picking in their own area. The thing I've noticed is the time frame for picking is pretty short, usually under two weeks. Although the Garlic mustard and stinging nettle were slow to start. Once the heat and rain comes everything grows up pretty quick. I missed the cattail spikes by just a few days and that's too bad because both the male and female flower spike is pretty tasty when green, even raw. The cattail pollen came and went in that short time frame as well. I mised it completely.

Rick
07-16-2010, 08:01 PM
I'm need to start following you around. You are well versed on a lot of edibles and how to prepare them. I have a few that I like and gather but you have a pretty wide vocabulary on edibles.

wareagle69
07-16-2010, 09:36 PM
the problem with our modern lifestyle is that we have precious little time to harvest when the time is right. learning and documenting weather and times of harvest can help you prepare in the future if you should ever find an abundent amount tof time on your hands.
keep up the good work my hippy freind, you are an inspiration

rwc1969
07-17-2010, 07:07 AM
You're welcome OldGI!

WE, I've thought about that a lot this year. Other years I've had too much time to gather and hunt, but this year I'm strapped with school and just plain lazy.

But, after missing out on the cattail pollen I wondered how the indians were able to get them with such short windows. I believe the answer is they were out in it every day. It's not like they sat around waiting for stuff to get ripe. They were just always there at the right time because they lived it and they were extremely in tune with nature.

These are a few of the things I've ate from the wild in just this year alone. All are quite good, except the knotweed. But, Benessee proved, if prepared properly, it too can be a good eat as well. All the ones I posted are fairly common, relatively easy to ID, require no special prep, except for nettle, and are all quite plentiful too. There is no reason anyone should go hungry in the midwest or any place these grow.

I saw a show last night called "hog bomb". The scientists said for some unknown reason in the past 30 or so years the wild hog population worldwide has grown dramatically in numbers. Fast food is the reason. I felt uneasy seeing people complaining about what is probably the most sustainable food resource on the planet. I realize they are destructive, but, if we all ate them they wouldn't be. They would be scarce and we would be complaining that there just ain't enough hogs to go around.

Rick
07-17-2010, 07:55 AM
They also breed like rats. Here's a thread on it.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6302&highlight=wild+hogs

wareagle69
07-17-2010, 08:56 AM
same with coyotes, if ya could find a way to make them palatable there would be enough to go around

rwc1969
07-17-2010, 04:02 PM
But the pigs are palatable unless they're real big. They used to not get so big, but now that very few eat them they have time to get old and fat....like me. LOL!

easyday
07-27-2010, 03:27 PM
I saw a show last night called "hog bomb". The scientists said for some unknown reason in the past 30 or so years the wild hog population worldwide has grown dramatically in numbers. Fast food is the reason. I felt uneasy seeing people complaining about what is probably the most sustainable food resource on the planet. I realize they are destructive, but, if we all ate them they wouldn't be. They would be scarce and we would be complaining that there just ain't enough hogs to go around.

We've only recently started seeing wild hogs around here, so I also watched the show. The first one sighted here was a huge boar with tusks... so large that the 6'4", 430 lb man that saw him said he was afraid if he shot it, he'd just P*** it off (he was on foot)! There have been 5 killed since then, but not that boar.

No season here for them, anytime is okay, so if I see a young one, I might just have to invite him for supper. Never eaten wild hog.

rwc1969
07-27-2010, 11:36 PM
We have no saeson here either, but you have to be hunting for something else using legal methods only in order to take one.

If they were more local I'd go after them, but most are more north of here.