Sunday, while Blast was keeping dogs away from his wild edibles class near Houston, Texas, I was enjoying a much less dramatic but similar class in the hills above Napa Valley in North Central California.

While we wandered from black walnut, to black oak, canyon live oak, valley live oak, and tan oak, it was amazing to see and taste test [and quickly spit out] such a heavy acorn crop. As we processed acorn [splitting acorn open, cleaning the meat, breaking it into smaller chunks] we learned about the first fall of insect-infested acorn some months ago and the recent bumper fall of acorn such as we were processing for a hot water leaching process that followed. The brave among us learned how sweet acorn worm grubs tasted!

We also did hands-on processing of starch from cattail rhysomes, hand winnowing of amaranth and millet, did safe-harvest and taste tests of stinging nettle, enjoyed some plantain seed stalks, dock leaves, and many other wild edible greens. Fox grape fruit leather made by the instructors and Australian bunya nuts [huge analogs of pine nuts] were exotic treats.

We then toured a garden of domestic and wild plants for further treats and some instruction on medicinal as well as culinary plant uses. A recent large branch fall let us experience safe-harvest and eating of sugar pine inner bark "spaghetti."

Our day was interspersed with demonstrations of plant food preservation and storage techniques. A long and fun day.

I would like to hear about Fall Harvest in your area!