Wild edible plant walk

[magid]

Two Thursdays ago I went on a wild edible plant walk around Weston's Land's Sake farm, led by John Root. We didn't go that far to find a wide variety of edible plants (other than those growing in the fields!), and a few inedible ones such as poison ivy, which is rife around there, especially near the parking area.

I didn't take notes, especially since there was a handout (available at the link above), but did get to try dandelion, lamb's quarters, amaranth, chickweed, purslane (which I'd gotten in a farm share years ago), wood sorrel (my favorite of the day, with a wonderfully sour taste like sour candy; the warning is that it contains oxalic acid, so is to be avoided in quantity if you have kidney stones, rheumatism, or gout), and milkweed flowers. We also saw plantain, Japanese knotweed (too old to be edible), pokeweed, and dock.

We didn't go very far, browsing the edges of places (parking area, fields, compost heap), but it was illuminating. I'd had my fruit eyes on (I found a couple of locations with black raspberries right near my parents' house when I went for a Shabbat walk with my dad), but this feels more specialized, knowing I can eat a bit of this leaf or that, as well as uses for other leaves.

Other useful foraging links: Wildman Steve Brill leads wild edible food walks, mostly around metro NYC; foraging.com has lots of information on foraging and ethnobotany.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

your guide has an aptonym.

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Hey, I get to do that soon in the Oakland foothills-sounds so awesome...

Can I forage in an apple orchard, or perhaps some NE corn patch?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've been envying you the wide range of local foodstuffs in your area; I look forward to hearing about what you find.

Somehow, picking apples in an orchard, lovely as it is, doesn't feel like foraging, unless you find an old abandoned orchard that still gives fruit.

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

If you need wood sorrel, we have *tons* of it -- though the kids seem to be eating much more mint than wood sorrel this year.

IIRC *none* of those leafy greens are native; they all came over in the hay with colonists' sheep. Munch away!

If you like this sort of thing, check out Russ Cohen's schedule of wild edible walks: http://users.rcn.com/eatwild/sched.htm

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I might take you up on the wood sorrel, though perhaps not for a little while, given my nutty schedule this month.

My impression was that while a lot of the plants weren't native, some were definitely more invasive than others (Japanese knotweed, for instance).

And John Root's site linked to the Russ Cohen's; I'm waiting for details on his Drumlin Farm walk :-)

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

I didn't say the leafy greens were invasive-- most of them live and let live and grow in "waste areas and roadsides" if you look in the wildflower guides.

The real nasties are listed here:
http://www.mass.gov/agr/farmproducts/proposed_prohibited_plant_list_v12-12-05.htm