Foraging - How to forage / foraging discussion

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Anyone forage?

I don't myself, but it's something I've thought about getting into. Especially as I'm attracted to outdoorsman type things, but don't feel real comfortable (morally) with hunting and fishing IRL and don't care for camping. I like to pick berries, and this barely counts as forage but there's a park near my apartment I walk in that has berry bushes. Used to be reluctant to forage them (not my property), but I have never once seen a person pick one off it, so anytime I'm walking through I'll pick and eat the blackberries as I walk along. (My Mom and I used to harvest berries in our own yard.)

There are some kinds of foraging that, at least at one time, could be very lucrative. Three particular plants I know of are ginseng, ramps, and truffles. Ginseng had a near-magical reputation for centuries, cure all that ails you, make your dick grow to a foot long, that sort of stuff. It grew real thick all over Appalachia (Eastern US in general, really) and there was a whole cottage industry of men going out and picking it to sell to China, who had the biggest appetite for that stuff. With ginseng it's the root you want, and you CAN cultivate it, but nobody really values it cultivated; it won't sell near as well as if you can find it wild. Through overexploitation it's become quite rare.

Ramps, another Appalachian plant, were a nasty wild onion, extremely pungent, that Cherokees worshipped and poor hillbillies ate to cleanse the blood. (Had some nutrient that their diet left them deficient in over Winter.) For a long time, it was considered trash food (like eating chitlins), but then hipster faggots from big Northern cities (my kindred spirits) decided it was artisanal and folksy and whatever all else and now they sell for ridiculous amounts of money to luxury restaurants. Of course this has meant that they too have been overharvested. They only grow at particularly high elevations, rather limited in range.

Lastly, we've probably all heard of truffles. Little black mushrooms, were spurned by the French aristos until one day Louis XIV decided they were hot shit and they've been a delicacy ever since. What's cool about them is that they hunt them with pigs, pigs go sniff them out, which is the cutest thing in the world. I would love to have a truffle hog to accompany me on my stridings and find me free money laying around the ground. Think they mostly grow in Europe, though.

My Pa would tell stories of seeing Blacks (this was back in, like, the 1970s) foraging by the sides of roads in the Midwest, looking for greens of various kinds. Some hippy types I know do the same. Also, we might add to that foraging for certain types of honey. The type of tree makes a huge impact on the taste and quality of the honey; some, like linden and white tupelo, are highly valuable luxuries. In Nepal, they have psychedelic honey made from rhododendrons, you'll trip balls and probably vomit and poison yourself.

Foraging sounds a bit appealing, I've thought of doing nature photography as a way to hunt without hunting, and foraging (where legal) is another way to go out and sort of gamble on the wilderness. Plus if I kill myself eating the wrong kind of berries that may be a benefit to you all (not have to read my garbage anymore).

I reckon we could count seafood (coastal shellfish) as foraging too, shellfish are animals but I mean they're not really animals, you know?

 

[rel=alternate]

I don't know about the rest or about the US.

But if you think you can go forage truffle on other people's land, you are dead wrong. This shit will get you shot at and buried in the EU, in the US I guess they would not even bother digging.

 

[Brenda Tits]

I forage and I grew up eating wild food. Berries, various greens, wild garlic etc. I have also found and eaten wild mushrooms but only when I was very sure of what I was eating. You can't fuck around with shrooms.

I think it would be difficult to make money doing it, mind. Although if you want to make elderflower jelly to sell at a craft market or something then you might make something.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I don't know about the rest or about the US.

But if you think you can go forage truffle on other people's land, you are dead wrong. This shit will get you shot at and buried in the EU, in the US I guess they would not even bother digging.

Bro I would assume that taking anything off anyone's private land, or going on their private land, will get you shot. The big question is if you can go do it on public land like national parks. (The answer is complicated but often "no.")

I forage and I grew up eating wild food. Berries, various greens, wild garlic etc. I have also found and eaten wild mushrooms but only when I was very sure of what I was eating. You can't fuck around with shrooms.

I think it would be difficult to make money doing it, mind. Although if you want to make elderflower jelly to sell at a craft market or something then you might make something.

As a career, surely hard, I compare it to gambling as a hobby where you don't expect to make a reliable return but the pleasure of occasionally finding/winning something of value through luck justifies it.

 

[Diamond Homonculus]

I've heard some people sell fiddleheads never done it myself though.

 

[Rendang]

As a career, surely hard, I compare it to gambling as a hobby where you don't expect to make a reliable return but the pleasure of occasionally finding/winning something of value through luck justifies it.

Foraging as a career is achievable, but it definitely isn't gambling; Samuel Thayer is the patriarch of foraging, and he gets most of his revenue from a mix of his books, a few orchards, and select sites with plants. It's definitely something that requires experience to profit. He often transplants bushes for more to harvest, has invested a hefty sum from berry rakes, nutcrackers, and oil expellers, and host occasional shows in a national park. (He's a great way to get into foraging btw; his books are well detailed [although his first book does christ-sperg too much at times], having instructions on preserving or processing parts of the plant, are well researched, using scientific studies, and uses first-hand knowledge [a ton of foraging books are riddled with obviously plagiarized wrong data]. A must buy for beginners.)

A common Summer foraging "career" done in Maine is blueberry picking; Nearly all berry bushes (except cranberries and some plum trees) thrive in rocky, nutrient-poor soil conditions, and Maine has plenty of that on the coastline. Because of this, the blueberry bush grows abundantly, and you can get a nifty profit. A quart of wild blueberries can fetch a hefty price of $6-8, and with a blueberry rake and spots with no competition, you can pick 2-3 quarts an hour. The quality of Maine blueberries are unmatched in flavor; It's less like eating a juicy foreskin and more like an actual fruit. I gorge on them anytime I visit the coast.



The appeal of foraging is randomly finding a location with value, and then revisiting it in the upcoming years. Foragers often stumble upon a site that's too late to harvest (If a tree still has an abundance of fruit late into the season, the fruit will likely be awful; the wildlife knows good and bad), but most mark the site to harvest later. Next time, you can reliably harvest it before the wildlife can consume it all. I have a small site near a church that has thriving colonies of female summer and fox grapes (most grape vines are be male). I plan to make wine someday and donate it to the church.

 

[Shart Attack]

Ramps, another Appalachian plant, were a nasty wild onion, extremely pungent, that Cherokees worshipped and poor hillbillies ate to cleanse the blood. (Had some nutrient that their diet left them deficient in over Winter.) For a long time, it was considered trash food (like eating chitlins), but then hipster faggots from big Northern cities (my kindred spirits) decided it was artisanal and folksy and whatever all else and now they sell for ridiculous amounts of money to luxury restaurants. Of course this has meant that they too have been overharvested. They only grow at particularly high elevations, rather limited in range.

Ramps/wild leeks are the only thing I forage currently. They're a nice little early spring treat, like a cross between garlic and onion. They're great in omelettes. There's a trick to sustainably harvesting them that your average hipster fuckhead either doesn't know or doesn't care about, and they're relatively slow to grow. It can take like 5-10 years for a patch to regrow after some greedy hipster fuck over-harvests it. I eagerly await the day the farmers' market hipster crowd finds something else to latch onto, like poisonous mushrooms or something.

One of these days I'll get around to foraging for other stuff. I'm told chickweed is pretty tasty.

Les Stroud from Survivorman has an interesting show about foraging that might be up your alley. It's called Wild Harvest. He forages for various wild edibles and hands them off to a professional chef to show what can be done with them. The first episode is about gathering/foraging for shellfish:

 

[Rendang]

There's a trick to sustainably harvesting them that your average hipster fuckhead either doesn't know or doesn't care about, and they're relatively slow to grow.

For harvesting wild leeks sustainably, harvest 3/4ths the leaves but leave the bulbs of a colony in spring, and revisit the maple grove during fall or late-winter to collect bulbs, taking a few every two or three foots apart in known colony areas.



On the topic of colonial plants, there are other colonial plants that are difficult to overharvest. Sumac, lotus, and Wapato are choice picks, because they're either too niche to profitably harvest, require processing after, or require digging through muck. This prevents hipsters from annihilating them.

Sumac (Rhus etc.) are small, short-living trees that grow in colonies around forest clearings and linings. You've likely have already seen them near highways in their distinctly "round" green colonies produced by cloning.

Figure 1: Staghorn sumac berry bunch.

On closer inspection, the tree usually has dark-green, long, and jagged pinnate (they grow mostly side-by-side instead of a single spot) compound leaves, and upward red clusters of berries from summer to winter. Few plants share the same attributes, but an annoying invasive species is "vaguely" similar to it, which will be discussed later.

The two most common species I've encountered were the smooth sumac and staghorn sumac. Staghorn and smooth sumac are twins to another, but staghorn sumac is unique in being fuzzy on younger shoots, while smooth lacks fuzz. The fruit also reflects this; Staghorn has fuzzy berries, smooth has smooth berries (I think staghorn is prettier, but smooth is tastier).

The two edible parts of sumac is the fruit cluster and the shoots. Emerging in (and best harvested) early summer and after a few days without rain, the fruit cluster obtains its flavor from the hair, and can be described as pure concentrated sour, vaguely lemony. You can process the sumac to become the spice used in middle-eastern cuisine, but the easiest way to enjoy the flavor is to make sumac-ade. Submerge two or three sumac clusters per gallon, and let them seep overnight. Filter the hairs using a coffee filter, and add sweetener for taste. In some seasons, it will have wonderful in taste, while others may have little to no tang, so be weary.

The shoot is harvestable early spring, and can either be sprouting shoots or new branches. The target should be able to easily snapped (This is a great rule of thumb for other edible shoots; if you struggle to remove the stem, then it's too late to eat.) and look light green. Removing the outer layer reveals soft flesh, and the taste is surprisingly fruity and refreshing.

There is only one look-alike for sumac, the tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Known as false sumac, this tree from China was introduced by city planners for it's ability to handle salty conditions and looks pretty. Of course, this tree thrives, and now is an invasive which makes me a-log. The easiest way to distinguish between real and false sumac is the leaves and fruit. False sumac has little to no edges, and doesn't bare red fruit.

Poison sumac lives alone in the swamp and bears white fruit in grape clusters around stems. There is zero chance to get confused between it's edible cousins.

I'll discuss the other colony plants in a later post, but I hope you guys don't mind me in turning these threads into a blog to help introduce beginner foragers.

 

[Super Guido]

For harvesting wild leeks sustainably, harvest 3/4ths the leaves but leave the bulbs of a colony in spring, and revisit the maple grove during fall or late-winter to collect bulbs, taking a few every two or three foots apart in known colony areas.



On the topic of colonial plants, there are other colonial plants that are difficult to overharvest. Sumac, lotus, and Wapato are choice picks, because they're either too niche to profitably harvest, require processing after, or require digging through muck. This prevents hipsters from annihilating them.

Sumac (Rhus etc.) are small, short-living trees that grow in colonies around forest clearings and linings. You've likely have already seen them near highways in their distinctly "round" green colonies produced by cloning.

View attachment 4552214
Figure 1: Staghorn sumac berry bunch.

On closer inspection, the tree usually has dark-green, long, and jagged pinnate (they grow mostly side-by-side instead of a single spot) compound leaves, and upward red clusters of berries from summer to winter. Few plants share the same attributes, but an annoying invasive species is "vaguely" similar to it, which will be discussed later.

The two most common species I've encountered were the smooth sumac and staghorn sumac. Staghorn and smooth sumac are twins to another, but staghorn sumac is unique in being fuzzy on younger shoots, while smooth lacks fuzz. The fruit also reflects this; Staghorn has fuzzy berries, smooth has smooth berries (I think staghorn is prettier, but smooth is tastier).

The two edible parts of sumac is the fruit cluster and the shoots. Emerging in (and best harvested) early summer and after a few days without rain, the fruit cluster obtains its flavor from the hair, and can be described as pure concentrated sour, vaguely lemony. You can process the sumac to become the spice used in middle-eastern cuisine, but the easiest way to enjoy the flavor is to make sumac-ade. Submerge two or three sumac clusters per gallon, and let them seep overnight. Filter the hairs using a coffee filter, and add sweetener for taste. In some seasons, it will have wonderful in taste, while others may have little to no tang, so be weary.

The shoot is harvestable early spring, and can either be sprouting shoots or new branches. The target should be able to easily snapped (This is a great rule of thumb for other edible shoots; if you struggle to remove the stem, then it's too late to eat.) and look light green. Removing the outer layer reveals soft flesh, and the taste is surprisingly fruity and refreshing.

There is only one look-alike for sumac, the tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Known as false sumac, this tree from China was introduced by city planners for it's ability to handle salty conditions and looks pretty. Of course, this tree thrives, and now is an invasive which makes me a-log. The easiest way to distinguish between real and false sumac is the leaves and fruit. False sumac has little to no edges, and doesn't bare red fruit.

Poison sumac lives alone in the swamp and bears white fruit in grape clusters around stems. There is zero chance to get confused between it's edible cousins.

I'll discuss the other colony plants in a later post, but I hope you guys don't mind me in turning these threads into a blog to help introduce beginner foragers.

I have always wanted to harvest sumac, but the only place I ever notice it is on the side of highways. I can't imagine it's safe to ingest as I have been told to not bother with anything that has prolonged exposure to car exhaust. It might be interesting to see what contaminants are in the soil and the fruit from a lab test.

One thing I recall hearing is that sumac is one of those fruits that are negatively impacted by rain. Not the plant itself, but when rain gets on the fruit, it degrades the quality because iirc some part of it is water soluble? Is that why you should get them after a few days without rain?

 

[Rendang]

I have always wanted to harvest sumac, but the only place I ever notice it is on the side of highways. I can't imagine it's safe to ingest as I have been told to not bother with anything that has prolonged exposure to car exhaust. It might be interesting to see what contaminants are in the soil and the fruit from a lab test.

One thing I recall hearing is that sumac is one of those fruits that are negatively impacted by rain. Not the plant itself, but when rain gets on the fruit, it degrades the quality because iirc some part of it is water soluble? Is that why you should get them after a few days without rain?

The best bet to harvest sumac would be wildlife management reserves or farms, as they have typically open areas to pick. My nearby farmer allows people to freely harvest the weeds, so I freely pick off a small colony of sumac. Wildlife management reserves here in New England were/are farms, so they will have open clearings. I remember fondly of a massive hedgerow of sumac between two farm-plots.

Most of the flavor the sumac stems from mostly the acids (malic mostly) covering the hairs. If it rains, there's no more flavor. I assume this is to make it initially unappealing for animals to consume, as sumac becomes a vital food for birds in the winter.

 

[Super Guido]

The best bet to harvest sumac would be wildlife management reserves or farms, as they have typically open areas to pick. My nearby farmer allows people to freely harvest the weeds, so I freely pick off a small colony of sumac. Wildlife management reserves here in New England were/are farms, so they will have open clearings. I remember fondly of a massive hedgerow of sumac between two farm-plots.

Most of the flavor the sumac stems from mostly the acids (malic mostly) covering the hairs. If it rains, there's no more flavor. I assume this is to make it initially unappealing for animals to consume, as sumac becomes a vital food for birds in the winter.

Ah. I'm not quite in New England, but I am somewhat close to it. I think some of the farmers markets in town sell fresh sumac in the spring or summer.

Ever harvest wineberries? Those are great if you can get to them before the birds do. They're invasive, so they're not super-hard to find.

 

[Rendang]

Ever harvest wineberries? Those are great if you can get to them before the birds do. They're invasive, so they're not super-hard to find.

I've personally never encountered wineberries in Northern New England. All I've seen is burning-bush and Japanese barberry invading our forests instead, and they're not edible at all.

 

[NoReturn]

I love the idea of foraging for mushrooms, but I know I'll pull a "Poison, poison, tastyfish" with one if try by myself.

 

[Rendang]

I love the idea of foraging for mushrooms, but I know I'll pull a "Poison, poison, tastyfish" with one if try by myself.

To help you out, I highly recommend Shroomify for field identification. It's easy to use interface and offline-availability makes it a must have for mushroom picking for beginners. Just keep using the application anytime you stumble upon a mushroom and read the notes when bored.

I'd especially focus on bolete mushrooms (those with pores instead of gills), as there are only a few poisonous boletes, and they're very obvious compared to others. At worse, you'll find a maggoty mess (the insects crave choice mushrooms too), but some boletes have a cap bigger than your hand.

Recently, I found some young common ink-caps growing near a city park at my campus. They're edible (if you don't ingest alcohol), but I hesitated to harvest, as the park's lake has a fire-station nearby, which means a lot of chemical runoff from practice drills.

 

[NoReturn]

To help you out, I highly recommend Shroomify for field identification. It's easy to use interface and offline-availability makes it a must have for mushroom picking for beginners. Just keep using the application anytime you stumble upon a mushroom and read the notes when bored.

Instant install. Thank you for the recommendation.

hey're edible (if you don't ingest alcohol)

What happens if you do?

 

[Rendang]

What happens if you do?

The common ink-cap contains coprine. Coprine works just like disulfiram, inhibiting the complete digestion of alcohol, so you get syndromes relating to alcohol flush (vomiting, nausea palpitations). Thankfully, the shaggy ink-cap lacks this chemical, and is a delicious addition to mushroom soups.

 

[Stoneheart]

Its high season for some stuff. made a shitton of Bärlauch pesto from stuff the elderly lady next door got me from the woods and my last Waldmeister harvest happened early today.

I love this stuff and its next to impossible to get thosse plants anywhere.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Of course, this tree thrives, and now is an invasive which makes me a-log.

Going along with this, I maintain to this day that the Chestnut Blight is the greatest ecological disaster of the post-industrial revolution period. Millions of acres with billions of trees providing food, shelter, and livelihoods for untold numbers of flora and fauna wiped out in less than 50 years due to an invasive Chinese fungus. It makes me MATI and Mad IRL to think about, but what comes from China that HASN'T been an invasive, ecological disaster?! Chestnut Blight, Asian Longhorn Beetle, Wuhan Flu, Emrald Ash Bore (another ongoing tree disaster), Spotted Lantern Fly, Chinese people, fucking stinkbugs! And the list goes on.

 

[Dropsies]

I'm very much a city slicker myself, and it's been a while since I've gone foraging for berries, but I'd like to start foraging for the sole purpose of finding morels because they look cool and I've heard they taste good.

 

[Grub]

I'm very much a city slicker myself, and it's been a while since I've gone foraging for berries, but I'd like to start foraging for the sole purpose of finding morels because they look cool and I've heard they taste good.

Black morels are really tasty and they've got a nice texture. They're probably my favourite mushroom. I've only found them a couple of times. Luckily they're pretty distinctive and there's not really any poisonous lookalikes. False morels don't really look that much like real morels.

I like picking oyster mushrooms too because again, there's not really any poisonous mushrooms that look like oyster mushrooms and they're pretty distinctive looking. I find dead alder stumps or logs are usually a good place to look for them.