Would you eat wild foods to cut down the cost of your food bill?

How are you feeling cobra, any better? Check out some of the videos on youtube, there are some great ones. Also there may be someone who has classes where you are. Yeah it is a challenge and fun. You have the right attitude about it. Thanks and take care.

Thanks. My voice has returned as of today, and the noises in my chest are just rattles now instead of fighting mean dogs! Pneumonia is the pits!!! I loved what I saw on youtube!

I'm so glad you're doing better. So what did you see, what did you see?

What mushrooms were after the fires? Didn't you worry about gathering the wrong ones? Only puffballs do I know for sure and know I won't get poisoned. My Father and Uncle used to hunt deer and rabbit. I'm thinking about wild turkey in the near future. There were two one year, that wasn't enough to go hunting. Them 8 that I saw. Getting tempting. But now it's normal to see 10, 12, and 20 quite often. So before they get to the point where I'm hitting them with a car because they can't cross in time and splat doesn't make for very good food, I might hunt them. I'll have to look into it.

I have several books with very good pictures. Also have friends in the area who have been doing it for many years. I have picked some that were huge. The Cherelles are expensive and the restaurants buy them by the pound. They are the ones that flurish after a fire. Are delicious too!

Great! Sounds like you're really positioned to take advantage of some great wild-fooding. Hope you're able to get many great tasting chanterels. There's a website with some wonderful pictures of them and all kinds of neat stuff. Thanks for responding and take care.

When the pine cones fall off the tree, I put them on a cookie sheet with aluminium foil on it and put my electric oven on 220. Eventually, some pine cone seeds fall out and they taste roasted. Delicious. Not sure how your family did it, but that's what I've been doing. Have you checked youtube or done a search? There might be other advice for you. If you have a cooperative extention, college, or Native Americans nearby, you might be able to get classes through any of them.

we used to have a guy that would do classes on wild food, but with my bad feet and my food allergies, I couldn't do it now - when I was much much younger I would go and pick wild onions - they taste really good in thing - salad and soups and the flowers floating on top of the soup was really pretty

Wild onions sound sooo good. We have wild leaks here, when we can find them. Between the people that over pick them and the people who bulldoze them over and build houses where they used to be, getting to be really rare to find now.

For soap plants, I was interested in getting a class together. I'd like to someday have a bunch of gatherers get together, forage and put on a meal for people. That's another goal. I have all kinds of ideas and goals, but who knows if they'll ever happen. Thanks and take care.

In the USA, we have a lot of soap plants. Different ones in different areas. In my area, it's bouncing bet, also called soapwort. But other places have yuccas and so on. Most people collect food in the spring, summer and fall. Berrries are often the first plants that people collect, and they're quite happy to do so. Wild strawberries have way more taste than tame store bought, esp. in the USA where the tame ones are bred for shelf-life and taste almost like wet cardboard now. But there are some things that people usually don't collect unless it's winter. Also one video had a good point, if you're lost or your car breaks down or you're stranded because a plane has to make an emergency landing in winter, it might be a good idea to know some edible trees. The only trees we have that are all that poisonous are white or swamp sumac and cedar. The red sumacs, the red parts aren't poisonous. Pines, spruces, and hemlock trees aren't poisonous (hemlock plants or swamp hemlock plants are).

I think I would love that TV show about people who were collecting wild foods after moving to a green community in wales. Would love to do the same here.

Yeah, I went to classes, but not for mushrooms. I wouldn't have faith in mushroom collecting either. Some things anyone can collect and eat though. Like 99% of people know a dandelion when they see one. Not very many people could mess that up. So what's the name of the presenter in the UK? Some of the people on youtube were from the UK.

That sounds cool. That's not the guy I saw on youtube. Seems there are many people in the UK and the States into wild food.

The presenter is a bloke called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and has his own program on mainstream TV called River Cottage.

Yeah, I'd like to learn how to find and prepare wild mushrooms, too. Not many people do that in this area. I just finished watching a youtube video about finding and preparing wild chestnuts. That was cool. Yeah, you can only eat so many of those zuchini flowers or you won't have any little chinis. There are hundreds of zuke recipes. I have only had cake, bread and casseroles. I'd like to try brownies and pickles. Maybe you'll find some people to take those classes from in your area. Try Cooperative extensions, colleges, and schools, also some tour guide people sometimes do wild food tours. You may be able to find some. In the meantime, wintertime we can watch some videos. Take care and have fun in your garden and maybe even in a class soon.

Exactly! There is a wonderful youtube from UK about chess nuts. They look like green tennis balls until you take them apart. That one is cool. Winter Edible Part 1 and part 2 as well as Winter Wild Edibles were interesting. Susun Weed's interview Part 2 was really cool, not so much about identifying wild foods, but letting plants tell you what medicine they are. If you get another book, try, "Peterson's Guide to Wild Edibles" that's a great one. My instructor said to try to have 3 books when IDing something for the first time. I have a local one, Adirondack, and a regional one. So I have my 3. You may want to check out my answers to others on this post for more tips. Thanks for responding and take care.