thx. for the info added site to my favorites
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thx. for the info added site to my favorites
There's a northern plant that is just like a raspberry called "thimbleberry", but it has a large maple-like leaf. It's delicious...much better than raspberries, I think!Quote:
Originally Posted by marcraft
You can make any wild edible plant into tea. I love mints especially, but nothing beats an energy drink like stinging nettle tea.Quote:
Originally Posted by rt36crazyfists
I absolutely love to get the first tender spring leaves from stinging nettles. Pick with care, they bite! After washing them good, add to boiling water, turn heat down low and cover. Cook 10 to 12 minutes. Can be used like spinach or any kind of greens, just according to how many you picked.
You can also puree them after cooking and make soup, have say...a couple cups of the puree simmering and turn the heat off, add a half to a full cup of half and half or light cream, stir really good, allow to warm back up.
You can use your taste buds to see if the next time you'd like to add some slivers of ham or just whatever.
Wild onions! They are everywhere for the taking and oh so good!!! Raw or steamed and buttered!
Spring black berry leaves and any of the blooms for delicious table tea.
Then watch the bushes for the berries if you can beat the birds to them.
Passion Flower fruits.
The outdoors is similar to a grocery store.....
kitty
down here in alabama bout tha only thangs that are edible is blackberrys,honeysuckles,deer,and if your lucky you'll find the occasional creek with fish
Hey, Guy! After you find that creek, think you can find our Introductions Section and tell us a bit about yourself? http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...splay.php?f=14Quote:
Originally Posted by Survival Guy 10
Alabama has a LOT more edibles than that. Wild plants o' plenty.
Yeah SG10 you know those thorny vine everyone calls "wait-a-minute" vines, It's laurel leaf greenbrier / Smilax laurifolia (fairly sure thats the botanical name but all smilax spp are), the root is edible stay away from the rest of the plant or you won't "smile" when the lax(as in laxative) hits you.in wet swampy areas look for both kinds of water lilies the yellow pond lileis we call "gator tater" Cattails.... Man I could go on and on.there's a TON of edibles available to you. Get a good edible guide like the petersons and get out there your whole world will open up.
Oh one of my favorites is spurge nettle I ate that in NC while in the 82nd. They couldn't find us to resupply food, and the LT wouldn't send them a guide, so we had to "make do" for a few days. One of the guys fell so in love with Sassafras tea that it was all I could do to keep him from harvesting it ALL!!
The wild animals I have killed, harvested if you're faint of heart, deer, rabbits, squirrels,phesants, feral pigs and wild boar(not the same critter, trust me)All make great table fare.As well as a meriad of fresh water fish, crayfish and mussels.
I've personally foraged morel, inky cap, puffball, chicken of the woods,wild oyster and sulfur shelf mushrooms/fungi. As well as wild onions, wild asparagus, day lilies,cattail roots and shoots, wild sage and sage brush, wild bay leaves, wild mint, wild winter green, stinging nettles(makes a lovely tea along with wild herbs) spruce and pine needles (tea w/vitamin C), acorns, hickory nuts, wild pecans, pignuts, chestnuts, walnuts, persimmons,pawpaws, wild grapes, blueberries, raspsberries,blackberries, gooseberries(better have sugar on hand the are SOUR) elderberries, wild strawberries, apples, pears and peaches from feral trees, crabapples, mulberries, sassafras leaves and roots. Wild sorrel, savory and dill, chives, and basil, even tobbaco and marijuana/hemp grows wild here in Indiana, though I've never bothered with them.
We have different plant foods in Australia. My three favorites are:
1, Muntries, a berry that tastes like dries apples
2, River reed (don't know the name) . The sweet underground stem growing tip tastes exactly like watermelon
3, Pigface (In Africa called hottentot fig). The pulp of the red fruits taste like lemonade when heated by the sun.
I would like to try all of them... here in Florida we have the Paw Paw fruit, they taste just like cantelope. and the staghorn sumac that tastes like pink lemonaide.:clap:Quote:
Originally Posted by donkeynomad
moleberry,crab apples and wild strawberrys
My three favorites! Morels, ramps and asparagus. All harvested together and fried over an open fire. Some bluegills would go nicely with them too. Wild tea? Chaga tea is pretty good. That's the only wild tea I've drank.
I had my first Sumac tea. "Scratching my head!" Pink lemonade? My first batch was a dark green/ brown and had no flavor, the berries themselves had no flavor and weren't very dark in color. My second batch was Amber in color and had a slight lemon flavor. The berries were dark and somewhat sour like lemons. Reminded me of lemon flavored iced tea. A far cry from pink lemonade though. Maybe I just need riper or better berries?? It was a good refreshing drink, but reminded me more of tea than lemonade.
I'll make this a top ten just because it would go on forever otherwise.My favourite wild (or naturalised) foods are...
1> Macadamia nuts. They are native to my area and very common in some places. Very rich, full of oil and protein, and very tasty too. Excellent roasted with some chilli and garlic sloshed on.
2> Mangos. Not native although they may as well be, very common. Delicious, packed with vitamins and many cultures hold that they help expel stomach bugs etc. Also a fan of the green mango... raw,sliced with soy or tamarind... or made into chutney or dried to powder for curries.
3> Native Spinach. Tetragonia sp. It's a succulent spinach, hardy stuff, needs a change of water in boiling if you eat a lot of it due to traces of oxalic acid. Very tasty, bout the same as "real" spinach. Easy to find.
4> lilly pillys. An aussie native, they're about the size of a brazilian cherry and red, purple or pink. Taste and patability varies by species, all are edible but some are very astringent. Big juicy ones found deep in the rainforest by streams are the absolute best.
5> yabbies. Aussie freshwater crayfish. Red and blue kinds. Catch as for crawdads, boil up, munch. Great from good water, not so great from stale old dams etc. Easily trapped so you can get on with other things as they catch themselves for you.
6> Bugs. Yeah, I know :P But de-hopped grasshoppers, tree grubs and I'll include snails here are free, easy to catch, rich in protein and actually pretty tasty with some seasoning. A local trick is to smash anthills, termite mounds and collect the larvae, quick toast and they're very nutty. Snails require a lot of cooking to kill off potential hazards and best to keep em on a clean diet for a few days before eating, if you can manage it. You can eat almost anything with chilli sauce! Which brings me to ...
7> Chillis. Not native, naturalised in some areas of Aussie urban-wild fringe. I always keep a heap of seeds, and have plants on the go. My favourites are thai upwards pointing, and Jalapeno. the thai's get fried in oil (pop them first!) and go into a very hot but tasty sauce with garlic, the jalas are of course more for pan-cooked stuff. I have made a great roasted green Jala, rosemary, sage relish... delicious... and dried a stack of jalas after a quick vinegar dip and a salt rub. Amazing stuff.
8> native figs. only some species, others are awful to eat unless you're a bird. Preferably baked, with brandy cream but fresh from the tree is pretty good too :P
9> fish. easy, tasty, simple. My favourites are silver trevally and red snapper when on the coast, eel tail catfish and golden perch in fresh. Also oysters, mussels, crabs, etc.
10> wild rasberries. they are kind of tasteless most of the time, but edible and if the bush has one , it has a thousand. Good if you have a bit of stomach upset too.
Now I have to go eat , all that has made me hungry :D
Coon is very good to eat provided all glands have been removed. You do not want to cook a coon with the glands still in the animal it will taste horrible.
Hey recon - How about cooking your way over to our Introduction section and tell us a bit about yourself?
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=7813
one thing i can say i love about california: our wild figs are outstanding.
last year's half ripe figs [never seemed to finish ripening on a lot of trees] where even pretty sweet.
the caprifigs aren't good, and are a bit bitter, but you can eat them.
I would love to live somewhere where macadamia nuts where wild/naturalized.
This is a question for CanID.
A while back you had a link in your signature for preparing dandelions. I think I saved it on my now dead computer (I am taking over the kids comp now lol). Can you possibly post that link to this thread? I have a couple ways in a few of my books, but wanted to include that method in the notes section of one.
Im not much of a veggie guy, but i LOVE fruits and berries. My favorites around here are manzanita berries, blackberries, and madrone berries. A cider of manzanita berries mixed with fir needles really hits the spot :P
I just made some....
and lets just say it aint my cup of tea.... Anyone had it before?
And on a related note, Does any one ever make any wild teas? Whats your favorite?
When you come back to CA, try out bay leaf tea. I like it a lot better than say, fir needle tea. I mix it with crushed manzanita berries and it gives a nice refreshing kick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by justin_baker
yeah definately
i still havent found manzanita though
i need to get out of my little 300 acre forest.
haha
do you drink it hot or cold?
and also,
do all the oaks and bay leaf's in andele (or however is was spelled) have oak death? cuz all the bay leaf trees around my place have sudden oak death
http://www.ca.uky.edu/caps/images/sod_foliar.jpg
CS - rather than delete your thread as you asked, I've merged it with this thread.
wineberries are delicicous
Bergamot (Bee Balm) leaf is a good tea. Echinacea or Coneflower leaf is okay as well. My favorite is pine needle.
So far, the only one I've tried and really liked is blackberry tea.
I make it in 2L bottles and since I'm in the south, it's sweet blackberry tea.
Fist full of blackberry leaves*
Boil on the stove for ~15 minutes
Steep on the stove for ~15
Pour one cup of sugar in the 2L bottle
Add the steeping tea, be sure to remove the leaves first.
Fill to the top of the bottle with cold water
Mix and enjoy!!
*I don't even dry the leaves in the sun, I just pick and start fixing my tea. I have also put in about 4-5 blackberries in while the tea is boiling. This might give it a very light pinkish color.
made some labador tea over the weekend. I was goofing off in a swamp and came across a patch and brought a handful home and brewed. it was the low bush variety.
Does blackberry tea taste anything like blackberries? I have to try this tomorrow. I have never had blackberry tea. My blackberries are done for the summer but if I can still make tea....woohoo!!!!!
When the upcoming winter is over and the spring comes I will make some birch leaf tea.. It's pretty good, but you need to use young birch leafs.
Try it for yourself and find out. :sneaky2: But if you aren't used to sweet tea, then skip out on the sugar!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
I was just wondering what kind of flavor it had. I am going to try this tomorrow. I like sweetened tea and the berries this year were sweet but they weren't all that sweet. So I'll add some sugar to it.
do you drink it hot or cold?Quote:
Originally Posted by RangerXanatos
im gonna try this with himalyian blackberry this winter
and the native CA blackberry to see if there any difference in taste
I am a fan of Wintergreen berries. They stay on the plant even under the snow and really freshen your breath. I like sassafrass tea and boiled nettles too.Quote:
Originally Posted by wildermonkey
No wild blackberries this far north, close to the Arctic Circle, but we do have a lot of wild raspberries. The leaves make a great addition to tea. I like raspberry leaves and wild rose petals the best, later in fall I add rosehips either fresh picked or dried.
Labrador tea is good, but don't want to drink too much of it.
This time of year in spring, Spruce-needle tip tea is delicious and very nutritious too.
Grandma lori
I don't remember if I replied to this already or not, and I'm too lazy to go through 20 pages to check. So please forgive me if this is a duplication.
The only wild teas I have tried so far and Mormon tea and cenizo tea.
Mormon tea (Ephedra trifurca) tastes a little astringent, but not too bad. It did have a very slight 'pep' to it.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/...7f42598e_b.jpg
Cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens, purple sage, Texas ranger, Texas barometer bush, Texas silverleaf, Texas sage) tea has a slightly earthy, sagey flavor to it. It is supposed to be good for a cold, as it breaks your fever, and makes you a little sleepy.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...cb74123d_b.jpg
I like it mixed with mint and honey.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/...b46b339d_b.jpg
Depending on where I am, I sometimes find wild mint growing too.
I am pretty new to wild edibles (about 2 years now) and a majority of what I've tried have been mushrooms but I think I already have a couple favorites.
I tasted Morels for the first time last season, but I think Black Trumpet mushrooms are my favorite. And I'll never buy blueberries from the grocery store again; wild blueberries are great!
Sorry, I'm just now seeing this. I like to drink mine cold or whenever I've finished it. You can see that I finish the tea by filling the bottle with cold water. That's just to make it cool faster.Quote:
Originally Posted by crimescene450
The cacti are budding and/or in bloom right now. So I made some ocotillo blossom sun tea.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5094/...0112d977_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5030/...f5b46ef0_b.jpg
It had a very subtle, slightly sweet flavor; kinda like cucumber water.
Of course, I couldn't leave it alone. I wanted a more intense flavor. So I reduced it by half, on the stove.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/...f3e7a1ae_b.jpg
Sadly, that turned the flavor harsh. :p
But it's nothing a little pomegranate syrup and gin couldn't fix.
My favorite food plant is redbud. The flowers are great raw or fried in butter. Wood sorrel goes great in salads as does the tender ends of greenbrier. There are all kinds of fruit down here - blackberries, blueberries, haws, wild plums (not nearly as many as I remember when I was a kid), quinces, and maypops. Then, the pecans might not be wild, but they've taken on so well, they might as well be, and there's other nuts I like such as the hickory nuts. I wouldn't call the pot greens favorite except the wild mustard is really good if cooked right. I'll eat the salad and pot greens, though.
Wild teas? Why, of course, sassafras. I was also introduced to poplar once and it wasn't bad. Rose hips make a nice tea as does staghorn sumac. All those fruits up there can be used to make compotes; those are very good. I've also run into mint and horehound down here and, oh yeah! windergreen is all over the place.
By the way, sassafras root (you should use the root because the leaves and stems make a scummy tea - people in Louisiana use dried sassafras leaves as a thickener for gumbo) is just about the hardest wood I ever tries to shave so I bought a pencil sharpener for my kitchen just for sassafras tea.