Fall forageing

[Dennis_J]

Just curious if anyone does any fall forageing and if so what are you fix'in to gather this fall.

As for me it won't be long and the black walnuts and hickory's will be dropping and I'm planning on putting up as many as I can this year! I'll also gather up a good supply of sassafrass root for tea but usually don't harvest it till after the first frost. Of course there's lots more out there as well if I can only come up with some more time!

[madmac]

I live in the southwest so it's mostly catus here. Pricky Pear fruit and Banana yuca fruit. Both are pretty good with their own sweetners. We also have Mormon tea but it is a little hard to find so when you find some you better remember were it was you seen it. Wild onions are pretty plentiful in some areas were the indians would travel. It's fun to forage off the land and I take part in it often, especially when I am out camping.

[bookwormom]

it is awfully dry here again. I have not seen mushrooms for two years. there might be persimmons.

[Delmar_Morgan]

Going to pick some walnuts , hickory nuts and persimmions , the persimmion trees are loaded this year.

[GoodDaughter]

Where I am, there just isn't a whole lot to forage for. No mushrooms like up north :-[ Or if there are edibles, I've never seen anything like morels. I did see some that glowed in the dark, though I doubt they would be healthy to eat. :-X

I went to the deer camp today and noticed that the black walnuts, native pecans and hickories are loaded up, but nowhere near ready to forage. It'll be another month at the very least, if not closer to two.

Does anyone know if the Shagbark hickory nut is good? Lots of Shagbark, and lesser numbers of Mockernut and Pignut hickory, which I understand aren't too good to eat.

I've seen lots of persimmons too, but I don't like them and leave them for the critters.

Wild grapes/fox grapes/muscadines are coming ripe, if I can find some that are easy to get to, I might pick some.

There are lots of prickly pear tunas on my land, but I don't like those either. They have an unpleasant musty taste.

I wonder if mesquite beans are already gone by or not? I once made mesquite bean jelly and it was good. Sort of a mild honey flavor. Don't recall when I picked the beans, though.

[Dennis_J]

Gooddaughter, The shagbark and pignut hickorys are great to eat! There alot of work but I really like them!

[bookwormom]

my husband likes to gather the nuts, we have loads of them here, but I find you can starve to death eating them. Maybe there is a good trick to getting the nutmeats out? we used to have loads of hazelnuts and I see lots of new little bushes all over. this year no nuts though.
a local said yesterday we are going to have a harsh winter because there are so many nuts.

[GoodDaughter]

I wish there was some way to easily crack hickories and black walnuts too. Squirrels manage to do it ??? but I tried a hammer and brick, and it was really hard.

The little native pecans are very tasty, but also small, maybe an inch or so long, and while they are easy to crack, they take a million of them just to get a couple of cups of nut meats.

[sawyerob]

I wish there was some way to easily crack hickories and black walnuts too. *Squirrels manage to do it ??? but I tried a hammer and brick, and it was really hard.



There is, it's called a bench vise. At least that's what i use and it works great...

SR

[walls0stone]

I wish there was some way to easily crack hickories and black walnuts too. *Squirrels manage to do it ??? .

What if you ask them nicely, perhaps they would say

"Squack Squack, chatter-chatter, chatter"
(shake tail twice) ;D...
but that dosen't translate.

I'm kidding.. I'd say vise is the way.

[silvergramma]

hi i am hoping to do some this next fall we moved onto new place without having time to look around i did notice some mushrooms growing under an evergreen in the dripline,, looked like shaggy caps... need to do more research
found some landowners willing to let me pick their wild berries on property...
i am planning on ordering plugs and spores for distributing wild mushrooms and looking for other sources on the property here.. wish me luck