I think fishing and hunting would count. I've never hunted, but wish I did sometimes. I've eaten prickly pears but never gathered them myself. Are they hard to harvest/prepare?

I forget about things until someone else brings them up. Pine nuts, yes I've gathered them, but not around here, cattails (top flowers only, I couldn't get the rhizomes out of the muck), strawberries, raspberries and clovers.

too bad you don't live close to me Pat. you would love all the dandelions in my yard!   big and bushy already.

MarthaMFI:

too bad you don't live close to me Pat. you would love all the dandelions in my yard!   big and bushy already.

Have you ever tried them? 

 I went hunting with my dad once when I was a teenager but I just don't have the skills to do it alone. 

Pat:

I've eaten prickly pears but never gathered them myself. Are they hard to harvest/prepare?

First of all wear leather gloves or something that's thick enough to protect your hands. Put the fruit in a bowl or a pail something that will not let the spines through. And lastly wear gloves to peal the fruit. I quickly peal them as I pick them with a pearing knife, dropping them in a bowl as I go. My advice to you is go slowly at first because you don't want those needles in your hands! We eat them as they are, in fruit salad, grilled, and pickled. The trailer park my husband and I lived in when we first got married had a few prickly pear cacti growing along the forest line. The neighborhood kids watched in delight as I picked, pealed and sliced them for everyone. A few weeks later a girl from down the street had picked one and hurt her fingers. I guess it was a reaction that you'd put a pricked finger in your mouth but it took 3 hours for me to twease all the spines from her mouth and hands. 

 cyn

goldenblaise:

I guess it was a reaction that you'd put a pricked finger in your mouth but it took 3 hours for me to twease all the spines from her mouth and hands. 

Oh, that sounds awful! Poor girl. 

Thanks for the information. The next time I'm in an area where they grow, I'm going to try to gather a few. 

not out of my yard. I think they are in spring mixes at the store sometimes.     I think they spring up overnite!    no one but me eats salads here. 

MarthaMFI:

not out of my yard. I think they are in spring mixes at the store sometimes.     I think they spring up overnite!    no one but me eats salads here. 

They're good cooked, too, or you can eat the buds like boiled vegetables, or the flowers can be frittered. The roots can be eaten as a cooked vegetable or made into dandelion "coffee." I'm a great advocate of dandelions! They were introduced to this continent as a food and medicinal herb, but when they escaped gardens, they became "weeds." 

They're a lot cheaper out of your yard than in the store, but only if you haven't sprayed for weeds. 

 I don't do weed sprays maybe I should fry some up and freak out the family!

 I found the Dandy Green Pasta (noodle) recipe in Mary-Jane's Outpost Book by Mary-Jane Butters. I don't think it is legal for me to copy the recipe from her book. You could buy the book or ask your library to buy it.

 There are many recipes in her book that call for wild foods!

  I make the Dandy Green Pasta with spaghetti sauce and sprinkle it with mozzerella cheese. It is so good! I also make it like Fettucine Alfredo, that is also very good.

 The Dandy Green Pasta taste absolutely no different than other pasta, but the kids in the family sort of gross out because it is green. After they try it they like it, but they just can't get over it being green.

                                                 Belle

On looking up some information on dandelions, I found chicory. I knew chicory to be a popular coffee choice of old Cajuns and considered part of our ethnic food today.

But now I also know that it is a plant much like the dandelion. I can only assume the early settlers used this a coffee substitute and later generations found it cheaper to continue using it. I wonder if my great-grandparents and others had actually picked chicory to make their own coffee. Now, I can go to the store and buy a bag of chicory coffee grinds which I am now guessing is more of a coffee blend.