We just had our first WILD SALAD of the year

What's your one mushroom? Mine is puffballs. When they get to be the size of basketballs, I know what they are. When they're the same size as other mushrooms, I don't know them. See if your area has a mushroom club. Most go by the latin name that escapes me now. Our nearest one is over 100 miles away. They teach it all the time. A mushroom scientific team (they go by the latin name, too) of experts came to the Adirondacks one damp and rainy year. They ID'd over 400 kinds of mushrooms. They even DNA's them. One lady wants to see if we can grow a medicinal mushroom that's been overharvested and is becoming scarse in Asia. Why not, the Adirondacks grows Asian and American Ginseng just fine. What I wish is to learn the grassesm too. I don't know those and that's where the starches come from. Yes, by the time I get done foraging, I'm often too tired to prepare the food. We need a forager foraging and a forager cook. Well put some goat manure on those weeds. My friend uses rotted horse manure fertizer in her garden and I've seen her wild stuff as big as tame or bigger. I grew a candle-obra--looking mullein (medicinal plant, also useful for other stuff like sore feet, torches, etc) plant one time. I called up a medicinal foragaer. She said, "You put a lot of fertizer on your garden this year?' "Yes," "Well they do that in really good soil with optimal weather conditions. Congrats, you got yourself a really good one). I had only seen straight up ones before. They were also usually waist high, but since I've seen some as tall as me. I've heard that if you bruise a mullein plant and put it on a sore ankle, it makes if feel better. Forgot about that for your other post. When I'm in the wild zone, I'm in the zone.

The mushroom I can confidently recognise is parasols, which is great as they grow like crazy all over our field (must be all that goat manure!). This year I had so many we were all sick of eating them and I preserved some for later on. There is another I recognise, which I'd be happy to trust myself on but wouldn't feed to someone else just in case. It has a couple of poisonous relatives, so better not feed it to the kids! We have had several mushroom walks around here, but so far there hasn't been on i could make it to. the last was the same day as my son's birthday, which was a real shame. I only found out about it the day before, too late to alter our plans. I've never heard of mullein, but will go and look it up and see if it's something that will grow here too. Sometimes it's a case of not knowing the names of things. Your experience sounds really extensive. It's fascinating to talk with you.

How fascinating! I would love to learn more about foraging from an expert. We could eat much more foraged food than we do, but because I´m generally cooking for around 10 people or more it takes me too long to collect it. Foraged leaves tend to be small and fiddly, whereas the ones we grow are bigger and easier to harvest. I made a fabulous chutney last year from foraged berries and fruits (I called it September chutney as there were too many ingredients to name just one!). This year I would like to learn more about the medicinal uses of plants, and in the longer term I´d like to learn about wild fungi as there isonly one mushroom which I can confidently identify at the moment.

That is fascinating, and something I am really keen to learn more about. Last year my challenge to myself was to learn to recognise more of the edible plants which grow wild around our farm and make use of them. Now I would like to learn more about some of the other uses for them. They are an underutilised resource in Western culture, something we have forgotten about.

I am starting with things which can be made into beneficial teas, as they are easy to both prepare and drink.

I am so glad that you are interested in this.Over here there has been a use in which people eat edible wild herbs since ancient times.most of edible wild herbs are both vegetable and medicine ,which can explain in a sense how the Chinese medicine came into being.

Very true, GreenMoo, there are many things that are a lot easier to identify than mushrooms. The mint family with square stems and you scratch them and by the smell and appearance, you know which one you have.

Mushrooms are a different thing altogether. They're more difficult to identify, and more dangerous if you get it wrong! There are only a couple of fungi I can confidently identify, but a whole range of leaves.

Mint grows like a weed here. We use handfuls of it for tea. It´s smell is such a giveaway of course.

Oh, watercrss is wonderful, so peppery! Devine.

I have planted watercress in our stream a number of times so I can keep it close to hand and keep an eye on water quality, but each time volunteers have thought they were being helpful and have cleared it all out!

I have never in my life seen a bilberry. At least, no knowingly! Blackberries I hardly count as foraging, they are so easy to come by. Thankfully my neighbours never cut theirs down, so I can clear mine safe in the knowledge that I'll still find plenty of a year's worth of jam.

I've never seen those ones. Thanks for the tip. I'll search them out.

Not before this discussion, no.

Have you heard of the Boutenko family?

That's awful! Blackberry jam is wonderful :-)

I don't know about where you are, but here all types of plantain are edible. And they're pretty good too! We eat it chopped find in salad, or cooked as a spinach substitute.

Some cucumbers would be good here. I seem to be able to grow them until they´re about three inches long, then they curl up completely and go yellow.

We have lots of mallow just now, but it's not something I'm very fond of. Do you have a special way of preparing it? It's useful to make a tea to bath the udders of goats in!