How cool would it be to just take a stroll out back and pick your very own organic food that you didn’t plant….for free!?
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of foraging some very healthy finds. Foraging is big on my radar screen right now, although in the past I must admit I didn’t hold foraging in high regard.
Foraging is simply the act of looking for food sources that you didn’t plant. I had no idea what kind of nutritional finds there were to be had right on our property. What’s really exciting about foraging is that it isn’t just for those who live in the country. Urban foraging is huge right now! People everywhere are eager to find free food sources that are right under their noses!
Because it can be overwhelming to try to learn and identify too many plants at once, I’ve decided to just tackle one or two at a time. Right now, I am lovin’ mulberries and lamb’s quarters.
This gorgeous lettuce was harvested from my garden, on the way out back to forage. Amish Deer Tongue lettuce has been delicious and very hearty this year.
Lamb’s Quarter
Nature’s “Mineral Tablet”
The health food store shelves are full of pills, including mineral tablets. But nature provides an excellent alternative-one that you take advantage of by eating. This is lamb’s-quarter, a spinach relative found worldwide in the wild. It probably grows in your garden even if you don’t plant it. Used raw in salad or in juice mixes, 100 grams of lamb’s-quarter (about a cup) contains about 80 mg of vitamin C, 11,600 IU of vitamin A, 72 mg of phosphorus, 309 mg of calcium, and small amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron. These figures are slightly lower when you cook the lamb’s-quarter for a spinach replacement, or in soups, egg dishes, or vegetable dishes. You could nearly survive on lamb’s-quarter alone! Source www.motherearthnews.com
How cool is that? I have lamb’s quarters growing everywhere! It’s in the garden and out back as well. For years and years, I’ve picked it and treated it as a weed – I had no idea that it could be eaten or that it could be good for me!
In a tough economy, I can get very excited about the way God is providing through foraging. We need the knowledge, however, to take advantage of it.
Mixed with romaine and carrots, the kids were none the wiser to the lamb’s quarters in their salad. Ranch dressing covers a multitude of sneakiness. :)
Mulberries
You are going to hear me singing the praises of mulberries a lot this year! I am so thrilled and blessed to have quite a number of these on our property, but guess what? I see mulberry trees in residential areas all the time! Mulberries grow in much of the eastern part of the US and are available to many of us.
Mulberries are often times considered to be a nuisance due to the fact that they stain easily and fall all over the ground if not harvested, as well as the fact that they are quite delicate. However, getting free, organic berries (and tons of them!) is totally worth the little bit of hassle in dealing with them.
Also, grab a field guide and/or take a branch with leaves and berries to a local nursery and make sure you’ve got correct identification, just to be safe.
We have been making mulberry jam, freezing berries for smoothies, making muffins and just munching out of the bowl! Here’s the recipe I used to make muffins this week, they were great!
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What are your thoughts regarding foraging?
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About kmorris
Yes! We are learning how to forage. Earlier this week we foraged for mushrooms and came home with a bag of huge morels. We’re working on identifying a variety of things right now. Our biggest thing to forage this year will be wild plums. They are EVERYWHERE here. We’ve got some mystery berries, and a bunch of herbs including comfrey and horsetail and chives that are growing wild. We found wild onions yesterday. This place is amazing!!!
Kimberly,
That’s incredible! Tried as I may, I couldn’t find a single morel on my property this year!
We’ve got other mushrooms, however.
Wild plums??!! Wow, that sounds awesome! Good for you!
One added benefit of foraging is that you can quickly move from “harvesting what you didn’t plant” to harvesting twice as much by planting some of it too. Nothing wrong with encouraging any donor plants that find their way onto your radar.
mushrooms for example are wonderful little treats to grow year ’round in your basement, under your sink, in your close etc. etc.
Joey,
We think alike in that good food sources are all around us, if we just give it a little thought and use what we have!
We are big berry pickers. Mulberries, wineberries, huckleberries, black cap raspberries, black berries and elderberries are all free for the taking. We use the elderberries to make a cold/flu syrup as it is a wonderful anti-viral.
We have lots of lambs quarters, as well, just never put them in my salads. When the new patch of lettuce comes up I will definitely try it.
We also have persimmons everywhere but I have been unable to figure out how to use them yet. By the time I get the seeds out, the pulp is reduced to slime all over my fingers. Any hints?
Carol,
No clue on the persimmons, sorry. I’m wondering if there aren’t more varieties of edible berries out back, now I’m curious. Grabbing the field guide!
Foraging is a good example of how much we’ve lost in terms of skill and how far we’ve removed ourselves from living off the land. How many people do you know that actually forage or will even taste something that’s come from the wild like that? We need to really regain this lost ground!
By the way, you’ve made foraging look wonderfully appealing with such lovely photos!
Thanks Amy! Most people look at me like I”m nuts when I talk about foraging. That’s ok, someone has to re-introduce the skill to the next generation.
LOVE your Preparedness Saturdays!
We don’t have much foraging going on on our 1/5th acre, but we are blessed to have a large mulberry tree in our front yard (and we’re in a totally different climate here…these must be super versatile trees!). The kids love to pick and eat them, and last year we also made jam from them. It’s a lot of fun to watch the birds enjoy them as well, especially the really high ones we can’t reach.
Recently, on a trip to Florida we visited a place called ECHO Farm. They research lots of stuff, including various methods of planting, all kinds of low-tech tools for use in areas without electricity, etc… . They make all the information available free on their website and are a huge support to missionaries. Anyway, while there we learned about a shrubby tree called Moringa. The leaves are super-nutritious and tasty raw or they can be dried and put in other foods. The seed pods are also valuable for water purification. It grows in many climates, so we brought back seeds to try it here in Oklahoma. I’m betting many people have this growing wild and are just unaware of it, as I was.
Cathy,
How cool, thanks for sharing that. I looked up the Moringa, never seen one of those in Ohio. What a cool tree though!
I file this under “one day”! Living in the city, there are not many opportunites for foraging — you just don’t know who has sprayed pesticides, or it’s a park and they don’t allow you to take anything. Ah well, we WILL have property some day, and I look forward to foraging on it!
Judi,
Yes, I know what you mean about who is spraying and who isn’t. Sometimes out here, I’m not so sure.
We’ve only foraged dandelions and wild raspberries, but I’m eager to learn about more edible plants. We live in the Rockies, which means virtually no pesticides, but no wild blueberries or fruit trees either! What kind of plant guide do you use?
Danielle,
I have a few of them, National Audubon Society Field Guide is what I usually look at, DK has a good one as well.
Mulberries look like blackberries – do they taste the same?
Emily,
Good question. I think mulberries are sweeter, although less juicy than blackberries. NO seeds like blackberries though.
Would love to see pics of those mulberry trees!
I’m wondering if there may be some around here!
Donna,
I’ll see if I can work on that for you. You could always google “mulberry tree pictures”.
Thanks for commenting!
I do a little foraging, but mostly raspberries and gooseberry and grapes from my pasture. I just harvested some nettles to use in my goats milk soap.
Teresa,
That sounds wonderful, good for you! Thanks for commenting!
We’ve been picking berries lately too! My boys love them.
Alana,
Isn’t it just awesome? I feel so blessed to have wild berries!
We pick dandelions from any lawn we know that is not treated. I dry them and cut them up to use as greens in almost everything I make. I have dried the roots too, but haven’t used them as much. Just noticed some plantain growing and will look at my herb book for that one’s use. I have a friend who would cook up milkweed when young and fiddleheads and even grape leaves for stuffed meals. I have access to a mulberry tree and a bunch of other fruits. It is zucchini season here… yum! Too many recipes to try to mask the green vegetable in!
Laurie,
Sounds like you are very familiar with ways to forage, that’s a great skill! Thanks for sharing!
I think foraging is okay, as long as it’s on public property. If it’s on private p roperty, it’s okay as long as the owner says so
When I was still living in Oregon, there were wild blackberry bushes that grow on the side of the road. I’d see people picking the berries from time to time. That was pretty cool to watch 
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
This year I’ve harvested wild plantains, mustard, garlic, Indian strawberries, and lambs quarters. Also sumac is starting to ripen. I had no idea those things were edible. (not poison sumac but sumac tree..originates from Persia). Wish I had some mulberries!
Christine,
That’s awesome! Isn’t foraging incredible? BTW, I have about 10 mulberry trees, at least.