Food Foraging Confessions

Yes, I love to food forage. The thrill of discovering delicate violets, plump blackberries and ripe crab apples is exhilarating From early spring until the late October I have my own treasure hunt. I scour the woods on our property for various items to cook, freeze or can. As we have only been in our house for two years I am still learning the types of foods that can be foraged on our property. Last year for our Alpaca Farm Day event we served a fantastic blackberry ice cream made from the wild berries we picked here on our farm. Taima and I picked handfuls of violets in May which we dried for tisane and made into jam. We even sugared some of the violets for embellishments on cakes and pastries. In the past I have foraged for wild grape leaves for Waraqa Inab (stuffed grape leaves with meat/rice).
However, I have had some disasters in my foraging experiments. I made crab apple jam which did not jell as well as I had hoped, but tasted wonderful. I tried to harvest wild onions too early and only yanked off the tops. I attempted to make grape juice from wild grapes unsucessfully. I gathered about two full buckets of grapes, smashed them, let them sit for several hours for the tartrate to settle at the bottom of the pitcher only to end up with some pretty nasty tasting liquid. I am determined to make grape jelly and will try again this summer.
This year for my guide I am using the The Forager's Harvest A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer. I also recommend by Mr. Thayer "The Nature's Garden." The guides are excellent. Each edible is clearly identified with descriptions and photos. He has a great sense of humor and is a treat to read for pleasure even if you aren't interested in foraging.
He opened my eyes to the variety of food that can be found in your own backyard. It is truly amazing what can be harvested. Foraged food is healthy and chocked full of vitamins. There are some foods that I will never try and are probably for more advanced foragers. But who knows..Maybe one day I will. But today I am on the hunt for Jerusalem artichoke.