These are some of the foods i pick in the wild, most can be domesticated but I prefer them wild, asparagus, rhubarb, saskatoons, chestnuts, crabapples, chokecherries and rosehips.

I would love to pick mushrooms but I have never found a resource book with pictures that would make me confident enough to select edible ones.

I have noticed a reduction in the amount of  food to be picked as more and more areas are being sprayed. 

I eat wild foods!

 Here lately, I have been collecting the dandelion greens and the dandelion root. I make noodles out of the dandelion greens. With the dandelion root, I wash the roots, chop the roots, bake them in the oven, and then I use it to make a tea like drink.

 The blooms are started to come on the dandelions. I am collecting those and freezing them to make dandelion jelly and I also have a recipe for cookies made with dandelions.

 The violet are blooming here where I live, so my family and I are eating the violet blooms. My sister is trying to learn to sugar the violet blooms so she can decorate cakes and cupcakes with them.

 There are woods on my property so I like to go into the woods and pick Trout Lillies to eat. I really like the flavor of Trout Lillies. They have a sort of nutty taste.

 It is time to find wild mushrooms, which my family loves, but I never can find any in my woods. I usually can find them in my relatives woods and they let me hunt for them there.

 In a few months, all of the wild blackberries will be ready to pick. I love wild blackerries. A wild blackberrry taste so much better than a tame one. Actually, I hate the flavor of tame blackberries compared to wild. With wild blackberries, I make jellies and cobblers. I pick all that I can and freeze the berries I don't use up so I can make cobblers in the winter.

 In the fall, I collect the hickory nut and black walnuts that are in my woods. Hickory nut taste so good in chocolate chip cookies! I like the black walnuts in fudge.

 There are so many, many wild foods that God gives us. Many people just don't what is edible and what is not.

                                           Belle

missapril_piano:

I heard you can roast the roots like chicory to stretch or replace coffee.

I love dandelion coffee! It doesn't taste like chicory, and it doesn't really taste like coffee, but it tastes a little like coffee with something added to it. It's caffeine free which is a boon to me, because I can't have caffeine, but I would drink it anyway because of the flavor. You scrub it and roast in a slow oven until it's fairly dark, then grind it in a coffee grinder. You can steep it like tea, but I prefer it perked like coffee (drip type makers don't get hot enough). I have a stove top percolator that works very well for it.

Leaves are good for salads, as well as cooked greens. You can dry them to cook later or to make a gentle diuretic tea with. Flowers can be frittered, made into wine, used in confections and a few other things I can't even think of right now.  All parts of the dandelion are diuretic, so if that would be a problem, use it in small doses. All wild food should be used in small doses until you know how you will react to them. 

happy:

These are some of the foods i pick in the wild, most can be domesticated but I prefer them wild, asparagus, rhubarb, saskatoons, chestnuts, crabapples, chokecherries and rosehips.

I used to pick wild asparagus here, but since I live in town, I haven't been out to find it. With the higher prices of gas, I wonder if it's worth it if I'd have to drive around for awhile looking for it. Can't beat the taste, though! I've picked chokecherries and rose hips, too.  It's sad that they think they have to kill everything that isn't grass or farm crop. Wild foods and medicinal plants are so valuable, not just to us, but to future generations. 

homesteaderbelle:

I make noodles out of the dandelion greens.

Would you mind sharing the recipe for dandelion leaves noodles? Sounds good! I envy you your violets. I used to live in a place where daylilies grew wild and they were so good. Do trout lilies taste the same? They don't grow in this part of the country that I know of. If I could find a few daylily tubers, I'd plant them in my back yard just to eat. Blackberries don't grow wild here, either, but I remember the taste of my Grandma's blackberry cobbler! My daughter lives in Washington and I keep trying to get her to send me some, but so far, no luck.

Just the mention of black walnuts makes my mouth water... 

 Pat, do you mean the orange daylilys. I could dig you some and mail them. Think they would survive???? I have a lot of them. Plus some of the new hybrid colors. We have a big daylily farm near us. Babs

babs:

 Pat, do you mean the orange daylilys.

I'll PM you. 

 never, Babs

 The buds taste like asparagus and the roots are a little like potatoes, but stronger tasting. Try them sometime.

 Here's a few I've gathered. Huckleberries, strawberries, pecans, sassafras, prickly pears, blackberries, pine nuts, cattails, clovers, and persimmons. Although I never went back for more persimmons because I couldn't figure out how to eat them, lol it always tasted bad to me. Are we counting game and fish also? Or just harvested foods? I'm an avid fisherwoman and will not torture anyone with that list, lol. Since moving to FL I haven't discovered any good places to hunt wild food. I guess I'm still getting used to the area. I still fish though.

cyn