December: What can I expect to find?

[AndyW]

As a noobie I want to learn about foraging for food and what I can make with it. Simply going out, picking everything I see and think might be edible or useful, then sitting down to poor over books to work out what it is and what I can do with it can make learning difficult. If I knew what I should be looking for and why I should be looking for it, I'd learn a lot more.

So come on everybody, it's now December but there must be some tasty or useful things still to find! As a beginner, what should I be looking for that's fairly common?

 

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

As a noobie I want to learn about foraging for food and what I can make with it. Simply going out, picking everything I see and think might be edible or useful, then sitting down to poor over books to work out what it is and what I can do with it can make learning difficult. If I knew what I should be looking for and why I should be looking for it, I'd learn a lot more.

So come on everybody, it's now December but there must be some tasty or useful things still to find! As a beginner, what should I be looking for that's fairly common?

Rabbits alright, all kidding aside, your evergreens are great sources of vitamin c, especially Cedar and white pine. Just add the needles to boiling water, steep and drink the tea (I suggest adding some ginger syrup or sugar).

If you cut a pine down, strip off the outer bark and take the cambium layer. Dry this by a fire, roast it and pound it into flour, makes a decent bannock. Same with birch.

Also, there may be Wintergreen in your region. Where do you live? Uk, or somewhere else? I'm speaking mostly for Northern Ontario.

 

[leon-b]

up untill now i havent done any foraging except for the odd blackberry or chestnut, i would like to learn more about wild food as i feel this is probebly my weak subject
hopefully this thread is popular
maybe we could start one each month so newbies know what to look for in each month
leon

 

[Marts]

OK. Here's a few winter suggestions, rather than just December - which is a bit variable depending on where you are and the particular year.

Oyster Mushrooms - these grow throughout the year. Search for them a few days after a frost - the shock of the frost often causes them to begin fruiting simultaneously.

Blewits Very important to cook these as they can upset sopme people's stomachs when raw. Again they can be picked through the winter.

Dandelion No flowers at the moment but plenty of leaves. You can also dig up the roots to roast as a coffee substitute.

Crab apples. There are a huge variety out there and you'd be surprised how many are around in winter. Stick them in with the roast or soak them in gin.

Rose hips will still be around on some bushes.

Nettles The bushcrafters favourite. If you look down at the base of the dried up nettles you'll often find young green leaves there - soup, tea, or as a spinach substitute.

Happy foraging

 

[chickenofthewoods]

I can make some suggestions, but before anyone jumps on me can I say that these aren't recommendations, just pointers for the season. Nor am I suggesting that any of these are 'easy' to id for the novice, but we all have to start somewhere and if you want to learn you will still have to at least look first. You'll also still have to do some homework to be sure of your id, and take care to establish whether or not any given plant or fungi agrees with you by eating only a small amount and monitoring your body's reaction to it before going further.

Blewit
Wood Blewit
Jews Ear fungus (odd looking, rubbery yet crunchy - use in oriental stir fry dishes)
Oyster fungus

Nettle tops (look for young growth only)
Chickweed
Wood Sorrel
Dandelion (for very young leaves & roots for drying as a coffee subsitute, also the occasional flower)
Dog Rose - Rosa canina (Even now there are still hips on some plants - for a lovely fruity trail snack, snap off a soft one and gently squeeze out the pulp to eat - it looks like orange/red paste - avoid squeezing out any hairs or seeds, they're an irritant)
Ground Elder
Wilding Apples - may still be on some trees
Common Mallow (young leaves)

I can give latin names if you want them for reference.

 

[weekender]

i have wanted to have a go at rose hip "tea" but have always wonderd how many rose hips to steep in water make a palatable drink???

 

[xylaria]

Thats a good list Mr laetiporus, it about sums up the easy id common winter grub that is advailable.

The ear fungus I put as a muppet proof mushroom. The most dangerious thing about it is that if you fry it whole it can explode. I prefer slicing it thin and stewing it with a chicken stock cube. Add green stuff (sorrel, nettle shoots et al) at the end and Hey Presto chinese soup.

OzaawaaMigiziNini thanks I always wanted know what to eat in a pine forest apart from fungus and furry things, i will have to try the cambium layer bannock out as root harvesting is legally restricted this side of the pond so carbs are quite hard to come by.

When can Birch sap or Maple sap be harvested?. Is when the green buds start to come out on the tree or earlier?

 

[AndyW]

OzaawaaMigiziNini, I'm in the UK, an Essex boy born and bred!

Thanks all for getting this going it's just what us noobies need :You_Rock_

Leon-b, got it one mate. It would be great to have one each month as a point of reference. Things like, you might still find some of these and start to find some of that and such and such should be in full swing now.

Guess what I'll be doing over the weekend...

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Thats a good list Mr laetiporus, it about sums up the easy id common winter grub that is advailable.

The ear fungus I put as a muppet proof mushroom. The most dangerious thing about it is that if you fry it whole it can explode. I prefer slicing it thin and stewing it with a chicken stock cube. Add green stuff (sorrel, nettle shoots et al) at the end and Hey Presto chinese soup.

OzaawaaMigiziNini thanks I always wanted know what to eat in a pine forest apart from fungus and furry things, i will have to try the cambium layer bannock out as root harvesting is legally restricted this side of the pond so carbs are quite hard to come by.

When can Birch sap or Maple sap be harvested?. Is when the green buds start to come out on the tree or earlier?

Ah, that's 'Mrs' actually

Velvet shank* is another, although I haven't tried it yet and some people I know debate it's worthiness for flavour. You will need to be sure of your id though. Rogers has
this on it. So that's more ingredients for the oriental soup!

* Best known in cultivated form as 'Enoki' or Enokitake Japanese mushroom - which is forced in cultivation so it's white all over unlike wild specimens.

Rose hip tea: If you're doing it dried from scratch, top tail and de-seed (laborious but worth the effort IMHO) some firm rosehips. Don't use squashy ones! (messy....) Chop roughly and spread on a baking sheet to dry in a coolish oven - or use a dehydrator if you have one.

1 to 2 tablespoons dried rose hips
1 whole clove
Sugar or honey to taste
1 cup (240 mL) boiling water


Instructions
Steep rose hips and clove in boiling water for five minutes (you can use a tea ball if you have one). Remove hips and cloves. Reheat if desired. Sweeten to
taste with sugar or honey. Makes one serving.

For fresh rosehip tea, prep. about 8 to 10 hips as above but don't dry them (obviously!). Place them into a pan with approx. 2 cups of water and simmer for about 20 mins. strain off the liquid and sweeten as required.

See what you make of it.

 

[xylaria]

I used to live in Illford, and spent most of my teenager years bunking school and wandering around epping forest with a basket of fungi.

There is alot of blewits in that area at this time of year. They look like this

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Lepista_nuda.htm
As you can see they are purple. There only a handful of fungi that are purple. And blewits cover about half them. (there is more than one type of blewit)
the spore print is pale pink

The mushroom that it most looks like and is not related to is this one
http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Cortinarius_violaceus.htm
the spore print on a violet cortinarius is reddish brown

The deadly piosonous one it most resembles is this one
http://users.skynet.be/dr.bosko/pages_JJW/Inocybe_geophylla_lilacina_1.html
the spore print for this inocybe is tabacco brown

Normal disclaimer you should not pick mushrooms unless you know what you doing. You can make yourself a good meal without risking your life using very easy to ID plants. Chicken of the woods gave very good advice about only eating small amounts to check you are not sensitive to new food. Ear fungus is unmistakable and really common, and is in most wonton soups from take-aways so you might of eaten it already.

Good idea about a monthly thread

 

[bushyboo]

Great thread i too am a newbie to foraging but am very interested. A monthly thread with some pics would be great

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Re the Birch tapping - British Red's your man for that. I'm sure he must've posted a piece about it on here somewhere (I'll do a search for it in a mo', see what I can find).

Great for making potent wine - it's said to be very good for you too. Sap shouldn't be drawn from a silver birch of a diameter less than a quarter of a metre at the base, as these small trees cannot take it and can be damaged by the process.

To draw sap you'll need to harvest it in early spring before the leaves open but when the sap is rising & take care to plug the hole securely afterwards otherwise the tree will continue to 'bleed' which will damage it's growth. You can either drink the sap straight off or allow it to ferment, one gallon of sap can eventually give you up to 5 bottles of Birch wine.

Did you know that you can also tap Ash trees in the same way?

Yup. Knew it was somewhere. Have a look at that & see if it helps.

 

[PatrickM]

Burdock, ramsons, pignuts and many other delights can still be harvested although the main plant has died back. Do'nt forget about the bumper
crop of berrys, fruit and nuts which are still around. These were gathered yesterday.

 

[billycan]

Birch Sap!!

usually the first couple of weeks of March, however it varies each year depending on the weather etc. Keep an eye on the buds and their growth. You can also tap sycamore as well.
If you want sugary water then drill into the phloem, which is closest to the bark, whereas if you drill further into the trunk where the xylem tissue is then you will get water.

 

[Toddy]

Don't forget the greens that grow in sheltered places either. I've got fresh thistles, dandelions, bittercress, lady's smock, fennel, nettles and chickweed coming up too. I found fresh brambles, raspberries and rose haws this week as well as the late fruits from sloes & apples. The last of the acorns have just fallen here so they're still worth gathering.

Cheers,
Toddy