Pear branch snapped off a feral tree in a ditch. Could make Perry out of it… it’s sweet, bitter, and tart all at once, and the texture is kinda… sandy??
Native cherry plums from several ditch trees. These are delicious, and ripening over many weeks.
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We have harvested wild strawberries. I have a bunch on my property. This year we found some “really big” ones and my wife made a strawberry shortcake. Please keep in mind, a “huge” wild strawberry is still smaller than the smaller domestics.
I occasionally get a few Chickasaw plums, but they’re down the road at my great-grandads farm and the critters get more than we do.
Pawpaws are an occasional here, usually the pawpaw patches are down in river bottoms in prime coon & bear habitat. My new house has some right down the hill from the house so maybe I’ll be able to consistently get them now.
Persimmons are fairly abundant most years, but last year was really slim. Still ate a couple while hunting.
I used to forage blackberries as a kid and still occasionally get some of the early wilds, but once my thornless set in I quit foraging.
I used to forage wild “huckleberry” as a kid. I don’t actually know what any of the spp were. There were at least several distinct kinds of vaccinium. I never got many, even when checked daily. Too tasty to other creatures I suppose.
Wild muscadine were a nice late summer treat as a kid. I have domesticated vines in the yard now though and am lazy so I just eat them.
This year I ate my first wild black raspberry. They grow on the new place but not my current home or childhood home.
I’ve always chewed spice bush twigs while in the woods, this will be my first year harvesting berries for spice.
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" ive always chewed the spice bush twigs while in the woods "
Boy did that ever trigger a memory!
While living, as a child, in south east Alaska we used to chew on the rizome of the licorice fern. Grew under the moss on all the maples there. Grows here too but not as much, probably not wet enough.
Some things we forage here on the farm:
Morels growing in the apple rows
“Weeds” we harvest for our green tea ferment sprays:
Japanese Knotweed
Horsetail
Stinging Nettles if you look close youll see 2 buckets in front for reference
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I like to munch on whatever wild edible plants and berries are out when I’m hiking. The ones I go out of my way to pick and take home are fiddleheads, nettles, burdock, huckleberries, blackcap raspberries, thimbleberries, and lots of different kinds of mushrooms. I live in an area with excellent mushroom hunting.
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I have noticed several hickory trees (reds pigs mockers) on my property loaded this year… and a mocker at my mother in laws loaded too.
Looks like this may be one of those years that most hickories are bearing.
I have a dozen or so really nice shagbarks that I can collect from.
TNHunter
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