Seasonal Foraging

LOL at the cotton mouth comment Eric!

We went for a hike in VT yesterday and came across this bunch of mushrooms growing on the root ball of a blow over tree.

 

Made some pumpkin-acorn bread this morning with some of the first batch of flour. Very tasty

 

This has shaped up to be a banner year for just about everything. Even the white pine trees are all loaded with cones this year. I wonder if that’s a sign this winter will be time to pay the piper weather-wise? On the foraging end, black cherries, white oaks, hickories, and especially black walnuts have been crazy productive. I think after this I should throttle back collecting them. I’ve already got a large Rubbermaid trash can full at home, that I still need to process.

 

First Persimmon

 

Just a pinch between the cheek and gum

 

Beech nuts?

 

Yes sir

 

I revisited the persimmon tree this morning. A lot of the fruit is starting to go bad but I collected a few for the seeds inside anyway. My plan is to grow them for my coworker’s deer food plot. These have good flavor but the flesh in the center is still a little astringent, but nothing like they were a few weeks ago. From what I’m reading this is probably the native American persimmon, as opposed to an introduced Japanese variety which are more popular.

 

Eastern tea berries. I found my first patch of these hiking with the kids on New Year’s Day, and came across another patch now quite by accident on the side of the road. These are remnants from last year’s crop. I did eat one, but the rest I’m using for seeds to propagate in my backyard. They have a complex minty flavor with a bit of a lingering aftertaste.

 

Hey those are interesting!
What an how are they typically used?
What do you plan for?
Neat find!

 

To me they're just kind of a natural breath mint Apparently they have medicinal qualities though, and contain natural compounds that have a similar effect that aspirin does. I really want to grow them at my house because they make a good native ground cover and they're valuable to wildlife. I have a small patch of woods that I'm filling with different native plants/trees and these fit right into that theme.

 

Last fall I chopped all the canes to these black raspberry plants off at about 18” from ground level, following advice an old coworker gave me. They’ve since sprouted profusely and are full of fruit this year. This backyard patch grows larger every year, which I’m happy to see.

 

Not so much foraging as picking. Still tasty nonetheless.

 

Among our favorite perennials are our black raspberries. This 8’ X4’ patch started with just little sprig about 10 years ago.

 

Picked these yesterday. Destined for jam. Blood, sweat BUT no tears in picking these.

 

Elderberries… first time I’ve ever picked any. Been wanting to try doing something with them for years. Had some friends visiting last weekend who are foragers ( mushrooms mostly) so we picked a bunch. Then when they left they forgot to take their bounty with them. I went back out Wednesday evening and again this morning. Looks like I got around 2 gallons of berries after I stemmed them. It’ll be my first attempt at making jam and/or jelly.

I set up in the garage to pick them off the stems. Glad I did, would have been a good mess in the kitchen

 

If you were making just jelly, I don't know if you could have cooked them stems and all and then strain out the juice.

 

Wow....what a take!
Add some high-test alcohol to the berries and make a tincture....
A schlep a day is good stuff.
I let a shot sit out hoping the alcohol would evaporate out a bit....

 

the final result
Out of 3 batches, batch #2 didn’t seem too set up as well. Oh well, I’ll use it as pancake syrup, or put it on ice cream.

seems like a tedious process. Not sure that the juice is worth all the squeezing. But I’ve always wanted to try making my own jelly. I’ll probably try again next year, maybe a different fruit. Wild plum and chokecherry jelly are popular around here.

 

I’ve made a few batches of various jellies that didn’t set well. Getting the right amount of pectin thoroughly incorporated into the juice can be tricky. Like you said, you can always use the juice as a syrup. I’ve even made popsicles with it. I finally spotted some elderberries a couple weeks ago here but I might be too late to harvest them by now .