On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:52:00 -0700,
(paghat) wrote:

In article , Boron Elgar
wrote:

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:07:55 -0500, James Adams wrote:

Do any of you have recommendations for books on foraging and harvesting
wild foods? There are many available. I don't know where to start and
am on a very tight budget.

I hope this is not off topic, and if so, could you please direct me to
the proper group(s)?

Thank you.

Jimmy Adams

Hit the library and get the classic "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" by
Euell Gibbons.

Boron

He also wrote STALKING THE HEALTHFUL HERBS and STALKING THE BLUE-EYED
SCALLOP. Euell's writings on this topic are fun breezy writings as he's
quite the story teller. But he takes such little account of regional
differences in species and harvest periods that he's useless as a
PRACTICAL guide if you live outside his range of expertise. Little applies
to the Pacific Northwest where I live; much more useful in the American
southwest or California which he knew best. He lived briefly here in
Washington, but the books just rarely take this area into account.

A lot of cool information can be found in the WIILD FOOD ADVENTURER
NEWSLETTER and if you're crazy for the topic a hundred dollars will get
all the back issues, focus on North American gathering from the wild.
Start he
http://www.wildfoodadventures.com

And he

http://wildfoodplants.com/


I used to do a LOT of gathering and discovered it could even be done inner
city

And lots of fun here. too....in case you want to gather goodies in
Manhattan.

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
..

Nowadays with so much development there are not so many empty lots,
but 10 to 20 years ago in any given few blocks of a major city (in my
case, Seattle) would find abandoned fruit trees on lots where houses
disappeared; various berries and roots on lots that were never developed;
and even abandoned gardens where the hardiest edibles, like fennel celery
for example, were rampant.

There are also many fruits that few people harvest but if you're into
canning, great stuff, including around here cotoneaster berries, crab
apples, elderberry, mountain ash berries, and hawthorne berries, among
others, many of these to be harvested after first frost for maximum
sweetness of bitter berries but they can also be picked earlier and
"frosted off" in the freezer. These sorts of berries have to be cooked,
sieved, and sweetened (can be sweetened with apple juice, pears, or just
with sweeter berries mixed in, no need for processed sugar). There's
little competition for these & they make superb jellies and syrups and can
be gathered by the bucketload usually quite close to home.

My hesitation in such gathering these days is that one does not know
what has been on the property. Up until the late 60s, early 70s,
farmers north of me, or anyone with an empty lot, could legally allow
dumpers on their property. A beekeeper friend warned me about some
places in the area that I'd never have known about otherwise.

And I'd never take anything near a roadside. But that's me.

snip delightful stories, advice and information.

Boron