Does anyone forage ?

Burt Blank

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20 years ago when I first visited Croatia and Serbia with my wife I was fit so I did a lot of foraging. Now my wife will still go out and pick Wild Asparagus.
 
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We do here in very rural parts of Sri Lanka. Various kinds of yam, herbs, and fruits are found in the wild here. Bordering my garden are 3 trees of Ceylon breadfruit (Artocarpus nobilis) which is a tasty curry when cooked properly, or a filling main if you can find enough of them. The seeds when roasted taste like peanuts but much more tastier. Ceylon breadfruit is a wild tree no one grows but everyone loves to eat, and rarely found.
 
Only wild fruit usually, there are wild blackberries and a few damson trees in the woods but the crop was poor this year. I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to risk picking those. There is a local chef who's menu is all foraged.
 
We do here in very rural parts of Sri Lanka. Various kinds of yam, herbs, and fruits are found in the wild here. Bordering my garden are 3 trees of Ceylon breadfruit (Artocarpus nobilis) which is a tasty curry when cooked properly, or a filling main if you can find enough of them. The seeds when roasted taste like peanuts but much more tastier. Ceylon breadfruit is a wild tree no one grows but everyone loves to eat, and rarely found.
Mate I became addicted to breadfruit crisps/chips when I had a Guyanese girl friend
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSazBDCR1w8&ab_channel=RealNiceGuyana
 
Only wild fruit usually, there are wild blackberries and a few damson trees in the woods but the crop was poor this year. I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to risk picking those. There is a local chef who's menu is all foraged.
Mate, I had this poster on my shed wall when we sorted them. When in doubt, throw it out.
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Blackberries and raspberries mainly, though sadly our best raspberry patch has dwindled to almost nothing after being overrun by too many other pushy plants. This year, we've had quite a few free apples, courtesy of people who have trees in their gardens and donated their excess to a couple of local shops. The last time I was "down south" (i.e. England), which seems like an age ago, we found some lovely wild blueberries growing near the Thames in Oxford.
 
In the UK, we used to all the time. I grew up foraging with my Grannie. She made Sure that I could identify anything I came across (fungi excluded) and knew if it was edible or not. She gave me many books on the subject for Christmas and birthday over the years. And to an extent we did whilst we were cycling around the world, but it is much harder to forage in Australia and generally frowned upon unless it is from an introduced species such as brambles (as opposed to blackberries which are a modified version that can't self propergate.). Plus I have a husband who is less than keen to participate...

Even "scent marking a tree" (you a generally male and don't have to cock a leg to acheive this!) is frowned upon here. Plus I've only a few years experience in identifying stuff that can be foraged so don't have much confidence regarding this and so much can kill you in Australia that I am amazed anyone ever survived here at all.
 
I forage. Chives, dandelion greens, wild blueberries, plantain (the herb)...

I will be tapping sugar maples for syrup come March.
I've also done silver birch as well... very nice once processed a touch. (Reduction was all I did but I do know it can be made into a wine or better yet a liquor).

I'll add that I always felt wrong deliberately injuring a tree (I can't hammer a nail into one either, don't add. It just seems wrong to harm something unnecessarily) but in this case the trees had to be cut back, both from electricity cables (unshielded so dangerous to allow trees to get close to) and from forming an avenue up the track, so needed pruning with individual branches removing). The latter were birch not silver birch. Both work week for sap in my experience.
 
Here where I live, there are many wild asparagus growing every spring, so we pick and cook a lot of them. We also have a big array of mushrooms, for example boletus like this one:View attachment 60714
I would like to know how do you cook wild asparagus. Thanks


Where I grew up we picked wild field shrooms, but nothing like your one. I love shrooms on toast. I also love asparagus, my mate grows it.

Russ
 
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