# Do you do any foraging for wild edibles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442 "2020-04-23T15:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/22 "2020-04-23T19:43:06Z")
I guess I don’t really go out specifically to “forage” for wild fruit. The most I’ll do is if I’m out hiking or biking and I pass by a patch of wild blackberries I will stop and graze for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/23 "2020-04-23T20:07:54Z")
Certainly do. But pretty much exclusively fruit and nuts. Round here you can find blackberries, raspberries (occasionally), blueberries (occasionally), wild strawberries, plums and damsons, apples, hazelnuts and chestnuts. In autumn, as the nights get colder, a favourite thing is to wrap a few chestnuts in kitchen foil and roast them in the log burner. I’d be just about brave enough to trust myself at identifying field mushrooms, but Mrs T is having none of it, so that’s out. **SanVito** - are you harvesting garlic leaves or flowers? For salad or for cooking? j ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/24 "2020-04-23T20:33:59Z")
I do wild garlic (mostly for pesto, in fact I just had some for dinner, with homemade pasta), blackberries, sloes (for soaking in gin) and assorted other plum types, raspberries if I can find 'em and sweet chestnuts. I have been known to do some ‘urban foraging’ as well, non-natives or cultivated plants in abandoned places or stuff like fig trees and cherries and apples in civic plantings and parks, where no-one’s maintaining it or picking. I’ve got a net onna stick which is great for scrumping apples. I used to live near some smashing chestnut trees, before moving away, alas; they’re feeble round here, and I’d spent years working out which apples in all the parks were good for eating, which were better cooked and which were best left on the trees. It was great fun, I often had passersby asking for a go with the scrumping stick. I’ve yet to build up the foraging knowledge here, the garlic’s about as much as I’ve managed, though that is very good. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/25 "2020-04-25T15:42:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve hunted morels before, and the hunting itself is fun, but I can’t stand the taste of them. Send them to me! My wife and I are about to go morel hunting today- hope we find some, because I have some steaks i’ma gonna grill for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/26 "2020-04-25T16:17:10Z")
“Paging **Mangetout** …thread for Mr **[Mangetout](http://atomicshrimp.com/tag/Foraging)**!” I do a little, mostly wild herbs and berries, although there is a [coastal foraging course](https://veldandsea.com/coastal-foraging/) I want to take when all this _waves at world_ blows over. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/27 "2020-04-25T17:08:14Z")
Sorry, **solost** , when I’m morel-hunting, it’s on my aunt’s land, and so she (and whoever else I’m hunting with) gets first dibs. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/28 "2020-04-25T18:57:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sorry, **solost** , when I’m morel-hunting, it’s on my aunt’s land, and so she (and whoever else I’m hunting with) gets first dibs. Fair enough. Well, my wife and I struck out at finding any morels on our hike. I think it’s still a bit early for them since we usually see them in early to mid-May around here, and the weather’s been unusually cold. But she keeps showing me pics she finds online of people’s morel finds not far from us. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/29 "2020-04-25T19:09:52Z")
I love foraging, and there is plenty of variety year-round on Hawai’i Island. This past year, my daily run took me past wild passion fruit vines, and during the season I would always grab a few fruit. While hiking around Mauna Kea, we discovered a spot with an absolutely obscene amount of cape gooseberries. Now my freezer is full of passion fruit juice and cape gooseberries. Also, papaya trees tend to spring up as volunteers just about everywhere, and the leaves make yummy Indonesian dishes. Finally, just a few days ago I went on a hike down a dry creek bed with some friends intent on catching crayfish. They only snagged a few - I’m not sure what they ended up doing with them, but I think a nice pasta dish enhanced with steamed crayfish would have been about right for the amount they had. I was enchanted by the idea, though. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/30 "2020-04-25T20:34:59Z")
Not much ‘foraging’, but I’ll pick up pine cones and shake the nuts out of 'em. I had a tub of them get knocked over in the garage, and the **Killer Elite** scarfed them all down. Bastards! But at least I didn’t have to clean them up. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/31 "2020-04-25T21:03:27Z")
Locally we gather ramps, wild strawberries and raspberries, chokecherries, apples from orchards abandoned long ago, and maple sap, which we turn into syrup. Mosquitoes are the big hazard when collecting the berries. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/32 "2020-04-25T21:03:45Z")
When we can, sweet chestnuts, rose hips, sloes (for sloe gin of course) wild garlic and tons and tons of wild blackberries. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/33 "2020-04-25T21:24:24Z")
Lots to forage in Oregon. Fruit: Blackberries (of course!), black cap raspberries, salmon berries, huckleberries, wild strawberries and wild cherries. Lots of volunteer apple trees if one wants them. Fungus: Chanterelles, boletes and morels. Truffles, both white and black, and, uh… others, but only on my own land. Greens: Miner’s lettuce (purslane in **Chronos** ’ world), dandelion greens, plantain. Not wild, but there are lots of abandoned hazelnut trees in the area as well. > [@Gatopescado](#): > > Not much ‘foraging’, but I’ll pick up pine cones and shake the nuts out of 'em. > > I had a tub of them get knocked over in the garage, and the **Killer Elite** scarfed them all down. Bastards! But at least I didn’t have to clean them up. They do love nuts, don’t they? And I have to share that the very first truffle I ever discovered on this property was brought to me by my own “Killer Elite.” It was a fine white one, nearly the size of a golf ball. He was never trained and I’ve never been able to get him to do it a second time. Fortunately, I don’t need his help now. 🙂 Still, good dog!! ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/34 "2020-04-25T21:45:11Z")
About the only human-edible wild stuff up here in the conifer forest are squirrels, turkeys, deer, and bears if they get careless. We aren’t eager to devour Douglas-fir or madrone debris or meadow grass. Your tastes may vary. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/35 "2020-04-25T22:01:49Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Until my husband went against my wishes and doused our front and back yards with weed killer 4 years ago, we used to do a week of Eat The Lawn every spring. I’ve also gotten to old and frail to gather mulberries in early summer to make spiced mulberry jam. > > I loved our lawn filled with violets, wild onion and garlic and dandelions. Hubby poisoned it all and our lawn still looks like shit. Even more shittier with clover and oxalis and dock. There are still tufts of onion but I won’t eat them now. The run amok morning glories are all my fault, though. I was going to say that the only actually wild plant I routinely nibble on is sorrel. I have both wood sorrel and sheep sorrel in my lawn, and I enjoy both. I also like to chew on fresh fruiting stalks of grass. There’s a little bit at the bottom that is sweet and soft. I planted clover in the lawn, but I don’t eat it. I also have dandelions, violets, and garlic. I don’t eat the dandelions (nasty and bitter, even when young, in my experience) or the violets (pretty, but not enough flavor to bother. Maybe this year I should harvest them, though.) And the garlic has, er, naturalized, but I originally planted it. So that’s a crop, not a wild foraging thing. I also have raspberries, blueberries, currants, and wild strawberries, but I planted all of those. And the critters get most of the fruit. ☹ There are some wild blackberries, but they have a fungal infection and almost never fruit, and the few berries they produce are small and dry. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/36 "2020-04-25T22:03:26Z")
I used to wander along some abandoned rail lines… because they went on for many miles & it kept me from getting lost. I was amazed at the number of raspberry and grape plants all along the tracks. I was told later that this is thought to be the result of passengers on the trains throwing their trash out the windows wherever they wanted. Anyone finding apple trees far from populated areas should check in with the [Lost Apple Project](https://www.facebook.com/lostappleproject/). They’re doing some amazing work. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/37 "2020-04-25T23:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Aspenglow** : > > Lots to forage in Oregon. > > Fruit: Blackberries (of course!),… I’ve seen apples smaller than those blackberries you get in the Pacific Northwest. You could eat you fill without moving, from the bushes in arm’s reach. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/38 "2020-04-25T23:17:49Z")
Wild blackberries grow across the street from me. I always pick a container or two of them every summer. (Wild hemp also grows there. I leave it alone.) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/39 "2020-04-26T02:30:25Z")
Around here: Poke Sallet Nuts (several kind) Muscandines Wild Plum Crab apples Mulberries Many mushrooms but I’m afraid of those. Wild garlic ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/40 "2020-04-26T03:00:58Z")
We have fiddleheads here this time of year. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442/41 "2020-04-26T03:14:58Z")
> [@solost](#): > > morels Gosh I miss morels. I used to live in the midwest and you could find them wild with some effort. Here in CA I’ve only seen them dried in the grocery store, but not at all lately. They have such a lovely, smokey flavor that goes with steak. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-any-foraging-for-wild-edibles/852442.md?page=3)