Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Cave Men only "Oooga Booga" => Topic started by: jamie on April 10, 2011, 11:04:14 pm
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decided to keep a journal this year of the various wild foods i eat. not planning on doing an all wild diet at the moment but i seem to eat wild food incorporated into other foods almost daily. today i harvested dandelion greens and roots , garlic mustard, and wild onion. stir fried it and made nori rolls with organic long grain rice. for those who follow this thread figured id let you also know how i feel about shopping, HATE IT. when i do shop however im a pain in the a$$. i truly believe the best way to tell corporations what we want in our food is by how we shop. i look for organic and local. everything i buy needs to come from wiithin a 200 mile radius . theres a few exceptions to that rule (im addicted to avocadoes =). ) my girlfriend also belongs to an organic farm co-op so we spend a lot of time canning food from the goods we recieve there. anyway nori was great. the bitterness of the fresh greens being washed down with some spice bush tea really woke up the wild side in me. not planning on posting everytime i eat a dandelion but as new food comes in through out the season i'll make a post. also made chicken soup tonight with some of the last potatoes and carrots we canned from the farm last year. tomorrows dinner =). like to hear from others too as you experience this growing season. food is medicine, peace, jamie.
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Hi Jamie, You're much more purist than I about food, but I too prefer local and personally harvested. The local season for miner's lettuce is about to pass. It started growing in my yard a couple of years ago and now I don't have to travel to pick the tastiest ( my opinion) salad green around. I'm lucky enough to have a reasonable sized garden and am busy spading and planting.
Not to hijack this thread, but anyone desiring some heirloom bean seed (Hickman's Pole, or Rev Taylor's colored Lima), send me an email Ron
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thats like our purslane except ours produces until a killing frost. im gonna have to save some of the heirloom seeds i get this year too. we can all exchange different varieties. one thing i didnt mention is yes im a fanatic about food, however im not afraid to kick back a large meat lovers pizza either. ;D
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Jamie, I got my eye on a patch of stinging nettles, can't wait till there ready. Coltsfoot just started bloom here. Still a few patches of snow where piled up, todays warm rains should remove the last of it. ;D ;D ;D Bob
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I have a good variety of heirloom seeds that I wouldn't mind to trade for some others. I will put up a list on Wednesday when I get home.
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finding ramps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D my buddys in maine were eating nettles last week and i cant get any in connecticut. what the hell.
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I think I'll start another thread on seed saving/ seed exchange. In the mean time... Jamie I've got chickweed all winter and purslane all summer, but right now it's a little late for one and early for the other. Ron
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aint enough wild organic cows in my backyard to support me ;D
Interesting quest Jamie, looking forward to seeing your progress throughout the changing of the seasons.
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Jamie, have you thought of writing an article for PA magazine? I know the Medicine Man series covers a lot of what you are doing but I think an article from ones own perspective and personal experiences would be a great addition especially with a month to month perspective.
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kicking back with some ginger and chaga tea. rain today and tomorrow so work is light. gonna go see if i can get some nettles in the pot. go dig up some daylillies too for tubers and greens. thinking of plants to come im really looking forward to cattail shoots and milkweed shoots. ate a couple of handfulls of bedstraw today with wild onion. also found a nice batch of last years groundnut vines. dig some of them up later when im doing some fishing and roast em with trout.
ron i love chickweed in the salad or on sandwiches. i use em like sprouts. if youve followed any of my other food posts you'll know purslane is one of my favorites.
justin if you find a field of organic cows growing let me know ;D
pat i have thought about it. i think steve and the cook guy cover it very well though and im not sure how much i could add. especially as im strictly northeastern. back on the old message board several of my month long endeavors ended up in one of our members e-zines.
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Jamie, I hadn't run across any of your other food posts. I tried purslane for the first time last year. Um good, and to think I've been trying to eradicate it from my garden all these years.
On a related note, I had a professor many years ago that actually got elected to the county weed control board on the slogan "If you can't beat them, eat them!" Ron
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"if you cant beat em , eat em" ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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i stink of ramps!!!!!!
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Ramps? Mmm mmmmm goood!
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Jamie , had a bowl of day lily tubers with a little salt an butter last night ,an this evening some leek soup. Can you also eat the fresh green on the top of day lilys? Got a big bag of leeks to clean for tommorrow. Bob
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bob the young greens are edible. as it gets older they get a little tough. flowers and flower buds are also edible. be prepared 1 in 4 people get a laxative response from the flower. flower buds can be used like okra. tubers are my favorite part. ground nut, day lilly tubers, burdock root and leeks make a great soup when pur'ed. or served on the side with meat.
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Jamie, my plant book also said, the tubers also can be alittle laxitive so don't eat to many at first. Yep they are a little laxitive, not bad considering i ate a ceral bowl full of tubers lightly salted an boiled just till tender. I just fiqured that my systems is used to plastic an chemicals that it couldn't handle real veggy. Also I'm not even close to 21 when I could eat glass an it didn't bother me ;D ;D. We had snow again today so I'm not sure when are nettles are going to be ready >:( >:( >:( Wished you could make it to the classic I got a lot of Paleo Questions for you about your 30 days of foraging. Later Bob
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wish i was hittin the classic toooooooooooooo
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I snack on raw day lilly flower buds as I work landscapes during the summer. Some are quite spicy tasting.
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Jamie, finished reading about your month long diet wow.. way to go... you can use the dry seeds from the plantain as a candle or source of heat the oils burn slow Pack in tuna can they will last for an hour........Pete
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very cool pete, gonna have to try that.
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been busy with work and sitting at the computer while we have nice weather is out of the question. figured id update this though. lots of stuff poking its head up through the ground this last month. nettles, eaten a lot and dried a bunch for tea. groundnut, was digging through a top soil pile on a farm and the strings of tubers kept falling out so i ate dozens and transplanted the rest, great with fresh trout and wild leeks. ramps or wild leeks ive got coming out of every sweat gland in my body but they are too damn good to stop eating. they do keep the bugs away, unfortunately women too ;D. fiddleheads are all grown up and past but ive had plenty. thinking of traveling north and seeing if i can find some more. wild carrot has been good. went too an organic farm and they were every where so i took my fill. spring beauties are up and i found ahuge patch of em. its on a nature sanctuary so go into scout mode to get em. lots of young curly dock leaves in the salad as well as bed straw chickweed and plantain. finally found a half dozen morrels and cooked them up with fresh trout. happy hunting guys love to hear from others who are eating wild. peace
p.s. my favorite little grass fed critters seem to be doing well this year so i plan on getting a few woodchucks soon.
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Jamie, what is your recipe for woodchuck. My parents have a few taring up their yard. Any thing you need to be wary of as far as disease?
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recipe for woodchuck. take one woodchuck, start fire, cook woodchuck over fire, eat woodchuck. ;D
check for glands in armpits. some times of the year they are rancid with musk. most of the time they are small free range, grass fed, kobe beef, mini-mes ;D
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Here's my list of what I collect and eat from around here Jamie.
#1 on my list of sweets is going to be ripe very soon and that's mullberry. I love those mullberries and I can stand under the trees and just gorge myself until I can't reach any higher, then I start shaking the tree for more! Problem is that the squirrels know how good they are too and between them and birds they pick the trees clean fairly quick.
#2 Wild asparagus that grows here and there all around the pasture here on our farm. I haven't found but just a couple of patches away from our place, but I know it's there just hard to find. It grows from late April till just about right now late May early June and we let it go to seed. If you over harvest it you will end up with stunted shoots the next year. Gotta leave it some energy to make seed.
We all love wild asparagus and the cooking is so simple a 5 yr. old could make it. Put asparagus in a pot with just enough water in the bottom for steam and so it won't burn. Then heat on med. high until it's tender then drain and melt butter all over the top of it. mmmmmm gooood!
Warning..........it will make your pee stink the next day. :-\ ;)
#3 is as most of you know and they don't hang around for very long is morel mushrooms. I found nearly 400 of them this spring and ate on them until I was afraid the remaining ones were going to go bad, so I shared some with friends and family. They were sure happy to get them!
#4 is Paw Paws. Most people don't know about nor ever heard of Paw Paw fruits, but they are very common in Missouri especially near the river where I live. They have a green skin, shaped like a small pear or a potatoe and taste like a banana except stronger. I try to pick up a couple quarts every fall when they ripen and freeze some for my Paw Paw cheescake recipe. I've made it for the past few years as desert after Thanksgiving dinner. It's delicious!
#5 persimmons are tasty at the right time of year, but you need a good frost first before attempting to eat any. While they aren't a favorite of mine, I always eat a handful every year during bow season just to celebrate my connection with Mother Nature and my thanks for just being alive and out there doing what I love to do. It just wouldn't seem like fall if I didn't eat a few ripe persimmons.
#6 wild onions are great table fare and grow nearly everywhere around here. Mostly a spring time crop, but can be found until it starts to get hot and then the greens get tough, but I have picked them during turkey season just to freshen my breath a little bit. ;D
That's about it for the wild things around here for me. I'd like to find out more of what's edible in my home state and start sampling the local greens to see what I like and what I don't like. I just don't want to get ahold of anything poisonous.
We have 2 gardens this year full of our own vegetables. 1 has tomatoes as usual, they are always favorites and we can as many quarts as possible and eat them all winter long. Everybody loves home canned tomatoes!
Green beans are a staple and a bit favorite of ours that we also can if there's enough left over that we don't eat. Can't beat a big pot of green beans and new potatoes with a big ham hock thrown in.
Beets, which we also can.
Zuchinni that I like to slice up and fry or put some on the grill brushed with butter and garlic powder. My mom is the zuchinni bread maker and there ain't much better than a slice of zuchinni bread with butter on it when it's still hot from the oven and big glass of milk. MMmmmmmm!
Lettuce and spinach that's just seasonal.
The other garden is full of sweet corn and cucumbers. Can't wait for sweet corn! Dang I'm making myself hungry, I love sweet corn!!
There's also a big patch of tame asparagus on the outside edge of this garden that we eat off of all spring along with the wild asparagus that grows in patches around our farm.
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semo, mid summer you can pick persimmions let them sit in a cool dry place a few days stick them in your freezer 5 hours to get a ''frost'' then let thaw you get persimmions 45 days early. I cant wait till deer season for fresh home made pie... good eatin, Pete
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I've never had persimmon pie before, I bet it's good. If you have a secret recipe PM it to me and I'll try it out this fall.
My mom is the queen of the kitchen and makes some awesome pies, cakes, cookies, home made bread, home made zuchinni and pumpkin bread. Heck I bet she could make persimmon bread too? I bet that would be good! ::)
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persimmion pie ,, 9in single pie crus
2eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups half/half
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup persimmion pulp
1 teaspoon lemon juice
preheat oven 450, combine wet ,, mix in dry. pour into uncooked pie crust..bake 10 minutes reduce heat to 350 bake 30minutes let cool........ serve with home made ice cream good eating,...... Pete
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Mmmmmm.........heck yeah that sounds good! I'm gonna copy and paste that recipe and email it to myself.
Thanks!
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Semo, You can also string morrell mushrooms like peppers and dry in a cool place they store for a few months.... just rehydrate in chicken stock and add to soup or just fry in butter.....good eats, Pete
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Yeah, I've heard of people doing that also fencepost. They say you can just drop them in water and they will rehydrate? I dunno, never tried it before.
I found a picture of Paw Paws in case anybody was interested.
(http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/mohunter68/69467916_cEuIZRxo.jpg)
(http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/mohunter68/69467921_ApEWCHaI.jpg)
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i cant believe i never bothered to learn this particular skill. i have no clue what grows around me that i can eat. looked up some stuff that should grow here localy, heading out with my huntin partner this after noon (when it cools down to where the skeeters quit spontaniously combusting in mid air) to see what we can find.
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great stuff. been super busy so havent posted in a while. . im still eating everything in my path though. went to our csa farm to pick our strawberries and snap peas and spent more time gathering goosefoot and chickweed. ;D when the coffee has kicked in and im not running out the door i'll try to remember what ive eaten lately. right now is milkweed,flower buds and the younger leaves at the top of the plant.