where the wild food grows...

[coffeelover782]

Its all well and good growing a garden, but how about all the other good free stuff God has growing out there?  I love finding organic free food out in nature. I live in Ct, so I will discuss whats around here and how I use it, then you all say where you live and what you have there. Hickory nuts: hickory trees are all  over here, so in the fall (now), I pick them up off the ground and put them in pails with lids so the dont attract mice, and in the winter, when theres no gardening to do, I sit for hours cracking them. Its a great hand workout, just carefull for the shells and if theres little ones around, dont let any shells fall on the floor. they are kinda like a mild walnut and are great in cookies, cakes...   Russian oliives, also called autumn olives grow in fields and are ABUNDANT on the sides of roads and even the highway.I didnt know these were edible until a couple years ago. If you dont know what these are, look up pictures on the computer. They grow on small trees and this year there were so many around here. I would describe them to be like a sweeter cranberry. I use them to make a chutney with them adding sugar, apples or pears, and cinnamon. Then I freeze it or put parrafin on top.  Theyre also good off the tree. They are ready in september to december. Dandelion greens are good when tiny in salad or when larger, sautteed in oil or butter with garlic or a tomato sauce. I also make a detox tea wth them by boiling the root and all, adding mint leaves and lemon balm leaves from my herb patch. Its good if sweetened. Blackberries( you know what to do with these)

[Stinamarie2268]

I used to live in CT, there was always an abundance of this to forage. Now I live in Northern Maine and there are still a lot of edible thing but it's different in many ways. Since our climate is colder we have a lot less deciduous trees and way more pines and evergreens, so nuts are pretty much out of the question to find in the area. I'm sure if we went a little more south this would change. The pine needles on our trees make and excellent additive to teas and infusions and are very high in vitamin C. Crab apple trees abound out here and in the town of New Sweden there are very old apple trees growing along side just about every street, many of the locals around here go there for foraging and apple harvest. We have fiddle-heads, and dandelions in the spring for greens, and high-bush cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, chokecherries, and Indian strawberries all grow wild on the properties out here. Rhubarb patches can be found wild here and there as well. As for roots there are burdock roots that have a rather nutty taste to them and wild carrots....I'm sure there are many more but these are the one's I take advantage of every year. We just moved here 2 yrs ago and I'm sure I have many more to learn.