Читать книгу The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles - Mike Krebill - Страница 9
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In this section, you will find my chosen 33 edible wild plants, their characteristics and uses. Information will be under the following headings:
Range
Habitat
Positive ID checklist
The edible parts of the plant and how to prepare them
A caution note when there’s an important observation to share, or a warning about a similar-looking but toxic plant
When to harvest each plant and how to do so sustainably
How to preserve your harvest
Most of the plants found in this guide are widely distributed in the U.S. and in Canada’s lower provinces. For convenience in looking up information, they are alphabetized by their common name.
Amaranth, Green
Amaranthus retroflexus
RANGE:
Introduced and widespread throughout the United States and Canada
HABITAT:
Wherever soil is tilled or disturbed and moisture is adequate, green amaranth will be among the first and most persistent of weeds.
POSITIVE ID:
• Green amaranth’s smooth-edged, oval leaves seem soft, hairy and flaccid. A flaccid leaf is one that appears slightly wilted, like it needs water.
• Also known as “redroot,” its taproot usually has a pink or reddish color to it.
• Seedheads at the top of the plant and in several of the leaf axils beneath it have several fingerlike clusters, or spikes, containing hundreds of seeds hidden inside.
• The ripe seeds are tiny and black, and have a flattened circular disc shape.
• There are no thorns on this plant.
At the preferred size for harvesting the leaves for cooked greens, this green amaranth was one of dozens that grew as weeds in community garden plots in Ann Arbor, MI. Note the distinctive red root, helpful in identification, and why the plant is also known as “redroot.”
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The young leaves are edible raw or cooked. The seeds are an ingredient in wild food trail bites (award-winning recipe on page 162). Snip off several of the greenish brown seedheads into a paper grocery sack. Roll the sack tightly closed and shake it to free the seeds. As some of the seed coverings will be mixed in, it will be necessary to winnow the tiny black seeds to remove the chaff.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Early summer for greens; late summer to early fall for seeds
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting young leaves and dozens of seedheads will have little impact on this prolific plant.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Drop leaves in boiling water for three minutes, then plunge into ice water. Drain and freeze. Use within 11 months. Keep hulled seeds frozen for up to one year.
When the plant grows larger, the seedhead begins to develop. The leaves become coarser and more fibrous. The stalk becomes tough and woody as the plant gets taller and taller. This is a stage not worth harvesting.
The mature plant has an enormous seedhead with finger-like branches and thousands of tiny, shiny black seeds. These seeds can be collected when the seedheads begin turning brown.
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis
RANGE:
A garden and farm escapee in the lower 48 states and Canada’s southern provinces that became “wild” thanks to birds eating its berries and pooping the seeds
HABITAT:
Near farm gardens or fields where asparagus was raised. Wild asparagus bushes may be spotted as you drive along a road. Watch for them on the road bank below overhead wires and along fence lines where birds perch.
POSITIVE ID:
• Young shoots (spears) are identical to the asparagus spears you might add to your grocery cart in a store. They have triangular, papery bud covers where branches will emerge.
• The open, airy bush that develops from the spear has a woody central stem with thin, wiry branches. Being green, the stem, its branches and the fine, needle-like leaves can capture the energy of sunlight.
• The bush turns golden yellow in autumn.
• The female bush produces 1/4″ diameter round red berries which are toxic.
Wild asparagus shoots at their prime. Note that they are unbranched, and resemble asparagus that would be sold in stores. Wild asparagus and garden asparagus are one and the same, differing only in the location where they grow.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The unbranched spear is the only edible part. For maximum flavor, eat it the same day you collect it. On a camping trip, our Scouts discovered wild asparagus. We dropped the spears in rapidly boiling, salted water for three minutes and ate them immediately. They were bright green, crunchy, and absolutely delicious.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Spring
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Leave several spears from a group of asparagus plants, to capture the energy of sunlight and keep the roots alive.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Drop spears in boiling water for three minutes, then plunge into ice water. Drain and freeze. Use within 10 months.
Once the spear begins branching out like this, it becomes too fibrous to eat. It also becomes more and more TOXIC, so do not collect it if it resembles this photo.
Eventually the branches develop into a bush with fine needle-like leaves. Each asparagus stalk visible in this photo represents one bush. Bushes can be either male or female. Female bushes will have hard red berries with seeds inside. These berries are poisonous to people.
Autumn Olive
Elaeagnus umbellata
RANGE:
Introduced, invasive and widespread through Central and Eastern U.S., Washington, Oregon, Montana, and the province of Ontario
HABITAT:
Woodland edges, abandoned fields, roadbanks, pastures, orchards and recreational lands
POSITIVE ID:
• This is a multi-trunked woody shrub with occasional thorns.
• Leaves are simple, elliptic, smooth to wavy-edged; grayish-green on upper surface, silvery beneath. Each leaf has a short, silvery-gray petiole.
• Flowers are yellowish-white, 4-petaled and tubular.
• Fruit is silver speckled, red and juicy when ripe.
Notice how perfectly plump and round the drupes have become. That's a tip-off that they are probably ripe and ready to harvest. A taste test will soon tell. They should taste tart, and leave no lingering astringency in the mouth.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The flesh of fully ripe autumn olive drupes is tart, but not astringent. The kitchen tool of choice for separating the pulp and juice from the seeds, skins and stemlets is a food strainer. Dehydrating the juicy pulp produces delightfully sour fruit leather. See page 108 for how to make Fabulous Fruit Leather. The juice is a thirst-quenching replacement for lemonade that will wow your taste buds. The fragrant flowers make a nice tea.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
September and October. Ripe drupes that become rose-colored and almost spherical seem promising, but must be taste-tested before picking. Ideally, they should be pleasantly sour with no astringent (mouth-drying) aftertaste. If one drupe tastes good, all the drupes on that particular bush will be worth picking. Otherwise, skip that bush and try another.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
As long as you avoid breaking a branch, gathering fruit does no harm to the bushes.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Fruit leather can be stored for a year at room temperature in a lidded container kept in the dark.
When the wind blows, autumn olive bushes look silvery gray from a distance.
Black Raspberry
Rubus occidentalis
RANGE:
Coast to coast, with over 600 Rubus species; especially prolific in the Pacific Northwest. Besides tasty black raspberries, they include bushy blackberries, colorful raspberries, and the trailing, vine-like dewberries.
HABITAT:
At edges of woodland, fields and clearings, along paths, near logging roads, at the base of road cuts
POSITIVE ID:
• Black raspberry is a thorny bush with light green, round canes that arc towards the ground where the tips may root.
• New light green canes often have a whitish, waxy coating that can be rubbed off easily.
• Last year’s canes are reddish to purplish brown, lack the white, waxy bloom, and typically branch.
• The leaves are compound with 3–5 toothed leaflets per leaf. (The undersides of the leaflets are light green to almost silvery).
• The fruit is a compound drupe. When fully ripe, the black raspberry is purplish black to black and soft to the touch. When picked, it comes away cleanly from the receptacle on which it grew, leaving a thimble-like hollow. That helps distinguish it from blackberry, which retains its receptacle at the core.
EDIBLE PART & PREPARATION:
Devour handfuls of the raw, ripe berry, or use them to top ice cream, or make syrup by simmering a cup of them with sugar and a little water.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Typically early summer, depending on location and elevation. After picking, give remaining, unripe berries 7–10 days more to ripen, then return to pick the bushes again.
Two nice fruit clusters of black raspberries ripe for the picking. Rose Barlow once told me that she had picked 32 gallons of wild black raspberries in a single year. She explained that she had found eight nice patches. By the time she finished picking the eighth one, enough berries had ripened to return to patch number one and repeat the process.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
As long as you don’t destroy the bushes, picking the fruit should cause no harm.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Freeze the berries on a cookie sheet, then pour them into a quart bag. Vacuum seal the bag and stick it back in the freezer.
Most young black raspberry canes have a bluish-white waxy bloom that can be rubbed off.
Black Walnut
Juglans nigra
RANGE:
Native to 35 states and southern Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Rich bottomland soils of stream valleys
POSITIVE ID:
• The black walnut tree has alternate, pinnately-compound leaves 1–2′ long with 15–23 leaflets.
• Yellow-green, 1-1/2–3″ round fruit consists of a nut encased by a fleshy husk.
• When broken open and exposed to air, the husk flesh color changes from a yellowish white to dark brown.
• The brown nut has a corrugated surface.
Close-up of a black walnut tree showing a cluster of its tennis ball-like fruit (walnuts) and the long compound leaves. A leaf can be up to 24″ long and may have from 15 to 23 leaflets. The terminal or end leaflet is often missing. Because walnuts may be high in the tree, foragers typically wait until they drop to the ground in October to collect them.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Put on dishwashing gloves or equivalent to avoid staining your hands. Step on the green husk with a boot and twist your foot to pop the nut loose. Pull off clinging husk pieces, then rinse and brush or power wash the walnuts. Dry indoors on a tarp in front of a fan for two days. Let ripen and dry for two more weeks (no fan). Crack with a vise or hammer and use a nutpick to remove large pieces of the edible nutmeat. The strong flavor of black walnuts is perfect in brownies and ice cream (see Cinnamon Black Walnut Ice Cream recipe, page 137).
WHEN TO HARVEST:
October
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting walnuts from the ground does not harm trees.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Huskless, unshelled black walnuts may be stored at room temperature for two years. Extracted nutmeats are high in fats and oils that can turn rancid at room temperature, so they are best kept frozen. If vacuum-sealed first, they will last in the freezer for three years.
Left: walnut with tennis-ball like husk. Right: walnut with husk removed, then power washed. The brown nutshell has a corrugated surface.
Blueberry & Huckleberry
Vaccinium spp.
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the United States and Canada
HABITAT:
Many habitats, from wetlands to mountaintops. Best in sunny locations.
POSITIVE ID:
• Bush grows from 1–8′ tall with 1-1/2–3″ long, alternate, elliptical leaves.
• The pendant, bellshaped flowers are white and fragrant.
• Berries are powder blue to blue or black when ripe, except for the red huckleberry, whose berries are red to orange.
• Five-pointed starshaped pattern is on the bottom of the berry, a remnant of the blossom.
• Berries typically grow in clusters.
• Ripe berries are juicy, with a pleasantly sweet, mildly tart flavor.
Knee to waist-high blueberry bushes were a welcome sight as my sister Lynn and I hiked in the mountains of North Carolina. A handful of blueberries provided a thirst-quenching treat and an energy boost.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The berries are edible raw and make a delicious, energy-filled and thirst-quenching nibble – a wonderful trail treat when hiking. Dried leaves make a decent tea. The flowers, if you should be lucky enough to be present when blooming, are a floral taste treat. See page 144 for the Double-Good Blueberry Pie recipe.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Spring for flowers; mid to late summer for berries. Leaves throughout the season
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Don’t damage the bushes when picking. Leave some berries for birds and other animals. Birds will help spread the patch.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Freeze a single layer of berries on a baking sheet, then pour them into a freezing container with a screw-top lid. Label with a date and use within a year for the best flavor. Berries can also be dehydrated. I’ve not tried drying and saving the leaves, but if you do, I’d suggest using them within a year so that the flavor isn’t lost.
On a family camping trip in the Mt. Hood River Valley east of Portland, Liz – my Oregon sister – introduced me to mountain huckleberries. These grew on bushes from five to seven feet tall.
Burdock, Common
Arctium minus
RANGE:
Widespread and invasive in the U.S. (except Texas and Florida), and the southern provinces of Canada
HABITAT:
Barnyards, pastures, open woods, sunny patches along trails
POSITIVE ID:
• Burdock is a weed with large rhubarb-like leaves. The underside of the leaf is covered with a thin, woolly mat of fine white hairs. Leaf petioles may be reddish to purplish at the base.
• Although considered a biennial, burdock’s flowering stalk may take four or more years to appear, according to a study at Michigan State University. It depends on environmental conditions and how much energy the root has been able to store for the event. The stalk can range from 4–7′ tall.
• Thistle-like flowers give way to the round, infamous burdock burs.
• Each bur is a stick-tight whose tiny hooked ends catch in clothing and dog fur.
Burdock leaf rosette in early May.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
My favorite way to eat burdock is to peel the tender, non-woody sections of the taproot, cut up into matchsticksized pieces and do a stir-fry with carrots. This is a Japanese side dish known as kinpira gobo. Gobo is Japanese for burdock. The company-pleasing recipe is on page 132.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
While the taproot from burdock that hasn’t yet sent up a flowering stalk can be dug at any time, it will be at its largest in the fall and at its sweetest in early spring.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Taking the taproot kills this often despised weed. If you wish to grow more in your own garden, use the seeds found inside a dried bur.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Burdock roots can be kept cool in barely damp soil, and retrieved for use during the winter. If you have a chance to shop at an Asian market in a large city, you may be able to buy refrigerated packages of gobo.
Burdock’s burs are seedpods that hitchhike on mammals to new locations. When the mammal tries to scratch or rub them off, the burs break apart, releasing the seeds. The burs are difficult to remove from dog fur, and vexing when stuck in a sweater. Pull on a piece and the rest remains behind. It seems to take forever to remove it all.
Cattail
Typha spp.
RANGE:
Widespread in U.S. and Canada
HABITAT:
Wet soil; shallow, still or slowly moving water
POSITIVE ID:
• Cattail is an emergent aquatic plant 4–9′ tall. Up to 6 long, narrow leaves 1/4–3/4″ wide surround an unbranched, cylindrical stalk.
• In late spring, the yellow pollen-producing male flower spike tops the stalk. The larger female flower spike is below it.
• The female spike resembles a brown hotdog as tiny seeds mature in late summer.
• Rhizomes – finger-thick starch storage organs – run horizontally through muck or sand, often connecting plants.
Common cattail’s hotdog-like seedhead begins ripening to its brown color in July. Filamentous green algae covers the surface of the pond behind the cattail. Neither the blanket moss, as the algae is often called, nor cattails will be found in fast moving streams.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Separate the young shoot from its base by grasping the leaves together and steadily pulling upwards. The white tip/core is edible raw. Roast rhizomes at the edge of a fire; split open to chew the hot, white, fibrous inner core. After extracting the starchy essence, spit out the wad of fibers. Husk male flower spikes and treat them like corn on the cob. Boil them, butter them, sprinkle a little salt on them, and nibble away. Stir the pollen into pancake batter for yellow, highprotein pancakes. Sharply pointed white lateral buds at the end of rhizomes make a fine cooked vegetable. The brown hotdog part of the cattail provides perfect texture as a vegetarian substitute in a mock barbecued pulled-pork recipe, page 134.
Instructor Sunny Savage points out the edible parts of the cattail she and her class harvested at a Wild Food Summit in mid-June. The starch-filled rhizome goes from her left forefinger to over her shoulder. The Summit, held for 10 years on tribal land in northern Minnesota, provided an opportunity to gain many insights on wild foods. Participants witnessed the reverence that Native Americans have for Mother Earth. Sustainable harvesting of wild foods is a way of life for them as it should be for all people. The Summit was hosted by the White Earth Tribal and Community College Extension Service.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Late spring for “cattail corn” and pollen from male flower spikes; spring and summer for shoots; late August through fall for cattail head; year-round for rhizomes and laterals. (Rhizomes should be a mottled tan and white, with a white starchy core. If gray or black, they are too far-gone. Laterals should be firm and white. If gray or black or squishy, don’t collect them.)
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Leave part of the colony to regenerate.
Chokecherry
Prunus virginiana
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the U.S. (except in the southeastern tip), southern Canada and the Northwest Territories
HABITAT:
Few plants have as wide a range of habitats as chokecherry. It can be found in a variety of evergreen and deciduous forest types, and in deserts, basins, plateaus, savannas, flood plains and prairies.
POSITIVE ID:
• Chokecherry is a thicket-forming shrub or small tree.
• The small cherry-like fruit is borne in racemes and has an astringent taste until slightly past the fully-ripe stage (see When to Harvest). Fruit color ranges from red to purple or black.
• Each fruit is 1/4–3/8″ in diameter. Like other cherries, it is a drupe, with a single seed covered by a hard shell.
• Leaves range from 1–4″ long, are finely toothed and are broadly elliptical to ovate (egg-shaped).
• The bark has raised horizontal rows of lenticels.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Fully ripe chokecherries make a fabulous fruit leather, juice, jelly and syrup. Hop over to page 108 for how to make Fabulous Fruit Leather.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Late August, depending on the plant and location. Harvest when the fruit is fully ripe to slightly wrinkled, with color ranging from crimson red to a dark reddish-purple to black. They yield to pressure and are juicy, and should roll off the pedicels and into your hand when touched. If they still cling tightly, give them another week or two to ripen before trying again. Bitterness can vary from tree to tree, so it helps to do a taste test before putting them in the pail. Ripe chokecherries’ inherent bitterness is less pronounced when they are a bit overripe and the skin is slightly wrinkled. Cooking the fruit will also help dispel some of the bitterness.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Picking the fruit does no harm to the plant.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Pit the cherries and can, dry, or freeze the juice and pulp. Make fruit leather, jam, jelly or syrup.
The bitterness of chokecherries varies from tree to tree and is lessened when they are a bit overripe and slightly wrinkled.
Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the U.S. and Canada
HABITAT:
Lawns
POSITIVE ID:
• Dandelion is a common yellow-flowering plant, abundant in the spring.
• Its deeply notched, toothed leaves stay in a basal rosette.
• Several flowers grow from a single rosette. Each flower has its own leafless, unbranched stalk. The flower head is 1–2″ in diameter.
• Flower stalks are hollow. When broken, the stalk bleeds a bitter white latex, as does the midvein of each leaf and the taproot.
• The seedhead is spherical. Seeds are attached to a pad in the center. Each has a thin stem tipped by a feathery umbrella-rib-like pappus, which functions as an open parachute to carry the seed away.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The whole plant is edible. Wild foods expert Sam Thayer enjoys snacking on raw flower stalks, but I find them too bitter. Rapidly growing leaves are the least bitter; gather them from the shaded edge of mowed areas, where they turn vertical to compete for sunlight with the deep grass around them. Remove the bitter tasting midvein. Taproots can be roasted and ground to use in coffee or ice cream. Making dandelion flower donuts (page 138) is an easy and fun activity loved by thousands of students and Scouts. For something more savory, try making Dandy Burgers (page 141). To prepare dandelion flowers for cooking, see page 121.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Spring for the leaves, flower buds and flowers; late summer, fall and early spring for the taproot
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Dandelion is such a persistent lawn weed that the only way you might not have a plentiful supply to harvest in the future is to use an herbicide to kill it and other weeds. If you want to have dandelions forever, don’t use herbicides.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Leaves can be blanched and frozen. Roots can be baked to dehydrate them. Squeezed flowers (see Preparing Dandelions, page 121) can be frozen. Use before the next spring.
Dandelions grow rapidly when competing for sunlight. The unbranched, leafless hollow stem leading up to the flower head distinguishes them from plants that look similar.
Japanese Knotweed
Polygonum cuspidatum
RANGE:
Invasive and widespread since introduced for landscaping. Currently in much of North America except for the southwestern U.S., Louisiana and Florida, and the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.
HABITAT:
Roadsides, streambanks, and disturbed ground; preferably moist sites
POSITIVE ID:
• Japanese knotweed is an erect, multi-stemmed, nonwoody plant that grows from 3–10″ tall.
• The stems are jointed, hollow and resemble bamboo.
• Its leaves are smooth-edged and would appear heartshaped if they weren’t flat at the base near the petiole.
• Small, greenish white flowers are clustered in showy spikes.
Japanese knotweed along a Michigan fence line in September, showing stalks, leaves and flowers. This dense stand was 9–10′ tall.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Cut off young, still-flexible shoots up to 15″ tall. Immerse the cut ends of shoots in a bucket about 1/3 full of water to keep them from wilting. At home, remove and discard leaves. To reduce fibrousness, slice stems crosswise into thin coins. For longer, less flexible shoots, peel them before slicing as you might peel celery. Boil until soft, then strain. It will be remarkably similar in taste to stewed rhubarb: sour and slightly bitter. Sweeten to taste and serve, use in a mock rhubarb pie, or dehydrate and turn into fruit leather.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Early to mid spring. Harvest at the shoot stage when few leaves have unfurled.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
This is one of the world’s most aggressive invasive plants. Cutting shoots seems to have no impact on it at all. However, while you don’t need to be concerned about sustainable harvesting, you should respect the wishes of the property owner, who may have planted them there for landscaping purposes.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Perhaps the best way to preserve Japanese knotweed is to turn it into fruit leather. See page 108 for how to make Fabulous Fruit Leather.
Japanese knotweed shoots harvested from a West Virginia roadbank on the third week of April.
Japanese knotweed seed clusters
Lambsquarters
Chenopodium album
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the U.S. and Canada
HABITAT:
Gardens and disturbed soil
POSITIVE ID:
• Lambsquarters is a common bare-soil weed with a distinctive grayish-green appearance towards the center of the growing tips. On magnification, the color comes from tiny beads of whitish wax. These feel like fine cornmeal to the touch, and can be rubbed off.
• Triangular to diamond-shaped leaves alternate up the stem. The stem begins to branch when about a foot tall and can become a bush up to 7′ tall, but typically ranges from 3–5′ tall.
• Reddish streaks may appear on the ridged stem, and there’s a spot of reddish purple in every leaf or stem axil.
• Tiny black seeds are produced in multiple spikes of clustered, rubbery, green, small round cases that turn yellow in September when the seeds are ready to harvest.
The distinctive grayish-green new growth of lambsquarters helps one identify it at a glance. The leaf’s triangular shape resembles a leg of lamb, which is also known as a quarter, hence “lamb’s quarters” or “lambsquarters.” Another common name is goosefoot, due to the shape of the leaf.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Young plants 4–8″ tall can be cooked stems and all. In taller, older plants, stems become too woody, so collect the tender terminal or axillary clusters of leaves and use them as a potherb. The plant mass reduces greatly when cooked. It can be used as a spinach substitute. Lambsquarters may be steamed, boiled, stir fried, incorporated into a quiche or added to a cheese omelet. Some people eat the tender young leaves raw in salads, although I don’t care for them that way. The seeds are edible and can be used to add nutrition to Wild Food Trail Bites, a prize-winning recipe on page 162.
Although it might be easier to notice that the stem is ridged on an older lambsquarters plant where it is more sharply defined and streaked with red or purple, another characteristic is visible here: there’s a spot of reddish purple in the leaf axils.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Leaves and stems: Spring. Seeds: September. When winnowing seeds, watch out for tiny caterpillars.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Lambsquarters will self-sow if it’s allowed to set seed.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
The leaves can be preserved by drying, pressure canning, or blanching and freezing.
Mayapple
Podophyllum peltatum
RANGE:
Eastern 2/3 of U.S. except for the Dakotas; found in Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Deciduous woodland floors with patches of sunlight
POSITIVE ID:
• Umbrella-like leaves are the hallmark of this 1–2′ - tall woodland perennial. Each plant has one or two of them. Two leaves are necessary for the plant to flower and produce fruit.
• A single white flower grows from the Y-shaped crotch of the stem. Up to 3″ in diameter, with 6–9 waxy petals, it has a smell like the tropical taste of the ripe fruit.
• The single fruit is a berry having the shape and size of a hen’s egg.
• Ripe fruit color ranges from creamy white to yellowish white to lemon yellow.
Ripe mayapples – some have small rotten spots that I cut out before using them to make marmalade.
CAUTION:
The green, unripe fruit is toxic, as are the seeds, leaves, roots and rhizome. Be very careful and avoid all fruit that has even a hint of green.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The fully ripe berry is the only edible part of this otherwise toxic plant. It can be eaten raw or used in a beverage, cake, or ice cream, but my favorite way to enjoy it is to make the Mayapple Marmalade recipe on page 150.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Mid-summer: mid-July to mid-August. Collect berries when fully ripe (light yellow to lemon yellow with no hint of green). Ripe berries feel slightly soft.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting the fruit does not harm the plant.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Process mayapples within a day of harvesting them. Wash the fruit, cut off the blossom and stem ends, and quarter the fruit. Bring it to a boil in a pot with a cup of water, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to be sure it doesn’t burn. Strain through a food mill. Keep the juice and pulp, and discard the skin and seeds. Vacuum seal and freeze the juice and pulp. Use within six months.
Two mayapple plants with ripe fruit in late July. The fruit is shaped like a hen’s egg, and ranges in size from a small egg to a large egg, with a medium size most commonly found.
Milkweed, Common
Asclepias syriaca
RANGE:
Eastern 2/3 of U.S. except Florida; western states: in Montana and Oregon only; present in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Fields, roadsides, fencerows, meadows, prairies
POSITIVE ID:
• Milkweed is a non-woody perennial with broad, rubbery, elliptical leaves along a stem typically 3–5′ tall. The stem does not branch until it reaches the flower clusters.
• Smooth-edged leaves bleed white latex when torn, as does the rest of the plant. The leaf underside has short, woolly hairs.
• Clusters of flower buds and flowers are spherical and 3–4″ in diameter. The flowers are crown-shaped and sweet smelling.
• The seedpods are about 4″ long, light green at first. The surface is covered with rows of soft, rubbery hair-like projections. The pods contain small, circular brown papery seeds and white silken threads. When pods ripen and split open, the threads form parachutes for seed dispersal.
These milkweed pods are too big to use. They would be tough and fibrous.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Young shoots up to 8″ high are tasty boiled, buttered and salted. Steam flower buds like broccoli. Small seedpods under 2″ long are tasty cooked, although given the rubbery hairlike projections, the mouth feel is strange.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Shoots: early spring
Flower buds and flowers: late spring to early summer
Pods: early summer
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Harvest only a few shoots per collecting site; rotate sites when collecting shoots to give plants an opportunity to recover. This is one of the milkweeds that provide food for monarch butterflies. Harvest only where the milkweed is plentiful, and take only what you need for a single meal.
Common milkweed shoots have pubescent (hairy) stems, and the underside of the leaves is also pubescent. This is one of many ways they can be distinguished from the hairless common dogbane, which has a skinnier shoot and tastes bitter when cooked.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Blanch, vacuum seal, and freeze shoots and flower buds. Pickle young seedpods that are less than 2″ long.
Mulberry
Morus spp.
RANGE:
U.S., British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Thrives along moist woodland edges and streams, in floodplains and pastures, and along fencerows. It is commonly seen in cities, often along property lines.
POSITIVE ID:
• Each mulberry fruit is made up of a columnar-shaped collection of small, fleshy drupes tightly attached to a green stem that runs through it. This type of fruit is called an aggregate or collective fruit, not a berry. A typical sized fruit ranges from 3/8–1/2″ in diameter by 1″ long.
• Fruit color is variable, and consequently, mulberry names can seem confusing. Ripe red mulberries (Morus rubra) range from a dark, deep red to black. White mulberries (Morus alba) can have white, lavender, or blackish purple fruit. Black mulberries (Morus nigra) are a welcome exception, as they are black.
• White and red mulberries ripen in late spring, while black mulberries ripen in summer to late summer. A tree’s mulberries don’t ripen all at once, but over an extended period of 4–6 weeks, which is good news for foragers who like them.
• The outer bark of a young mulberry tree typically has a yellow to orange tint to it. The young bark of an older tree as seen through fissures of its older, outer bark may be yellow; the heartwood is greenish-yellow to orange; the root bark is orange.
• Every mulberry leaf is simple as opposed to compound, and serrated instead of smooth edged. The leaves may be lobed or unlobed, and one often sees a variety of lobed shapes on a single tree. The leaves can be very glossy.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Eat ripe fruit raw, make it into ice cream, bake it in a cobbler, or turn it into taffy. Juice the mulberries to make a drink. Here’s a simple how-to link for making a drink: www.phamfatale.com/id_1724/title_Mulberry-Juice/
Making mulberry taffy with family or friends is a memorable activity. (See recipe, page 153.)
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Late spring to early summer, depending on location. (In parts of Florida, mulberries ripen in February.)
Only one ripe fruit here, the dark one. Unripe fruit can cause gastrointestinal problems, so leave the red ones to ripen longer. Generally speaking, ripe fruit will feel soft and juicy, and will stain your hands when picked.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Picking (or shaking) ripe mulberries from the tree doesn’t harm the tree.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Spread mulberries apart on a baking sheet and individually freeze. Once frozen, double bag and gently squeeze the air out or vacuum seal and return to the freezer. Use before the next season rolls around. Extract the juice by forcing mulberries through a kitchen strainer with a pestle (rounded stick) from a mortar and pestle; by wearing dishwashing gloves and squeezing through cheesecloth; by using a food strainer; or by steam extraction with a juice extractor (I use a Mehu-Liisa extractor) – then refrigerate or can. Mulberries may also be dried.
Oak
Quercus spp.
RANGE:
Lower 48 states except for Idaho; southern provinces of Canada
HABITAT:
Upland woods
POSITIVE ID:
• The oak tree produces acorns as its fruit.
• Acorns have a cap with a twig attachment and a thin-shelled nut below, which completely encloses an easily extracted nutmeat.
