I just realized yesterday that its mid August and none of the wild blackberries around here produced fruit this year. Or so little the birds got to them 1st. Normally there's so much fruit on them the birds can't eat it all. My domestic strawberries had almost 0 production this year also. Not sure if its due to the extremely dry spring then the wettest summer ever or something else.
Ours are starting to get ripe but it has been so dry that they aren't very big. If we get some rain in the next couple of weeks, it sure would help.
Anyone do much with black walnuts? I came across a large roadside tree that had recently dropped dozens of nuts. I’m thinking of removing the husks, cracking the shells open and roasting the meat inside. I’m also debating whether or not to save a couple over the winter for spring planting too. I read they’re really picky with soil types though so maybe I’m better off just eating them...
I went out with my 10 year old yesterday afternoon to pick wild grapes. I finally had some time tonight to whip up a batch of jelly. This stuff smells amazing
Hey we did that a few years back!! I sorta thought those grapes were best after the first frost tho? Maybe try another batch after frost and see if there's a difference . I forgot the process though....boil for a few and then run through a foley food mill I think. It was good though!! Did you water bath can or turn them upside down whilst they cooled (old school)? Sca
I think it depends on the variety. I agree that some kinds of grapes are terribly sour until a frost sweetens them up. These ones I just picked were good enough to eat right off the vine. I first started noticing some kinds of grapes were ripe a couple weeks ago. I picked what I believe to be Fox grapes (smaller, wild descendant of the Concord) earlier this week and they were super sweet. Typically the late bloomers I find are ready by the last week in September. After that they really start getting past their prime. As far as the canning goes, I just water bathed them. I never heard of turning them upside-down but I'll have to look into that.
We had grapes at our last house. Sweetest when the yellowjackets were crawling over them this time of year.
It’s that time of year again, although a couple weeks behind from our typical summers due to a long, drawn-out shoulder season. Here’s some of this year’s wine berries. So no Warner, I didn’t girdle them last year They’re actually classified as a noxious weed in Connecticut, and it’s illegal to posses/sell them (the plants themselves) Being that these are growing wild, I’m at doing my part in eating them, rather than the birds doing so and spreading the seeds.
This year is a bumper crop (mast year) for the large red oak in my front yard. The whole yard is carpeted in acorns, and I’ve been pitching them into the woods for weeks. I decided since I’m picking them up anyway, I can save some to try my hand at making acorn flour.
We eat a lot of wild food year round, but most of our non-meat items are from our gardens. This is what I am currently foraging until deer season, then again for a short time afterwards until we have enough ice for spearing. Ruffed grouse are our among our favorite wild foods, plus we love the long walks in the forest. We are heading into our favorite time of the year
I barely made a dent in my acorn stash Here’s the first batch of flour in-process. One part shelled acorns to 3 parts water run through the blender for 1 minute. Empty the liquid into the jars, after a couple hours the sediment settles and the water with all the tannins I’m trying to remove sits on top. Remove the top layer of liquid, refill the jars with water, shake vigorously and repeat the process. I’m going to have to do this several more times to leach all the tannins out, otherwise the flour will be astringent (from what I’m reading) Once the water is all clear after settling, the tannins are removed. Then it’s on to filtering the finely ground acorn powder, and drying it out in the oven for a few hours. Sift and store. So far so good though. Oh, BTW this stuff smells fantastic Kind of reminds me of vanilla bean ice cream.
I saw a few different methods and this one seemed the easiest way for me to work it, with what I have. Some people were putting the whole shelled nuts in a burlap sack and leaving it in running water (a river, etc) for a couple days. Other people were pulverizing the nuts dry, then putting the powder in a nut milk bag and running that through water, then baking. I’m just hoping for the best at this point. The hardest part is shelling the nuts. Even though I was using channel locks to crack the shells, my fingers are pretty raw from all the nut extraction.
I used a meat tenderizer hammer. One good whack split them pretty well open. If you had a shoe box, cut one side out. That will keep your nuts from bouncing all over the place like they were on fire.
There’s a ton of recipes out there. Basically substitute it for regular flour in anything you feel like baking. I’m going to try bread first, and I plan on adding some black walnuts and hickory nuts I foraged too.
Leaching is done. I did a taste test and there’s no trace of astringency/cottonmouth sensation. On to the oven now, 190F for about 4 hours.
