I am quite envious of where you are located, based on your description. A walk in the woods can soothe your soul.

There's the pine nuts from the cones, and tea from the needles (leaves) is supposed to be a source of vitamin C. Not sure the rest of it would be very appetizing...



PS also, chewing gum from hardened spruce tree sap is supposed to be good for dental health.
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2010/05/lets-eat-adirondack-spruce-gum.html

Gum collectors scored spruce trees with an ax. The tree filled the wound with sap, which weathered and hardened over the summer and into winter. In early spring, Adirondackers used an ax or a picker make from a tin can with a sharp edge or scraper attached on the end of a long pole. Boiled and processed, the gum was broken into bite-sized chunks. Still brittle, it took a few seconds to soften in the mouth, and retained a distinctively “sprucy” taste.

Enterprising men and women could collect hundreds, even thousands of pounds each year, to sell to manufacturers or process at home. In good years, one could sell the collected gum for as much as a dollar a pound. In 1881, the Pulaski Democrat announced, “A gentleman was in Lowville the other day, buying all the spruce gum that could be found in the market… The gum is shipped to Lowell, Mass., where it finds ready sale.” In 1916, John Kelly of Croghan collected and sold more than 3,000 pounds, “quite an achievement when taken into consideration that Mr. Kelly is well up into the sixties and did the work alone.”

In 1870, Thomas Adams of Staten Island, NY, developed chewing gum made from the sap of the Mexican Chiclezapote tree, and invented the Chiclet. Softer and sweeter, the new gum gradually outpaced the demand for brittle, unsweetened spruce gum.

Last edited Sun Nov 11, 2012, 09:14 PM - Edit history (1)

is tasty and a good source of vitamins and minerals. Also, at least here, garlic mustard is an invasive weed that is good in a salad too. I am sure there are other ways to eat these plants, but this is how I use them. I do not make salad with these as the only greens, I mix with lettuce...they have a much stronger taste. And as with many plants, they are only tasty when they are young and get bitter with age.

And can I add that you should not dismiss mushrooms. I have been foraging wild mushrooms for years, and I have studied them, made sure I knew what I had (even with spore prints), and avoided any plants with look-alikes that are dangerous or deadly.

I didn't know what lamb's ear was until I looked at some images of the plant on the internet and I've seen that plant at many different homes.

I never can recognize it until it flowers....and I have transplanted some from the side of the road into my garden. But it looks like a lot of other "weeds" when young.

Have you tried Queen Anne's Lace? How have you prepared it?

Also, I just editted my post to say "lamb's quarter", which is found just about everywhere. Lamb's ear, I doubt is edible. (I have brain farts all the time, I have lamb's ear in the garden and I forage lamb's quarter.)

I'd really like to learn, we just are too damn busy right now.

Regardless of whether or not you actually consume much (or any) of what you find, it will be really fun to learn...

I don't know if I'll get great quanitees but it'd be a good excuse to get outdoors.

nuts and wild grapes on my walks in the woods.

in people's lawns. These are all nutritious and can be added to salads, and you could also steam the dock as a veggie or add it to a soup. You can eat both the flowers and leaves of nasturtiums, and the flowers of anything in the onion family (chives, garlic, etc.) and the violet family (pansies and johnny jump-ups). These are all lovely in a salad or as a garnish. I have frozen violets and pansies in ice cubes and served them in drinks! Squash and pumpkin blossoms are delicious. You could print out pictures from the internet before you go foraging to make sure you are picking the right thing if you are not sure.

(Editing to add that you will need to cook the squash and pumpkin blossoms---they are popular in southwestern and native American cooking, and here are some recipe ideas:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&p=squash+blossom+recipe )

of my foraging thus far has been things like wild blackberries while camping, or huckleberries. I would love to incorporate more foraged food into my diet.

I'd eat wild blackberries, wild strawberries and winter berries when I cam across them but I'd like to learn about as many useful plants as possible this winter and then go out in the spring and give it a try.

While doing some google searching a few days ago, i came across some posts made back in 2007 where a person said they had identified 36 useful plants where I live in the Western part of Upper Michigan and posted a link to a PDF file where he said that info was but when I clicked on it, it wasn't found.

I can't guarantee my own favorite 2-litre-soda-pop-bottle fizzy wine and ale recipes won't go wrong and kill you, but here's a site I bookmarked some time ago...

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/newsletter/09/may/herbalwine.php

Or you might google "dandelion wine" recipies.

But I do like bubbles and the trick is to use plastic soda bottles. Flick the bottle with your finger or squeeze it. If it seems harder than an ordinary soda bottle fresh from the supermarket, loosen the lid a little to vent some of the carbon dioxide.

I started with what comes up in my yard. I have about an acre and a half on a lake and have a lot of diversity.