Fall Harvest near you - wild treasure?

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!

In Phoenix it was 94* today. There is no such thing as fall here. Its dirt brown or its green. The green is cactus or weeds.

dweste, it sounds like your Fall Harvest day was a very enjoyable and educational event.
I've not been fortunate enough to attend (or find) anything like that in my area yet.

This year, I've been working to see how long I can extend my garden harvest... been getting some really tasty lettuce and carrots out of my garden this Fall.
The weather service has posted a "freeze warning" for our area tonight; so I've put the lid on my Cold Frame. That should keep me going a while longer.

I'm thinking of setting up (or building) a small Greenhouse next year; to see how long I can keep some more sensitive plants (like tomatos) producing.

Lon, it was pretty a good event.

If you add your location to your profile, or otherwise, I bet someone on the forum knows of similar opportunities near you.

Consider letting some "weeds" into your garden. You may find the wild edibles have a longer season than their cultivated cousins.

Note which veggies get better after the frost. Many get sweeter and better than ever.

Have fun!

I can't allow that !!!
I've spent so much time getting the invasive weeds and grasses out of my garden area, it would be "against my religion" to encourage anything wild to move in without a fight.

Just kidding; I know you're talking about wild edible plants that might not be considered "weeds". To be honest, I don't have any experience with those yet.
I do grow items that have "wild cousins"... such as Blueberries, Blackberries, and Strawberries, but none of those bear a crop at this time of the year.

I thought so too, but I've got some green strawberries developing right now in Connecticut. I doubt they will ripen, but I am amazed. I've still got some swiss chard, collards and beans in my garden. Most of it is not going to last long. Swiss chard is beginning to go.

Check out Blast's site for some winter edible ideas:

http://houstonwildedibles.blogspot.com/search/label/Winter

Interested in "sugar pine inner bark "spaghetti.""....

Can you educate us?

I am not very experienced with harvesting or eating pine bark. What experience I have follows this type of preparation:

http://www.ruralvermont.com/vermontweathervane/issues/winter/97012/eatpine.shtml

Another set of information and opinion:

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/edible-pine-bark/

I have been eating acorn foods for a week or so. Basically this is acorn chunks with the tannic acid mostly leached out. I tried steaming the chunks and eating them with blueberries: filling but not a taste treat. I have eaten acorn ground coarsely and mixed with wheat flour to become cookies and with vegetables to become a caserole: pretty good.

The acorn is fairly mild and a modest amount seems to be more filling than grains such as rice or tubers such as potato.

What are your experiences eating acorn?

Coarse-grind the acorns then run them through a "Mr. Coffee" a few times until the resulting brew doesn't taste bitter. Then dry the acorn meal and grind it up finer for flour or just leave it as is for acorn porridge or to add to muffins.

-Blast

Blast, what are the Fall Harvest possibilities in your neck of the woods?

wild grapes!!--by the backpack load--60 pounds all together.



between those and the "gone wild" apples--seen below crushed and fermenting--
i'll have enough home made wine to sit out any Minnesota storm.

That's what I`m talking about

What would you do w/out a MR Coffee in a survival situation ??

Can you eat them w/out filtering that mcuh ?

"Fall" is basically a meaningless term here, but from memory on Sunday's class we found:
Hibiscus
Pony's Foot
Amaranth
Miner's Lettuce
Wild lettuce
Sow thistle (prickly lettuce)
Spatterdock (water lily)
Nut sedge (three types)
Greenbriar
Saw palmetto
Acorns (red, white, and live oak)
Cleavers
Canna lily
Betony
Horsetails
Inner bark of maples, elm, cottonwood, sycamore, willow, mulberry, and sweetgum trees
Sweetgum seed pods
Sassafras tree
Rose hips
Jerusalem artichoke tubers (still small)
Rattlebush
Manioc
Prickly pear
Goldenrod
Giant Texas Ragweed
Bayberry (Waxleaf myrtle)
Peppervine
Smartweed (Lady's thumb)
Burdock
Sheep sorrel
Wood sorrel
River cane shoots
Wild grape vine tendrils
Chinese tallow tree

There was more, but now I'm hungry and need lunch.

-Blast

It depends on the acorn. So trees produce nuts very low in tannic acid, but they are rare. If you find one, mark it's location! Acorns that haven't had their tannic acid removed are very bitter and very hard to eat.

Native Americans would leech out the tannic acid by soaking in fast-moving water woven bags of crushed acorns for a few days. The slower the water was moving the longer the acorns were left in the stream. For quicker results you can place you coarse-ground acorns in a tee-shirt then pour boiling water over them. Taste a nut or two every so often to see if the bitterness has been removed.

The reason for coarse grinding rather than fine grinding is just to make it easier to keep the acorn meat in the filter.

-Blast

Home made wine, awesome!

I've got homemade beer, but need to try to produce some wine.

Cool info right there!

My parents place got a TON of acorns this year... if I remember right they are not every year and the quantity is dependent upon something too ??

Our oaks up here have weird acrons, they are VERY rare, I`ll have to find them and take some pics

Here in WA, the toadstools are in flower. *sigh*

Yesterday, I collected half a plastic grocery bag of them to prevent the dogs from sampling them. The white ones had thin little skirts around their stem/stalk, which I believe are toxic.

The hazelnuts (filberts) are lying on the ground, but I haven't found any with meat in them. The jays find the ones that do, and bury them in the garden beds, where I will find them sprouting in spring.

Sue

Urban acorn leaching suspends the bag inside the toilet tank; they are ready when the flush water comes out clear.

Some say you should start hot water leaching with cool water to avoid temperature "shock" that "sets" the tannic acid making it harder to leach out. Once the first rinse water has come to a boil then later rinses can also be hot, according to this school of thought.

Acorn has a good but robust flavor and stands up well to other strong flavors like garlic, onion, bacon, etcetera.

"Acorn has a good but robust flavor and stands up well to other strong flavors like garlic, onion, bacon, etcetera."

Do you deliver?

Sue

Good God, I am fascinated by this thread and yet completely overwhelmed by the conversation. I am so outta my league on this one.

Time to study up. How long will it take to catch up? 5 years? ten years? Twenty?

"How long will it take to catch up? 5 years? ten years? Twenty?"

I've been into survival for 45 years, and am still learning stuff every day.

1. Dive in and do it.
2. Try as much as you can. Practice.
3. Everything you see or hear isn't true*. Try it yourself and find out.

* A guy who is selling survival info says you can start a fire using moonlight. Others are passing it on as gospel.

Sue

ha, you always have a way with writing Sue. I was talking specifically about wild edibles, though.

And HEY, I totally tried making a fire by the full moon last week. This guy swore the lens I bought from him would work with moon light! Funny...haven't seen that guy since then.

Everything you eat everyday is a cousin to the wild. You already know how to enjoy that stuff; it just takes a little stretch to re-connect with the wild cousins.

Look around for an edible plant walk or class in your area; ask here if you need some help hooking up with one. Many colleges, online schools, and some museums offer classes. There are even a few clubs around that offer at least beginner sessions.

Anybody know of edible plant walk or class in Alberta or Montana?
Likely too late for this year, we're well into winter.

I do not know either area or its resources, but I would check with the institutions of higher learning, museums, and the native plant society.

Yeah, probably too late for guided tours. And the saskatoons and hazelnuts have all been stripped off by birds and squirrels.

But there are still edibles that aren't hard to find (or misidentify). If I were walking along a wooded watercourse in Alberta at this time of year, I would watch for:

- rose hips: on wild rose bushes, found everywhere; can't miss 'em; eat the flesh off the outside, but not the seeds, which are barbed, meaning they will bite you ... later

- highbush cranberry; very tart but very refreshing after heavy frost; usual method of finding them is by noting the smell of "stinky socks" in the wind and following the scent; most people pop the berry on their tongue and then spit out the seed and skin

- cattail root; assuming the ground isn't deeply frozen, this is bland but effective survival food; try to get the whole root, which has little starchy nodules; roast or boil to get the caloric value of the starch and kill pathogens; beware of industrial or agricultural runoff, unless you have a taste for 2,4,D etc.

For other plants, I take DW along. She's the plant wizard around here. I only remember the stuff I can eat. Must be a guy thing.

Back to acorns.

Dweste's thread was timely, as I recently had some time to kill in town, where some oaks had dropped their acorns. One was an Oregon White Oak (native here) and the other was a Red Oak. I collected from both, keeping them separate. Then I needed to find out how to treat and use them.

I ran across this really good free online book (.pdf, 50 pages) called Acorns and Eat 'Em by Suellen Ocean. Varieties, collecting (sprouted and not), storing, freezing, leaching methods (modern), and cooking. It's the most detailed and comprehensive I've run across.

Tip: if you pull off the little circle at the top of the acorn after you split it, the meats come out more easily.

Thanks, Dweste, for bringing up this topic!

Sue

Welcome!

Cool, thanks!!

-Blast

I made a batch of mead (wine made from honey) this season with assistance from my honeybees. The bees did a fine job of finding the sweets from the area.

Nice! Just ate some recently made fox grape fruit leather and toyon berry jam - both excellent!

Hello All!

These threads on wild foods are great, but I'm really bad at identifying plants beyond the obvious basics. Thought about color pics on laminated cards, but that won't do much for me. Haven't yet found a local class on them either.

My idea: I will garden some of the more common edible plants as decorative landscaping this year. Planning on burdock, common plantain, violet & a few more. I'll learn the traits and how to prepare them.

I'll also use wheat and maybe another plant for creative scaping.

Thanks for the great info on acorns too!!

Finn

Burdock grows in the woods around here. It's a really big plant and in late summer/fall the burrs latch onto dog fur and clothing, and are difficult to remove. The green plant excretes a substance that can irritate the skin. The root goes down really deep, so it's hard to get rid of. IMO, I'd think twice before planting it in your yard.

Hers's a little more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burdock

Hello!

Thank you! That entry was helpful. I was looking at more positive references. I may still try it, though only a single planting.

Finn

I found a few more resources through "Countryside" magazine...

http://wildfoodsummit.org
218-935-0417

www.wildfoodadventures.com
503-775-3828

Great Lakes Lifeways Institute
www.wherethewildfoodsgrow.com
734-576-8427

www.wildmanstevebrill.com
w/ a smartphone app