What would you forage in your local area?

[Tony]

This is not an opportunity to discuss the virus, doom and gloom, politics etc it's a straight forward chat about foraging...

With all the upheaval at the moment because of COVID-19 I was wondering how much our hobby is of help if things close down and shops struggle with supply chain issues. One aspect of what we do (which I admit to being fairly unskilled) is foraging and depending on where you live you might have a plethora of plants that can contribute to meal times, especially with spring knocking on the door and the world starting to wake up again...

What can you forage in your local area?

 

[Woody girl]

I have so much within a few yards of my house.
In the garden there is
Wild garlic
Dandelions
Wild strawberrys

Further on there is more wild garlic
Hazel nuts
Damsons
Gooseberries
Penny wort
Nettles
Goose grass
Violets
Primrose
Black berries
Beech leaves
Linden blossom
Rowntree berries
Hawthorn leaves and berries
Rosehips
Elder flower and berries

Up in the woods there is
Wild raspberry
Blueberries
Mushrooms

Then of course there are many herbs for medicinal use such as yarrow. All in all I'm very lucky.
I'm sure there is more but that's just off the top of my head within 900yards of my home.

 

[Broch]

Like WG I have too many to list but there is a limit to the carb value of most of it. I have a largish pond full of Reedmace/Cattail (Typha latifolia) that I was supposed to clear out last year; that would keep us in carbs for a couple of weeks . The nettles are starting to come through as is the sorrel and hogweed.

There are plenty of grey squirrel around and left-over pheasant (yes I know it's out of season); we haven't got many rabbit this year though.

Of course, the old adage applies, if you're using up more calories foraging than you're harvesting, you may as well stay at home (unless of course we're just talking about adding some variety and taste).

 

[oldtimer]

Well done, Boss.
With the imminent site temporary shut down, I commented to Madame that instead of sitting at the computer reading about the outdoors some of us had better go outdoors and do something. She promptly compiled a list of all the outdoor jobs that I've neglected over the winter. Now I can say that you have set us a research task to tide us over until we're back on line.

 

[Woody girl]

I'm fine for protein. Yesterday sorting thru my food I found a total of 9 jars of peanut butter. so I won't have to forage for protein for a while.
Good job I love satay!
Failing that there are a few cats roaming about, and several neighbours have dogs and rabbits.
Another has many chickens so I'm fine for eggs, and if things get tough, a midnight visit to the chicken coup could be arranged quite easily.
But that is extreme foraging.

 

[bobnewboy]

Allowed Seasons notwithstanding, in my local area not far from WG (and so including her list) I could have roe deer, rabbit, pheasant, partridge, grey squirrel, pigeon (hundreds of ‘em), plus perch, trout, pike, and if you’re really desperate, carp .
Our local farms grow onions, peas, spuds etc, so if scrumping was allowed I could get them as well when they’re ready. Oh and apples and pears when they’re ready of course

If we ran out of those we could turn our attention to our veg patch and soft fruit cage, but again some of that is out of season for now.

 

[Toddy]

Just now we have
Pignuts,
Lesser Celandines
Ramsons
Reedmace
Masses of the peas from the sycamores which haven't sprouted yet
Dandelion
Burdock
Nettles
A lot of Spring greens, from bittercress to Lady's smock coming through too.
Sap from the birches as well.
Usual range of fruit plants, but no real eating from them yet, though my forced rhubarb is coming up and so are the chicons from the chicory.
Herbs have done surprisingly well this Winter. Even my olive tree has kept it's fruits slowly ripening, and the fig is trying hard to swell it's fruit buds.

We also have a lot of Winter veg still, from potatoes to parsnips, carrots and kale, turnips, etc., available too.

 

[Woody girl]

Yes, I think my down time in the next few weeks will be spent getting the garden in order and doing household jobs and improving my foraging skills.
I could also have pigeon wild rabbit squirrel and pheasant easily enough.
I have the means to garner those.
I don't have the means for deer but then I don't eat a lot of meat anyway and happily can go months without.

 

[John Fenna]

As WG, Broch and Toddy say - there is quite a bit coming through at the moment.... and the fields are full of cattle, sheep and horses if things get really bad

 

[santaman2000]

Concerning proteins I’d be limited to fish and shellfish at the moment. There’s plenty of game but the only hunting season at the moment is turkey and those are beyond my skill set.
Blueberries and blackberries are still a ways off as well as are most local fruits. Pope salet might be a go. Possible seaweed.

 

[Robson Valley]

Foraging is seasonal here. You can see it so easily in the village resident mule deer.
If they ate the dead, dry leaves last month, now they must browse on the stems.
But, their metabolism slows down in the winter so that helps them a lot.

I expect that the term include hunting and fishing. Anything and everything.
You had better know some reliable methods for neolithic food preservation (drying, smoking, etc).
Not much for nuts (Corylus hazelnut) but at least 6 kinds of fruit berries in bulk quantity.
4 kinds of salmon plus trout. 6 kinds of ducks plus Canada geese. 3 kinds of grouse,
3 kinds of ptarmigan. Sandhill cranes, 3 kinds of cats, 2 kinds of bears, moose and elk, wolves & coyotes.

Nothing for freshwater clams or crayfish thay I can find or hear of.
Fern fiddleheads are plentiful but they don't keep well at all.
Some pine mushrooms (rare.) Nothing like the wild onions of the Great Plains.

Neolithing mainstay (from middens) on the coast were shellfish and salmon.
Here in the interior, salmon in seasonal spawning runs, same for big rainbow trout.
Deer and moose were uncommon until the forests were opened by logging.
They are animals of "edge." Elk came through the mountain passes from the East, less than a century ago.

 

[Broch]

I don't expect it to get there, but if things got bad, we would have to look out for gangs coming into the area from the big towns and cities rustling sheep. Many of the herds are in quite remote places in this area and impossible to watch. Some local farmers, with maybe only half a dozen hands, have fields twenty miles away! Any van or truck travelling around these lanes at night would be suspect.

Sorry, slipping off topic a bit.

 

[Woody girl]

I don't expect it to get there, but if things got bad, we would have to look out for gangs coming into the area from the big towns and cities rustling sheep. Many of the herds are in quite remote places in this area and impossible to watch. Some local farmers, with maybe only half a dozen hands, have fields twenty miles away! Any van or truck travelling around these lanes at night would be suspect.

Sorry, slipping off topic a bit.

I don't expect we'll get there food wise but I wouldn't put it past rustling gangs to take advantage of the situation though.
It must be a worry for the farmers.

 

[Toddy]

Interesting old BBC article on Fergus the Forager

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30015052

 

[Laurentius]

Bricks and anything else useful left over from the building site on my doorstep

 

[Woody girl]

Crayfish will be starting to come out of hibernation about now down south so there is something else to get. I made a trap a few years ago but never got round to getting the license but I do have a dip net.... so if I accidentally catch one it's illegal to put it back

 

[Robson Valley]

Woody Girl: I wish you well trapping crayfish. A family staple for us kids in the summers.
I have some ancient family sauce recipes (1960)to share when you get going.

One of my girls can eat the claws, cracking the shells and spitting that out.
Her husband is most impressed.

 

[gra_farmer]

I don't expect we'll get there food wise but I wouldn't put it past rustling gangs to take advantage of the situation though.
It must be a worry for the farmers.

I used to be a sheep farmer, and during the last economic recession, I found a number of sheep killed and part butchered in the fields, most were just killed and token effort to harvest the meat....i think that, that hurt the most, was the lack of respect for the animal, waste of life and resources. Must admit seeing people mentioning in passing livestock rustling makes me sad.

If it gets to that level, find the farmer and talk to them about a sheep or cow, if nothing else it would safe guard anyone from possible ingestion of nasty veterinary medicine, that may have been applied.

Foot and mouth, plus the after affects of towny raids on farms during the last economic recession , really put me off being a farmer.....so I stopped and diversified.

I now help farmer's keep farming and aware of sustainable resource management. This is done via policy, (I am contributing author to a number of UK and EU policies, bills, guidance documents and directives), which focus on safe guarding the environment and land management within. As well as activities on the ground with individual farms.

 

[Billy-o]

Foodwise: you get salmon coming out of your ears, trout, perch, blueberries, blackberries are big here, also salmon berries, mountain tea, lots of clams and mussels, seaweed, birch and maple sap, fiddleheads soon ... lots of stuff

There's mushrooms, but they are keeners here, so I only ever get to see where they have been

 

[gra_farmer]

Back to topic.....sand dunes has a rich herb layer that is very easy to harvest and identify, my first habitat of choice after a woodland