Edible things in the woods

[E4 No More]

I think ya'll should take the list that comes out of this, add pictures and cooking instructions, and then make a book out of it to sell.

[Moped]

I don't know when or how it got here, or how it naturally propagated, but it was around when I was a tyke.

You don't find it everywhere, but where it is there is often a lot of it. It stays green year round too.

- OS

Dang, that long ago?!?!?

There was a huge spring on my parent's farm, and it was loaded with watercress. They say that watercress only grows in clean water and that it's presence usually means the water is pollution free.

[subsonic]

Oyster mushrooms are great, almost $10 a pound in gourmet shops. Easy to dry and keep for several years. They can be found from late fall through early spring, most commonly on dead tulip poplars, sometimes hackberry, and frequently on dead elms. I had some after a rainy spell this summer, but that's rare. Another edible mushroom found throughout the year are wood ears, those brown gelatinous ones on dead trees. They're commonly used in Chinese food, ie hot & sour soup. They have blood thinning compounds in them, so good for heart health, bad for bleeding issues like ulcers.

Lamb's Quarter is a common weed and a wild form of spinach, good sauteed.

[mcurrier]

Woman Accidentally Poisons Family With Mushrooms Picked From Backyard

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/10/18/woman-accidentally-poisons-family-with-mushrooms-picked-from-backyard/

[DaveS]

So he say's "we never had any problems eating mushrooms in Pakistan". Well, uh.....I just don't know what to say...

Dave S

[dlm37015]

last time i ate mushrooms in the woods i took a long trip

[BZ74]

I have read that cudzoo (sp?) is also edible. And that crap grows everywhere.

Edited October 19, 2012 by BZ74

[Garufa]

I have read that cudzoo (sp?) is also edible. And that crap grows everywhere.

Kudzu is edible. At least the leaves are, not the vines.

[Guest 73challenger]

Sour grass. The leaves taste like grape skin.

Edited October 19, 2012 by 73challenger

[subsonic]

Woman Accidentally Poisons Family With Mushrooms Picked From Backyard

It pays to do your homework and know what you're looking at.

Edited October 19, 2012 by subsonic

[daveW]

There's a Nashville group:

http://www.meetup.com/weedeaters/

I've never been to one of their meetings, it never fits in my schedule.

[mikegideon]

Woman Accidentally Poisons Family With Mushrooms Picked From Backyard

http://connecticut.c...-from-backyard/

Yep. You gotta know what you're doing.

[mikegideon]

The OP didn't specify flora or fauna so My favorite edible found in the woods would have to be backstrap and/or tenderloin from a deer born last season.

Yep. I almost put up a picture of a tree rat. .

Vegetarian: Old Indian word for bad hunter.

[jtmaze]

last time i ate mushrooms in the woods i took a long trip

Me to come to think o it. Almost stepped on a water moccasin.

JTM

Sent from my iPhone

[Guest brentt]

Cattails. You can eat different parts of it year round. The roots are suppose to be like potatoes. the stalk you eat a different time of year and the bloom thing on top can be eatin like corn on the cob. Never done it. Just always heard about it. Found this website that gives a lil detail to the edible roots. http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/how-to-eat-cattail.htm.

[UncleJak]

Cattails are good, but I am very leary of eating most of the ones I find. It seems they are always growing near polluted water which means they are soaking up all those toxins.

[vontar]

I am surprised no one had said this.

Polk,
Growing up and I remember going out and picking Polk. I believe it has to be picked some in the spring time before it gets berries. It does have to be cooked (twice I believe). Most people I know made it into polk salad. Although I have had the leaves fried once(not sure how they prepared it.)

I haven't had it since I was a kid, and last summer I wanted to try it again but I had waited to late in the year to pick it. However I just found out my aunt has some in the freeze and is going to fix some next time I get to go home for my wife and I. My wife has never tried it.

Probably not a good survival food as I understand there is allot of work to get it ready to eat. I know she double cooks it.

Also I have always been told the berries are poison I don't know. Edited November 10, 2012 by vontar

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name='vontar' timestamp='1352561097' post='843067']I am surprised no one had said this.

Polk,
Growing up and I remember going out and picking Polk. I believe it has to be picked some in the spring time before it gets berries. It does have to be cooked (twice I believe). Most people I know made it into polk salad. Although I have had the leaves fried once(not sure how they prepared it.)

I haven't had it since I was a kid, and last summer I wanted to try it again but I had waited to late in the year to pick it. However I just found out my aunt has some in the freeze and is going to fix some next time I get to go home for my wife and I. My wife has never tried it.

Probably not a good survival food as I understand there is allot of work to get it ready to eat. I know she double cooks it.

Also I have always been told the berries are poison I don't know.[/quote]

I thought about this one as many old timers ate it all the time. There is however a certain faction that believes Polk even when cooked isn't healthy and some even say toxic. I don't believe most people eat enough to really be toxic, but who knows who's right.

[vontar]

As i understand, that is why they double boil it, to cook out any of the natural toxins, but I guess it cooks out anything that would be good as well.

[Oh Shoot]

"Poke" not "polk". Pokeweed. You pick a "mess" of it.

Yes, berries and roots are toxic, but leaves can be eaten even after berries form, but small leaves in spring are best.

I ate a ton of it growing up, and matter of fact picked a small mess along the 3rd Creek greenway about three years ago and ate it for old time's sake.

And yep, boil for a bit, drain, change water boil some more, adding pork fat is traditional. Not bad, damn good if you're really hungry. If it were harmful to eat it this way, half the South would have died in the 30s.

- OS

[mikegideon]

[quote name='OhShoot' timestamp='1352569332' post='843143']
"Poke" not "polk". Pokeweed. You pick a "mess" of it.

Yes, berries and roots are toxic, but leaves can be eaten even after berries form, but small leaves in spring are best.

I ate a ton of it growing up, and matter of fact picked a small mess along the 3rd Creek greenway about three years ago and ate it for old time's sake.

And yep, boil for a bit, drain, change water boil some more, adding pork fat is traditional. Not bad, damn good if you're really hungry. If it were harmful to eat it this way, half the South would have died in the 30s.

- OS
[/quote]

Yep. Not bad with some pork thrown in.

[Guest HvyMtl]

[quote name='BZ74' timestamp='1350656441' post='830523']
I have read that cudzoo (sp?) is also edible. And that crap grows everywhere.
[/quote]
Kudzu was intentionally imported and planted in the US, as a road side buffer. It grows slowly in Japan, and is cultivated there for food. The thought was it was good ground cover, and the public could harvest it. Little did they know it would grow CRAZY fast here. And it is also darn near impossible to kill off, once it has taken root.

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name='HvyMtl' timestamp='1352570736' post='843161']
Kudzu was intentionally imported and planted in the US, as a road side buffer. It grows slowly in Japan, and is cultivated there for food. The thought was it was good ground cover, and the public could harvest it. Little did they know it would grow CRAZY fast here. And it is also darn near impossible to kill off, once it has taken root.[/quote]

Can grow up to 12" in one DAY!!

[vontar]

Kudzu

[quote]

[font="Arial,Helvetica"][size="-1"]In the 1940's, the US Government paid farmers as much as 8 dollars per acre of vine they planted[/size][/font]
[/quote]
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Pueraria_montana.html

[UncleJak]

Update: I ate clover and it tastes horrid. If God had wanted me to be a vegetarian, he would have made me a rabbit.