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