It may not go over . The fishing threads have been going for several years. Anyway some morels I found yesterday .
In dipbait's great pic above he shows the common morel, one of several identified wild mushrooms - prized by foragers of wild plants.
Great, thank you! I was always told as a kid to avoid mushrooms period because of the bad ones and I've not ever known any good ones so this is great. Is there a way to tell, generally speaking, what's an edible mushroom as opposed to one that will make you sick or trippy? Or do you just need to know particular species?
You need to know. Dont take chances . The morel season is short. I wont get any more mushrooms til late summer or fall .
I have many family members who are experts in mushroom foraging and know there is much to learn and be familiar with in this pursuit. There's manyntypes of false morels which can make you very ill and even kill you. The same applies to many of the varieties I believe? Most I ever do is scavenge for ramps in the spring.
DO NOT TAKE ADVISE FROM THE INTERNET ON WILD EDIBLES! Just don't do it. Find someone in your area that can take you out and show you. A few pics and a couple sentences of description is not enough to base eating random plants on. Especially mushrooms. Sorry for the rant but wild edibles is one of those things you shouldn't mess with without good instruction.
In our literal back yard, and delicious. First wild mushrooms I ever picked and ate; same boat as many others. Always told to stay away. There is a strict protocol for where to pick so they're not loaded with pesticides, checking to be sure they're not false, prep and cooking, tasting a sample and waiting for a reaction, and then not eating 2 pounds at the first sitting. Dipped in potato starch and fried in butter. They were awesome
This is from one of my recent threads, sorry about the poor pic. While out and about today I came across a rather prolific wild edible......Dead Nettles ! I actually found these growing today in large numbers amongst both Dandelions and Miners Lettuce, if that's not god handing you a salad on a plate I don't know what is !
Morels and some False Solomons Seal after a walk this weekend. Tiny bit of sliced garlic and water .... :thumbup:
Here is a brief list of wild edibles for my area, Idaho, provided by the USDA Forrest Service on their website. Camas - Camassia quamash Shortstyle Onion - Allium brevistylum Fireweed - Epilobium angustifolium Wild Ginger - Asarum caudatum Meadow Salsify - Tragopogon pratensis Rose - Rosa woodsii Yellow Pond Lily - Nuphar polysepalum Cattail - Typha latifolia Yarrow - Achillea millefolium Evert's or Elk Thistle - Cirsium scariosum Serviceberry - Amelanchier alnifolia Wild Strawberry - Fragaria vesca Field Mint - Mentha arvensis Oregon Grape - Berberis repens http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/ipnf/maps-pubs/?cid=fsm9_019122 I assume that the same type lists are available for most areas of the U.S. there.
I noticed yesterday that our Camas is out in force. The Oregon Grape isn't out here just yet. We also have Fairy Slipper orchids out right now, their corms make good eating. We also have Miners lettuce in large supply.
Still waiting for the local wild asparagus. I check now and then, but it's usually early to mid May when it shows up around here.
A few hours ago returned from a night hike. My day/night hiking pack is up to 35 lbs. Violets are a wild edible. Ate the flowers and leaves.
I miss these threads. Easily my favorite spring time edible plant; Allium tricoccum. Up north we call them Wild Leeks, the southern folk know them as Ramps. Here is a bunch of info on the plant from my friend Marty Simon of The Wilderness Learning Center.