GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: foraging

  • Nettles Plant Identification & Foraging

    Nettles Plant Identification & Foraging

    Nettles, aka Stinging Nettles are a wild food that is edible. Here is video about how to cook nettles for a pesto recipe we made. Foraging for nettles is easy, they grow like the weeds they are considered, and are easy to harvest. Nettles have hairs along the stem that will sting you if you grab the plant, so wear gloves. The key to eating nettles is to blanch the leaves and stems in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain. Nettles taste like spinach, and have been used to treat numerous ailments.

    For some reason I associate Nettles with medieval times, not sure why, it just seems like the people of that age would use Stinging Nettles to treat ailments in addition to harvesting nettles to eat.

    The nettles that grow in our area are perennial, and have squarish stems, like mint does. It grows up to about 3 feet high in summer, and spreads by rhizomes. Stinging Nettles are native to North America, but I don’t think harvesting them for personal use will put a dent in the number of them in our world. To harvest nettles you can cut the stem or pull out whole plants with the roots. You can transplant young nettle plants into your edible medicinal plant garden if you like. The plants will spread, so you might want to keep the roots contained.

    Here is picture of edible stinging nettles:

  • Puffballs & Mushroom Identification

    Puffballs & Mushroom Identification

    How to identify mushrooms. I get a lot of requests for more information mushroom identification, so i’ve started with this post to show GardenFork readers different mushrooms I run across in the woods and in the city.
    The Giant Puffball can be a common site in urban areas. You might see these large white balls that look like they are from another planet appearing on your lawn, or in a park or meadow. Puffballs like this are common on the East Coast, I’ve also seen them in the Midwest.
    The Puffball Mushroom in the photo here is one I found in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. It was growing on the edge of a meadow near some trees.

    Puffballs such as this are generally edible, though double check with several references and experts before getting out your knife and fork. I have found them to taste underwhelming, kinda like tofu. So maybe you can use them in a stir fry or saute with other vegetables, or in a soup.

    Homesteaders, Urban Homesteaders, Foragers: Let me know how you cook puffballs.

    how to identify mushrooms
    Giant Puffball Mushroom part of the GardenFork Mushroom Identification series
  • Cooking Oils and Dog Discipline : GardenFork Radio

    Cooking Oils and Dog Discipline : GardenFork Radio

    Call us: 860-740-6938 and ask us a question or leave a comment! Cooking Oils, does it make sense to cook with extra virgin olive oil, what’s that word umami?, foraging is starting to take over the restaurant scene, whole house humidifiers and more on GardenFork Radio.

    Harold McGhee’s article on using different cooking oils and does it make sense to cook with extra virgin olive oil is here

    Chefs using foraged food in restaurants article is here

    Do you forage food? tell us below:

  • Oyster mushrooms found on our hike

    Oyster mushrooms found on our hike

    Oyster Mushrooms we found on a hike in the woods. Part of our Mushroom Identification series. For a mushroom identification video click here. Below the photo are some Mushroom Foraging Books I use to identify mushrooms, The Audubon Field Guide
    is small enough to put in your pocket while hiking, and then you can cross-reference with the larger Mushrooms Demystified
    book, which is also good.



    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound

    Click Here To Buy From Amazon


    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound

    Click Here To Buy From Amazon

  • Mushroom Hunting – Foraging for the Chicken Mushroom

    Mushroom Hunting – Foraging for the Chicken Mushroom

    One of my best friends drove over from NY state yesterday and arrived with a bag full of interesting mushrooms. He and his wife have become quite adept at finding Morels and Oyster mushrooms.

    He had found these near their house, down the road a mile or so, and stopped to pick a few.

    Chicken Mushrooms

    We brought them into the house and I pulled out my mushroom books. We found the mushroom, identified as the Chicken Mushroom ( Laetiporus sulphureus ), in my favorite book, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.

    But to make sure we knew what this was, we cross checked with our other mushroom books, and confirmed that the mushrooms were indeed Chicken Mushrooms.

    Always make sure you know exactly what you are doing with mushrooms found in the woods, if you’re not sure, don’t eat them, OK?

    Considered Choice Edible by the Audubon Guide, we first simmered them in salt water, as suggested online, and then sauted them with a little butter. They were quite good. Not amazing, but good enough that we will pick these again and add to a meal.

    What fun mushroom or wild food finds have you found lately? let us know below:

    a quick simmer in salt water was suggested
    Sauteed in Butter, yum.
  • Wild and Urban Foraging for Lambsquarters : GF Video

    Wild and Urban Foraging for Lambsquarters : GF Video

    Today we forage for wild edible food in our own yard, forgaing for Lambsquarters, also called Pitseed Goosefit or Pigweed by some. Lambsquarters is all over our cities and yards, so whether you are doing urban foraging or wild foraging, you can learn in this GardenFork.TV show about Lambsquarters.



    Do you forage for wild plants? What edible plants have you eaten or found? Let us know below:

  • OK, I DO like ramps.

    OK, I DO like ramps.

    Last week, someone posted on Twitter that they didn’t get the hype about certain ‘foodie’ foods, and ramps being one of them. I concurred.

    Then last weekend, we had dinner at the camp, and I sat down to a plate of ramps.

    WOW

    photo: wfiupublicradio
    photo: wfiupublicradio

    For these ramps, the recipe was simple: Saute in olive oil.

    That’s it. The cook apologized for not having any garlic to add to the dish. It didn’t need it. They taste like a cross between garlic and scallions, and sweet and buttery.

    According to Wikipedia : Allium tricoccum, commonly known as ramps, spring onion, ramson, wild leek, or ail des bois (French), is a member of the onion family (Alliaceae). Found in groups with broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems and a scallion-like bulb strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. They are found from the U.S. state of South Carolina to Canada and are especially popular in the cuisine of the US state of West Virginia and the Canadian province of Quebec when they emerge in the springtime. A common description of the flavor is like a combination of onions and strong garlic

    Ramps grow on the East Coast of the U.S. in wooded areas. So last Sunday, on our hike with the Labradors, I kept my eyes out for ramps, but found none. But I will keep looking, as my neighbors down in the valley have ramps, so I’m thinking they are up at my house as well, maybe they sprout a bit later. ( i’m hoping )

    My Brooklyn neighbors, Food52.com, interviewed Hubert McCabe of Windfall Farm on their blog here, and he says: “They’re like a present … You stumble on them, and nobody will tell anybody else where their secret spots are.”

    Thanks to Food52, I met a new Brooklyn Food web video person, Lisa, of The Funny Side Up, and here is her video about ramps, direct from her kitchen.

    some other food bloggers who have written about ramps are listed below, please check them out.

    Closet Cooking

    innBrooklyn

    Radishes and Rhubarb

    Good Food Revolution

    The Just in Case Book

    What do you know about ramps? How do you cook them? tell us below:

  • How to inoculate logs with mushroom spore – thanks to Cooking Up A Story

    How to inoculate logs with mushroom spore – thanks to Cooking Up A Story

    On  my to do list is to learn more about propogating mushrooms. I want to learn how to grow mushrooms, and here is a great video by Ashley Terry of the blog Cooking Up A Story. Ashley went to Oregon to learn about inoculating birch logs with oyster mushroom spore. Check out Cooking Up A Story for more cool info.

    WWOOF USA: Elm Oyster Inoculation from Ashley Terry on Vimeo.

  • Is Dandelion edible? Dandelion Salad Recipe : GF Video

    Is Dandelion edible? Dandelion Salad Recipe : GF Video

    You can eat what most people call a weed. Dandelion.

    Here is another foraging video we did on how to harvest and cook dandelion.

    Wikipedia has some good info on dandelion, though I don’t agree you have to always cook it down before eating. There are plenty of us who like it raw. If you like mustard greens, you’ll like dandelion.

    You can grow it in your garden, it will last longer into the summer than most any other green. I think the horticultural version is milder, and I prefer the wild version. I was walking around the barn this weekend looking for dandelion, there is still a bunch of it around depsite the record heat wave. Dandelion starts growing early in the spring, flowers and quickly goes to seed. Dandelion then pops up again in the fall, so keep an eye out for it all through the growing season. You can even grow it in a cold frame or hoop house. Click these to see our how to build a hoop house and cold frame videos

    Don’t harvest it from roadside areas or where your dogs like to hang out. 10-4?

    if you want to learn more about foraging, here is a how-to book to get you started. I like this book, and learned a bunch about acorns, which you can make a flour with. who knew?


    Order From An Indie Bookstore Here

    Buy From Amazon Here