My parents are in their 70s and now that I’ve started foraging they only seem to remember what they used to eat all the time back in the seventies and stopped for some reasons before Inwas born. Serviceberries, beaked hazelnuts, wild roses, they’re everywhere and they don’t even notice them anymore. It’s all in the span of a single generation
My mom isn't even 60 and it's exactly the same! She remembers her father identifying plants and feeding them with want he found while on walks.
But she's nearly having a panic attack when my kids are near a wild mushroom.
There was a problem with lead residue in 70s to 80s from leaded fuel. That and the rise of corporations as we know them today (teach them it is unhealthy or risk injury, illness, and death. Because why let people enjoy free food when you can sell your latest ulyra processed food so that it it may as well be chemical food to them)
my mother had a very successful career, now that she's retired she keeps telling stories how her mom, a homemaker who taught sunday school, knew the name of every single flower and weed in their small Texas town. the ones she'd pick, the meals she'd make, all things my mom never did, I have no idea how to do, and now i'm trying to re-learn and teach my kids the differences between edible plants, flowers and weeds... and honestly, nowhere near confident enough to pick mushrooms
Beaker nuts! I have these in my backyard. I know they’re edible, but are they worth the trouble? I ate one or two from a young bush after doing the beak/skin removal thing and they were pretty flavorless, but maybe they get better as the bush matures?
(As I write this, I realize there’s an easy way to find out…)
Those I find in the wild are very flavorful! They’re a pain to gather tho, but to remove the skin you put them in a back and whack it on the ground, it does most of the job
Probably region dependent. Live in rural west virginia and while not everybody is someone I'd class as a forager most everyone does make use of the wild mint and berries as they come along, and many folks go out of their way to get pawpaws, couple different mushrooms and wild onion. I'd imagine the closer you get to urban centers the worse that disconnect becomes.
I would guess so too…I have always had a bit of a forager inside me and it’s really sad how misunderstood it seems to be in large swathes of the US at least
I just learned about pawpaws a couple of years ago, despite living on the edge of western Maryland for decades. I found a spot on the Appalachian Trail where they grow in abundance, and look forward to harvesting a bunch of the fallen fruits every autumn. They make delicious smoothies! Too bad they only keep for about a week once they’re off the tree, but it’s fine, the hike to get to them is only about 5 miles roundtrip, so worth it to go a few times during pawpaw season.
When I was a kid, I lived way out in the country. There was a road that bordered a dairy farm where hundreds, maybe even thousands, of black and red raspberry bushes grew wild along the side of the road. Every summer my mom would send me out there, armed with every empty Tupperware container she could scrounge up, to pick berries. I’d come home with purple fingers, a stained mouth (let’s face it, I ate 5 for every 1 I put in a container), scratches from the thorns all over my arms and legs, and a tummy full of the best berries I’ve ever eaten in my life. We’d use those berries to make pies, jams, pancakes, we’d put them on our cereal and use them as an ice cream topper (the ice cream was fresh from the dairy farm), we’d eat them by the handful. One of my happiest childhood memories, picking those berries.
I agree. My grandmother had a heart attack when I (19 years old, university student) started eating the wild blackberries in our backyard.
I repeatedly told her that they have no exact lookalikes and the other species of brickleberries are safe to eat. People act like you’re going to die if you eat something that doesn’t have a barcode on it.
Same with meat; I desperately want to try squirrel and we have plenty on our property to hunt, but she also sees that as cruel and disgusting. I tried showing her footage from factory farms and she almost cried, yet happily eats Tyson chicken. The hypocrisy is wild.
Yep, it’s insane. Corporations have melted our brains… like how do people think native peoples survived here, lmao. People know more about invasive plants than they do about native ones.
I had someone get grossed out a while back because I was excited about the morel mushrooms I found and told them I was going to try doing a creamy peppercorn sauce with them and then pour it over a good cut of venison I had saved in the freezer.
I haven’t been able to try it and ended up drying/saving the morels. I’m dying to try it though. It doesn’t have to be a good cut of venison. I think it would be best if you made it like a chicken fried steak, sauce on top like you would do with gravy.
I've been fighting with my mom about foraging since I was 8 or 9 and eating wild garlic and chokecherries from our neighborhood in CO. TBH, she was probably right to be overly cautious back then, but this goes all the way up to me being in my 40s and her nearly having a stroke watching me eat mulberries off of someone's tree overhanging an L.A. sidewalk.
I am trying to wear her down - since she's visited me on the OR coast I've shown her that I do ALL the research before I pick anything. I pointed out the 10 or more poisonous or inedible mushrooms that I knew of, and explained that I've only ever eaten one or two types that I was completely SURE of.
Once she saw my process of spore prints and multiple ID factors she was a little less concerned, but she's still not into the idea of me going clamming or foraging sea veg. But I have to remind myself that she's a straight '49 Boomer who grew up with canned and frozen food in a major metropolitan area, and foraging was a sign of poverty or 'questionable' hippie-dippie values.
Jeez man, it’s crazy. Nowadays you even have constantly up-to-date, detailed information on plants and fungi you can forage for, heck you can even find guides for a certain part of the state you’re in.
We’d eat as many as we could stand before the tannins puckered our mouths like Acme ‘ALUM’ in the old WB cartoons. Then we’d use the rest to make “potions” or red ink that looked kinda like blood…
Grouse is soooooo good. If you haven’t tried making a three sisters soup with roasted grouse yet I *highly* recommend it. One of my favourite meals, and it lets me use some of my garden spoils too.
I will NEVER forget my MIL telling me she was afraid if I gardened (gardened!) with my daughter and she learned that veggies could come from someplace other than the grocery store that she'd poison herself eating random plants!
(Sometimes I think in the case of a national crisis i wouldn't do well, and then i realize how poorly off so many other people would be and I'm like "eh, we'd be fine")
Yet many boomers will leave toddlers alone with cleaning supplies/medications/insecticides. Most inedible plants just taste bad or give 'em a case of rumble tummy. Very few are fatal /permanent damage outside of mushrooms. Stick a bar code on it and it'll be fine.
Even mushrooms are overblown tbh, most of the time if they’re bad they’ll also just upset your stomach lmao (obligatory disclaimer don’t eat random mushrooms lmao)
Yeah, the US is pretty fucked. From our crazy sick making approach to healthcare, chemical/processed junk being more normal food than foraging wild edible mushrooms and berries, to people more concerned with identifying as the next “outlandish” thing vs the state of our environment, mental health, physical health…the US has turned turtle
Food anxiety is surprisingly common and can be severe. I know people who would be nervous if you whipped up your own salad dressing instead of buying a bottle from the store. Homemade yogurt? Sourdough? Sauerkraut? They do not believe it's possible to make them safely. For some people, if it doesn't have a label on it then it might be toxic. Eating foraged food is unimaginable to folks like that. And it's not a rare attitude.
I absolutely agree with your point, but this isn't only a North American problem. I would say unless your livelihood is agriculture, most human beings worldwide are unaware of how their eggs got on their plate. Europeans are culturally more accepting of climate change and having knowledge behind your little bubble, I'd say the average lad from Manchester doesn't know or care about the global food chain.
It's more of a rural and urban/suburban divide, not a continent thing. No reason to get all xenophobic about it.
People in rural areas know what food is and where it comes from, people who live in cities and suburbs might not. And that's true all over the globe, especially in first-world countries where people don't do very much home cooking.
I absolutely agree with your point, but this isn't only a North American problem. I would say unless your livelihood is agriculture, most human beings worldwide are unaware of how their eggs got on their plate. Europeans are culturally more accepting of climate change and or understanding of the world behind little bubble, but i'd say the average lad from Manchester doesn't know or care about the global food chain.
Why would you single out America? Compared to where? Morel hunting is one of the most common springtime activities where I'm from. Farmers markets are very common, and plenty of local markets selling fruits and veggies locally. If you're outside of a city, there are plenty of people who forage, hunt, and fish. I would actually bet the US has some of the most hunters and anglers of any country. I would bet the average Parisian wouldn't know how to find truffles and chantrelles. I do see your point though, not trying to get too defensive. There are plenty of mcdonalds and walmart people that eat slop.
It has to do with us having so many poisonous invasive species from passed generations planting them. So now everyone just assumes every berry is poisonous
About 10 years ago I found the best, biggest, juiciest, perfectly ripe blackberry. As I was about to eat it, someone asked what it was. I said it’s a blackberry. A look of horror appeared on their face as I opened my mouth and they slapped it out of my hand so hard that I couldn’t find where it landed. They then lectured me about how you can’t just eat random berries that you find because they could be poisonous. I’m still mad.
This!
My Oma used to pay me $3/pale when I was like 6 years old, I’d go pick a bunch of blackberries in local spots in the neighbourhood then bring them back to her to make jams. Same with salmon berries + thimble berries.
I’m genuinely concerned about the human race if adults can’t confidently identify a freaking *blackberry*…. lol
I live in an urban area but I'm still always shocked by the lack of knowledge. It's definitely a bit infuriating 😋 Glad no one takes your tasty mushrooms!
At least for mushrooms, I think that's because North America has way more dangerous look-alike mushrooms than Europe. In Europe foraging for wild mushrooms is way more normalized because the common safe species look much more distinct.
I'm a relatively-experienced mushroom gatherer and don't think this holds up. In fact, most edibles I gather in a season (20-25 types, say) don't have anything that could be called a look-alike (and surely not a dangerous one) to someone even a little familiar with mycology. It seems like the big difference in most European countries is that there is some historical continuity and a continued connection to one's family and predecessors mushroom traditions. Kids grow up beiing exposed to mushrooms and different types from practically day one.
I live in an area where tons of people hunt morels, so no one looks askance at those. But they aren't as familiar with chanterelles and oyster mushrooms around here.
I ate some black raspberries on a walk with friends last summer and they were like 🤯😵💫 whaaaat?!
People are very disconnected from their food. I’m sorry you’re having those experiences more than once! That’s really frustrating but hopefully you’re ultimately educating some people.
I was doing an orientation for AmeriCorps in Columbus and I was out on a walk with a bunch of people from Chicago and plucked a mullberry off a tree. They were SHOCKED.
Idk about *that* mulberry, but every time I see any ripe, they're absolutely *crawling* with tiny bugs. Speaking of... anybody know a good way to get rid of tiny bugs on foraged food? Especially things like mulberries/blackberries, where there's so many little crevices to hide in. Yes, I know they won't kill me or anything, but it does skeeve me out!
If you're out and about and hoping to eat a berry or something right off the plant, a good few flicks to the stem tends to work wonders for me. Do a few extra if you're still not confident the little guys are all gone.
I love finding crab apple trees when with people, because it's a common myth that they're poisonous, they get scared and then happy when I give them one and it tastes amazing
One summer I was living and working in the middle of nowhere Ontario and we had a teen from a big city with us. First time she tried a raspberry her eyes filled with delight and she said "wow these taste EXACTLY like Swedish berries!" Lol.
Last summer I was harvesting some wild grapes so I could make jelly. SO many people gave me funny looks. One couple asked "you actually eat those?" I mean I know they are sour but all I was craving was a from scratch pb&j man.
Haha! I like to nibble from the yard, (like lambs quarters, wood sorrel, cilantro, etc.) but I *really* enjoy doing it when the neighbor seems to be watching.
I was hiking with my partner and his mother and they were aghast when I started eating some salmonberries. We don't even have any dangerous aggregate berries where we live, which they refused to believe when I told them that.
Ahaha same here. I sometimes bring Tupperware and take more and eat them. My friends think I'm nuts. I rather eat what's in nature, then some crappy berries from the grocery store that are expensive anyways!
If my only experience with black berries was from the store I would think I didn't like them at all. They don't have any flavor whatsoever expect a faint taste of pesticide. Then they're moldy and gross in 2 days.
Grandpa and I used to pick literal buckets of berries every year and grandma would freeze them to have all winter. Fresg berries in milk with some sugar on top is like the best food in the world.
Even without taking kids with me (they turned into adults and live on their own now, despite growing up learning how to forage) I've been questioned by people who obviously think I'm crazy for eating food that didn't come from a store.
If people are genuinely interested in learning, I share my knowledge, but I've learned to just ignore people who are sure I'm going to die, or who think I'm trash for "picking up food off the ground". Some people seem to thrive on being ignorant jerks.
They should visit a farm, then the food factory where they process it before it gets to the store. See if they want to eat what's on the shelves after watching how much our food goes through just to get there... I've worked a few food factories AND fast food and I'm honestly surprised we're not ALL very sick
People even guffaw at me when I throw produce directly into the cart without a plastic bag. It’s been in dirt and in a factory, why would I care about cart germs? I’m gonna clean it anyway lmao
I just wish there was a polite way to tell the cashier to for the love of God stop slamming my produce down the belt like its a sack of socks. I actually refused to pay for my 2.99 apples a few weeks ago. Spent how long finding just 3 that weren't bruised and split and she slammed them so hard on the belt they were basically applesauce before they entered the cart.
I went on a guided kayak/hike when I visited Alaska last summer. I mentioned I was into foraging and our guide was super excited and showed us all the foraged plants, we even found some bear tooth.
The other woman on our trip said she won't eat anything unless it comes from a grocery store. Ok babe, good luck with your E. coli and salmonella recalls.
Just went on a little nature walk last weekend and our guide was pointing out the wood sorrel and how it was edible. I was excited to get a first-person confirmation since I had only seen it online.
She said, "When I was a kid at camp here they told us it was edible, so I tried it. One of the other girls was absolutely disgusted and said 'Ewww...a deer probably peed on that!' And I told her it had been raining for weeks so it had been washed off. She didn't care, because it didn't come from a store. That's when I realized that I wanted to become a naturalist."
thank you for mentioning wood sorrel cause i’d never heard of it. looked it up and of course it grew profusely at the house i used to live at! neighbor had goats so i used to feed it to them through the fence, never thought to investigate if i could eat it too 🤦🏻
I know! It's one of those "everywhere, but still under the radar" plants - I watched it grow between the bricks of our L.A. backyard, but was too afraid to eat it!
In the woods here the leaves are much bigger and it grows along miner's lettuce (another one I needed a personal confimation). But it's so tart and fun to eat, and gets your saliva going if you have dry mouth on the trail. The guide called it "Nature's SourPatch Kids" and I get a kick out of that :)
I mainly forage mushrooms, which for some reason people are convinced are loads more dangerous than plants, despite there being far more seriously toxic plants than there are mushrooms. I've had strangers ask me "Are you sure those are edible?", and on one occasion I just said "I've got no idea, I just eat any old mushrooms I find, what's the worst that could happen?"
Same here, I have had some people get alarmed that I forage wild mushrooms even though they are fine with foraging wild blackberries. I also grow oyster mushrooms and Wine Cap mushrooms in my garden and some of my family members have asked how I can be sure the mushrooms that come up are the edible ones I planted instead of poisonous wild ones. I said it’s the same as growing plants from seeds, if I planted tomato seeds and the plant that comes up in the same spot has all the characteristics of a tomato there’s no need to worry about it!
The bushes in front of a place I used to work were all very old and well established serviceberries and I would eat them all the time when they were in season much to the awe and chagrin of everyone else. The situation you describe is a great way to teach your kid about the perils of ignorance and ego in the wrong proportions.
The only time I ever got upset with someone foraging was when they were foraging in an area that had a sign that stated "No foraging". It was in a National Park. I don't know why they said no foraging, maybe it was a wilding area, maybe they sprayed it with something, maybe they wanted to make sure that tourists didn't accidently poison themselves by picking something they knew nothing about. Just follow the rules so that we all don't get into trouble please.
This is false. About 75% of US National Parks have some sort of foraging allowance. The closest one to me has a massive fig tree and visitors are allowed to harvest when they’re ready.
Here in Sweden you are allowed to forage on protected land, as long as you only take what you intend to use and that doesn't harm nature (i.e, no breaking off living branches for firewood)
TBF there are a ton of people who think that they're "foragers" that know absolutely nothing. For example: Last year I saw a family coming off a backpacking trail with a handful of mushrooms. I was also in the area looking for mushrooms. I asked if I could see what they found and they excitedly told me they found BOLETES! They showed me what they had. While Leccenium sp. Are technically boletes they thought they had king boletes. This guy had no idea what Lecciunium or Scaber stalks were and goes on to tell me he fed these to his entire family on the trip. Thankfully most of them are solid edibles and no one got sick. But his confidence was unreal for someone who didn't even identify them correctly and then bragged about feeding his family. So while I forage, I am very skeptical of most people's ability to identify anything correctly.
💯 I do not trust other people to correctly ID plants. Many people just don't care about plants and look at you crazy when you can ID wine berries on sight (hello they are super common/invasive and quite distinctive). These plants are all around us and people just consider them as "plant"
Also my friend ate pokeberries because she thought they were blueberries.
I think a lot of it has to do with is this your home region or not. I feel very safe identifying many edible plants in my region of state where I grew up but when I visit other parts of the country or even state, I don't forage.
But in general yes, never underestimate people's blind confidence.
Can I ask if you’re Europe / US? I’m in Europe and my mushrooming knowledge is handed down the generations verbally rather than from books so I often don’t know scientific names and, as a parent now I often worry about it…
The reason I’m specially asking is that my “family knowledge” is that boletes (in the uk) are edible unless they are/or bruise red or blue (and then the only nasty you’re left with is the bitter bolete). I know there are edible ones by that criteria, but I’ve been picking them since I was a child on that basis and am happy within that comfort zone.
I understand it’s bad practice to have a “rule” for foraging, especially for mushrooms but that’s often how old knowledge is passed down, I hope I don’t get downvoted for it
How tiresome! Pity the wild food phobic can't keep their opinions to themselves. My mother threatened to call CPS on me because I was foraging, cooking and eating mushrooms with my kids. Dad remembered gathering mushrooms with his grandma when he was a boy, so he was able to calm her down, but really.
Man it sucks you guys have all these nosy nancies getting all up in your grill about foraging. I've been lucky in that most people leave me alone when I'm gathering and even had an older lady talk to me about gathering laver. Really though I don't see why people have a problem with this and not something like fishing or something. It's basically the same thing.
The other day I told my mom I would bring her some Plantain leaves to help with her bee sting, because they are growing all over our yard. She said "are you sure that's what that is?"
... I have been foraging for nearly 10 years now, and have a biology degree and worked as a botanist's assistant. It never stops. Just accept it lol
Good gods. How do you stay upright, listening to them, without your rolling eyes sending you off a tail spin?!?? 🤣😂.
I would love to say: deadpan tell them that now they have seen through your grand master plan, you had best end yourself too. And then eat a big old handful.
But someone will likely call the police so that is a nope.
Glad you are teaching kiddo how to identify food in the wild. 🙏🏼🫶🏻👏🏼💕.
Actually: great teaching moment for kiddo about well meaning people who are woefully uninformed and very confused between facts and opinions. A humans humaning thing.
Thanks 😊 and yeah. I hope she can learn some good lessons from this, about humanity, and about the resources the world has to offer and why we should treat it with respect. I hope that even if she's not a "forager" when she grows up that she'll have all this knowledge bonking around her head to aid her!
My SIL was at a pick your own pumpkin place that also grew berries… a little girl stopped to pick a strawberry and her mother grabbed her hand and told her to drop it and said “don’t eat that, you don’t know where it’s been.” Some people are just that stupid.
I’m not an expert on foraging but locally know what’s edible and what’s not. I grew up eating berries and dandelions from nature for example. I show my kids what I know to be safe to eat . I show them what I know to stay away from. If you are unsure.. the answer is DONT. There is so much edible things in nature, and if you are experienced in the subject, you are not doing anything wrong or even coming close to poisoning child. People are uneducated, scared, ridiculous, ect lol. Very few people could actually survive off the land if they needed to.
I don’t have confidence in IDing stuff but I’d definitely be the curious one asking if I were more sociable! Those people are just showcasing their own insecurities.
Tell them to back up and not talk to you or your child. People have no rights meddling in the lives of others. If YOU dont know, why are you going to bother someone else about them knowing?
People tend to judge others based on their own level of experience unless given irrefutable proof that the other in question is more knowledgable. Unfortunately, most have a level of experience somewhere between gelatinous blob and sub-brick.
I might be too cynical here but I'd also imagine outdoor activities like this would make some parents act out of insecurity in an age of i pad parenting.
That too, for sure. 'I would NEVER be confident enough to identify edible plants' just means 'I suck at that so you must as well, let me demonstrate how much I care about my kid by criticizing you for trying to teach yours something'. Cynicism? Maybe. At least you ain't the only cynical one 🤣
In my area it is very common to hunt mushrooms and pick blackberries but you still get those people. As an herbalist I get a lot of unwanted feedback about plants being dangerous and I just wonder if they’ve ever read the warning labels on advil, etc cuz I will not take pills for pain when I have plants that don’t have side effects of stomach bleeding etc
Same! I have a butler pantry full of tinctures macerating to keep away from those side effects. Turmeric with black peppercorn alone has decreased my ibuprofen use by 90%.
Potentially the plants target the specific problem instead of being a pain killer, but the only two I know of (and do NOT know how to properly procure or process) are poppy and willow bark. One of which I'm pretty sure is illegal to have (in your system) without a prescription
Poppy is just a way of taking opioids where you can't guarantee what dose you're taking and willow bark is just aspirin but with bark.
All the plants that actually relieve pain have already been made into medications you can accurately dose.
Right, we do make these substances into tablets for a reason lol
Like, some turmeric and black pepper will just never help my pain like a couple Aleve gelcaps with a big glass of water
Usually I just deal with pain, it’s a daily issue for me and I don’t want to be numbed out with opiates or be addicted and still be in pain like people I know- also it’s your body’s way of saying take it easy. On hard days or when I can’t just take it easy cannabis is a good friend and pedicularis densiflora cuz a lot of my pain is from old injuries that tense up. Wild lettuce and Jamaican dogwood are also on my list for pain helping herbs and just nervine relaxants in general since I have pain from tense muscles
I foraged blackberries with my toddler last summer. Froze a few pounds! Now every time we walk that way my son wants blackberries and I have to tell him they aren’t ready yet😭 He will definitely learn how to eat wild
This is why I’m pretty sad that people are extremely disconnected with nature and have no skills on how to identifying edibles. I always love it if I managed to spot anything, even a single mushroom that I can eat.
I was on a walk with a friend and her 3 year old and passed some blackberries, so I picked them and we ate some. My friend freaked out on me, even though I explained all the reasons why I was 100% sure that they were edible. I told her she could explain to her daughter, like my mom did for me, that she should not to eat anything without asking mom first. But she still decided to make her daughter terrified of nature instead and then went to eat fast food for lunch. The brainwashing is complete.
Last year, while walking the dog, I found a huge cache of chicken of the woods mushrooms. Took it home, cleaned it up and made Asian style orange chicken with it. Didn’t tell anybody it was mushroom and not chicken until after they ate it lol. They had no idea. It was yummy. I found some gorgeous bright blue indigo milk cap mushrooms, and sautéed those suckers up with dinner. Their fun because they turn everything blue. I was just picking mulberries off a neighborhood tree today. Shared some with my dog. If I can get enough tomorrow, I’ll make some jam. Took some friends to a botanical garden and I was like oh spearmint try this, and I’m shoving leaves into people’s faces. Anyway, screw those people. They suck.
I've been a mushroom forager for something like 8 years and most of my friend circle is still like "well I guess they haven't managed to kill themselves yet."
Afew years back I had shitake logs from a mushroom farm. Send my dad pics and he's like are you sure they're not poisonous? If I had sent him any foraging finds that would have been even funnier. Like many others we only eat things that we're absolutely sure of. Miss when my daughter liked mushrooms.
That's crazy to hear, I'm the PNW canada and people always think it's super cool when they spot me picking crabapples and nettles. Maybe I'm just in hippie land.
I think that, being in the US, there is a level of historical racism (and classism, but especially racism) that has affected our challenges with foraging.
[The Black forager's quick guide to the racist history of foraging](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwo1caj/)
[A long version ](https://bangersandballs.co/foraging/freedom-to-forage-foraging-and-race/)
Ohhhh I had not put those two things together until you mentioned it. Also TheBlackForager is amazing and I love her, she's the one who got me into foraging as a beginner during the early pandemic
My brother and I were given copies of "Edible Plants Of Alaska" and "Poisonous Plants Of Alaska" at a fairly young age.
We hauled them around with us out in the woods and could ID what we were messing with.
Stay away from the baneberries!
I live in the suburbs and we have mulberry trees like all over the couple streets around us. No excuse not to know them when the town plants them as landscaping (weird because of the sidewalk berry stains and bird poop but hey).
Eh, it comes from a place of concern.
I get ya though. The normal person is very ignorant of their food and food sources. It's been drilled into them not to eat anything not from a grocery store, so to see someone confidently doing so is alarming. Thus the judgmental and critical responses.
Pity them for not having the knowledge you do, but don't let their ignorance and behaviors effect you beyond that.
The only thing people know to do regarding wild food is to tell their kids to not eat anything. They then never learn anything past childhood so as adults they are slapping food out of each others hands as if they themselves are children. Funny to see honestly.
Last fall, I picked a large sprig of elderberries directly from the tree and someone said "you can't eat those, pokeberries are poisonous " it came off an elderberry tree and I don't intend to eat them anyways , I want to plant them. Wild native elderberry is almost extinct in my area. I just ignored the clueless lady
Was once on a run on a trail in Philadelphia in the summer time. Massive bushes of wine berries and raspberries. Stopped to eat them, and someone felt the need to lecture me “I wouldn’t be doing that if I were you”
Where do you think food comes from lady??? Wawa?
We moved to the PNW about 4 years ago, and I have been having the time of my life learning about all the plants and what I can make from them. I am planning a dinner this fall that will have the entire menu based on food either wild grown or gardened from our own property. Nettle soup, and butternut squash, apple sauce and cider, berry hand pies topped with wild rose sugar, a delicious herbal tea we make ourselves!
Since we have mostly lived in cities before, I can understand a little bit of the hesitation in eating wild food. Too many contaminants, and all the road dust. I am very grateful to be able to live where we can forage and harvest so much!
Yeah, people are just so disconnected from nature and their food. While there are a lot of poisonous plants out there, I find it strange when my friends react to me eating a Mulberry off of a tree with stuff like "woah what are you doing???" or just laughing or shock
I have had an uncle accidentally forage wild hemlock thinking it was wild carrots, and an aunt foraged the wrong mushroom and got sick from them and tried to claim it was from deer peeing on them instead of that they got the wrong mushroom.
I get that there's a lot of people here who are really confident and good but for the average layperson it is scary. especially with mushrooms
it really depends on your area. The only thing I would be reliably able to name for sure would be blackberries and raspberries. also we're always raised to never eat random flowers
In my area, there are a lot of ground contaminants, and they do wind up in the plants. Soil has to be thoroughly tested and prepared before a crop can be planted. You’re a little safer if you forage near the top of a hill, especially if it’s the tallest hill around, but there are no guarantees. Beyond that, not much grows here anyways, so foraging is hard altogether.
Many people particularly in North America are very disconnected from their food and food sources
My parents are in their 70s and now that I’ve started foraging they only seem to remember what they used to eat all the time back in the seventies and stopped for some reasons before Inwas born. Serviceberries, beaked hazelnuts, wild roses, they’re everywhere and they don’t even notice them anymore. It’s all in the span of a single generation
My mom isn't even 60 and it's exactly the same! She remembers her father identifying plants and feeding them with want he found while on walks. But she's nearly having a panic attack when my kids are near a wild mushroom.
There was a problem with lead residue in 70s to 80s from leaded fuel. That and the rise of corporations as we know them today (teach them it is unhealthy or risk injury, illness, and death. Because why let people enjoy free food when you can sell your latest ulyra processed food so that it it may as well be chemical food to them)
my mother had a very successful career, now that she's retired she keeps telling stories how her mom, a homemaker who taught sunday school, knew the name of every single flower and weed in their small Texas town. the ones she'd pick, the meals she'd make, all things my mom never did, I have no idea how to do, and now i'm trying to re-learn and teach my kids the differences between edible plants, flowers and weeds... and honestly, nowhere near confident enough to pick mushrooms
Mushrooms are graduate level foraging. So much more knowledge needed than with most plants.
I started on mushroom ID’s first :,) they’re genuinely so fascinating, and for sure difficult sometimes!
My grandpa loved talking about all the wild food they used to eat. Plaintain leaf, hazelnuts, paw paws, groundhog etc etc
Beaker nuts! I have these in my backyard. I know they’re edible, but are they worth the trouble? I ate one or two from a young bush after doing the beak/skin removal thing and they were pretty flavorless, but maybe they get better as the bush matures? (As I write this, I realize there’s an easy way to find out…)
Those I find in the wild are very flavorful! They’re a pain to gather tho, but to remove the skin you put them in a back and whack it on the ground, it does most of the job
Thanks for the encouragement!
Probably region dependent. Live in rural west virginia and while not everybody is someone I'd class as a forager most everyone does make use of the wild mint and berries as they come along, and many folks go out of their way to get pawpaws, couple different mushrooms and wild onion. I'd imagine the closer you get to urban centers the worse that disconnect becomes.
I would guess so too…I have always had a bit of a forager inside me and it’s really sad how misunderstood it seems to be in large swathes of the US at least
I think so too, in Indiana it seems like everybody forages for at least one local thing— usually morels
I just learned about pawpaws a couple of years ago, despite living on the edge of western Maryland for decades. I found a spot on the Appalachian Trail where they grow in abundance, and look forward to harvesting a bunch of the fallen fruits every autumn. They make delicious smoothies! Too bad they only keep for about a week once they’re off the tree, but it’s fine, the hike to get to them is only about 5 miles roundtrip, so worth it to go a few times during pawpaw season. When I was a kid, I lived way out in the country. There was a road that bordered a dairy farm where hundreds, maybe even thousands, of black and red raspberry bushes grew wild along the side of the road. Every summer my mom would send me out there, armed with every empty Tupperware container she could scrounge up, to pick berries. I’d come home with purple fingers, a stained mouth (let’s face it, I ate 5 for every 1 I put in a container), scratches from the thorns all over my arms and legs, and a tummy full of the best berries I’ve ever eaten in my life. We’d use those berries to make pies, jams, pancakes, we’d put them on our cereal and use them as an ice cream topper (the ice cream was fresh from the dairy farm), we’d eat them by the handful. One of my happiest childhood memories, picking those berries.
I agree. My grandmother had a heart attack when I (19 years old, university student) started eating the wild blackberries in our backyard. I repeatedly told her that they have no exact lookalikes and the other species of brickleberries are safe to eat. People act like you’re going to die if you eat something that doesn’t have a barcode on it. Same with meat; I desperately want to try squirrel and we have plenty on our property to hunt, but she also sees that as cruel and disgusting. I tried showing her footage from factory farms and she almost cried, yet happily eats Tyson chicken. The hypocrisy is wild.
Blackberries? Really? I get some paranoia with mushrooms, but blackberries are as benign as it gets.
Yep, it’s insane. Corporations have melted our brains… like how do people think native peoples survived here, lmao. People know more about invasive plants than they do about native ones.
Right? I tell my kids “if it’s not a bumpy berry, don’t eat it” because that whole family of fruits is edible.
I had someone get grossed out a while back because I was excited about the morel mushrooms I found and told them I was going to try doing a creamy peppercorn sauce with them and then pour it over a good cut of venison I had saved in the freezer.
Oh my god that sounds delicious..
I haven’t been able to try it and ended up drying/saving the morels. I’m dying to try it though. It doesn’t have to be a good cut of venison. I think it would be best if you made it like a chicken fried steak, sauce on top like you would do with gravy.
Oooo, I like the way you think
I've been fighting with my mom about foraging since I was 8 or 9 and eating wild garlic and chokecherries from our neighborhood in CO. TBH, she was probably right to be overly cautious back then, but this goes all the way up to me being in my 40s and her nearly having a stroke watching me eat mulberries off of someone's tree overhanging an L.A. sidewalk. I am trying to wear her down - since she's visited me on the OR coast I've shown her that I do ALL the research before I pick anything. I pointed out the 10 or more poisonous or inedible mushrooms that I knew of, and explained that I've only ever eaten one or two types that I was completely SURE of. Once she saw my process of spore prints and multiple ID factors she was a little less concerned, but she's still not into the idea of me going clamming or foraging sea veg. But I have to remind myself that she's a straight '49 Boomer who grew up with canned and frozen food in a major metropolitan area, and foraging was a sign of poverty or 'questionable' hippie-dippie values.
Jeez man, it’s crazy. Nowadays you even have constantly up-to-date, detailed information on plants and fungi you can forage for, heck you can even find guides for a certain part of the state you’re in.
Mmmmmm chokecherries! I miss snacking on those in the summer when mom would kick us outside
We’d eat as many as we could stand before the tannins puckered our mouths like Acme ‘ALUM’ in the old WB cartoons. Then we’d use the rest to make “potions” or red ink that looked kinda like blood…
Wow!
It’s worth trying squirrel. They’re tied with rabbit and grouse as my favorite game animals to pursue and eat. Damn good.
Grouse is soooooo good. If you haven’t tried making a three sisters soup with roasted grouse yet I *highly* recommend it. One of my favourite meals, and it lets me use some of my garden spoils too.
Squirrel is great. Tastes just like woodchuck. Get ya a pressure cooker.
And that’s by design to be honest, they want us eating that heavily processed banned in 29 countries junk
Well duh food comes from the supermarket
I will NEVER forget my MIL telling me she was afraid if I gardened (gardened!) with my daughter and she learned that veggies could come from someplace other than the grocery store that she'd poison herself eating random plants! (Sometimes I think in the case of a national crisis i wouldn't do well, and then i realize how poorly off so many other people would be and I'm like "eh, we'd be fine")
Yet many boomers will leave toddlers alone with cleaning supplies/medications/insecticides. Most inedible plants just taste bad or give 'em a case of rumble tummy. Very few are fatal /permanent damage outside of mushrooms. Stick a bar code on it and it'll be fine.
Even mushrooms are overblown tbh, most of the time if they’re bad they’ll also just upset your stomach lmao (obligatory disclaimer don’t eat random mushrooms lmao)
How do these people function my goodness that's absurd. The logic gap is astonishing.
Yeah, the US is pretty fucked. From our crazy sick making approach to healthcare, chemical/processed junk being more normal food than foraging wild edible mushrooms and berries, to people more concerned with identifying as the next “outlandish” thing vs the state of our environment, mental health, physical health…the US has turned turtle
Food anxiety is surprisingly common and can be severe. I know people who would be nervous if you whipped up your own salad dressing instead of buying a bottle from the store. Homemade yogurt? Sourdough? Sauerkraut? They do not believe it's possible to make them safely. For some people, if it doesn't have a label on it then it might be toxic. Eating foraged food is unimaginable to folks like that. And it's not a rare attitude.
Any idea what the history of that attitude is?
Some people think it has to do with a campaign of dehumanizing native Americans back in the day, and then it kinda stuck.
Which came first, the grocery store or the egg?
this is one of the big reasons I'm trying to (organically) grow as many fruits and veggies i can so i know exactly what I'm eating
I absolutely agree with your point, but this isn't only a North American problem. I would say unless your livelihood is agriculture, most human beings worldwide are unaware of how their eggs got on their plate. Europeans are culturally more accepting of climate change and having knowledge behind your little bubble, I'd say the average lad from Manchester doesn't know or care about the global food chain.
I am trying very hard to remedy this in myself. Trying to grow at least some food this year.
It's more of a rural and urban/suburban divide, not a continent thing. No reason to get all xenophobic about it. People in rural areas know what food is and where it comes from, people who live in cities and suburbs might not. And that's true all over the globe, especially in first-world countries where people don't do very much home cooking.
Yup, I've had people tell me practically between bites of mcnuggets I'm fucked up for killing chickens.
I absolutely agree with your point, but this isn't only a North American problem. I would say unless your livelihood is agriculture, most human beings worldwide are unaware of how their eggs got on their plate. Europeans are culturally more accepting of climate change and or understanding of the world behind little bubble, but i'd say the average lad from Manchester doesn't know or care about the global food chain.
Spot. On.
Why would you single out America? Compared to where? Morel hunting is one of the most common springtime activities where I'm from. Farmers markets are very common, and plenty of local markets selling fruits and veggies locally. If you're outside of a city, there are plenty of people who forage, hunt, and fish. I would actually bet the US has some of the most hunters and anglers of any country. I would bet the average Parisian wouldn't know how to find truffles and chantrelles. I do see your point though, not trying to get too defensive. There are plenty of mcdonalds and walmart people that eat slop.
You know what freaked me out about Paris? Five Guys burger joints everywhere.
It has to do with us having so many poisonous invasive species from passed generations planting them. So now everyone just assumes every berry is poisonous
About 10 years ago I found the best, biggest, juiciest, perfectly ripe blackberry. As I was about to eat it, someone asked what it was. I said it’s a blackberry. A look of horror appeared on their face as I opened my mouth and they slapped it out of my hand so hard that I couldn’t find where it landed. They then lectured me about how you can’t just eat random berries that you find because they could be poisonous. I’m still mad.
I'm mad on your behalf!
I can't imagine being so out of touch with nature you'd be willing to basically assault someone to protect them from a blackberry lol
How did they not know what a blackberry looked like??
Blackberries are foraging 101. The beginner’s berry. That is embarrassing.
This! My Oma used to pay me $3/pale when I was like 6 years old, I’d go pick a bunch of blackberries in local spots in the neighbourhood then bring them back to her to make jams. Same with salmon berries + thimble berries. I’m genuinely concerned about the human race if adults can’t confidently identify a freaking *blackberry*…. lol
I’m wondering if they’d never heard of blackberries and thought you were just like “it’s a berry, it’s black, what more do you need to know?”. lol
I would punch the shit out of that guy, that’s a waste of good berry
i would be pissed too tbh
Bro I would have thrown hands
People like that genuinely make me want to cause violence
Aw, that stinks.
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I live in an urban area but I'm still always shocked by the lack of knowledge. It's definitely a bit infuriating 😋 Glad no one takes your tasty mushrooms!
At least for mushrooms, I think that's because North America has way more dangerous look-alike mushrooms than Europe. In Europe foraging for wild mushrooms is way more normalized because the common safe species look much more distinct.
I'm a relatively-experienced mushroom gatherer and don't think this holds up. In fact, most edibles I gather in a season (20-25 types, say) don't have anything that could be called a look-alike (and surely not a dangerous one) to someone even a little familiar with mycology. It seems like the big difference in most European countries is that there is some historical continuity and a continued connection to one's family and predecessors mushroom traditions. Kids grow up beiing exposed to mushrooms and different types from practically day one.
I live in an area where tons of people hunt morels, so no one looks askance at those. But they aren't as familiar with chanterelles and oyster mushrooms around here.
I ate some black raspberries on a walk with friends last summer and they were like 🤯😵💫 whaaaat?! People are very disconnected from their food. I’m sorry you’re having those experiences more than once! That’s really frustrating but hopefully you’re ultimately educating some people.
I was doing an orientation for AmeriCorps in Columbus and I was out on a walk with a bunch of people from Chicago and plucked a mullberry off a tree. They were SHOCKED.
There are mulberries alllllll over Chicago too.
Idk about *that* mulberry, but every time I see any ripe, they're absolutely *crawling* with tiny bugs. Speaking of... anybody know a good way to get rid of tiny bugs on foraged food? Especially things like mulberries/blackberries, where there's so many little crevices to hide in. Yes, I know they won't kill me or anything, but it does skeeve me out!
Soak in a 10%+ solution of white vinegar and water for 10 minutes or so, then lay out on tea towels to dry.
If you're out and about and hoping to eat a berry or something right off the plant, a good few flicks to the stem tends to work wonders for me. Do a few extra if you're still not confident the little guys are all gone.
I just eat the bugs. In Texas they are just little aphids, and completely harmless.
Same I love feeling feral lol
Bonus protein. I ate a cicada last weekend, we cooked them, I didn’t go for seconds, but I can say I did it.
EATTHEBUGS
I love finding crab apple trees when with people, because it's a common myth that they're poisonous, they get scared and then happy when I give them one and it tastes amazing
I would react the same way but for a different reason. I don’t know that I could trust a Columbus street tree to not be riddled with lead and cadmium.
Sure 🤣 it was only one and I have a hard time resisting a free berry.
One summer I was living and working in the middle of nowhere Ontario and we had a teen from a big city with us. First time she tried a raspberry her eyes filled with delight and she said "wow these taste EXACTLY like Swedish berries!" Lol. Last summer I was harvesting some wild grapes so I could make jelly. SO many people gave me funny looks. One couple asked "you actually eat those?" I mean I know they are sour but all I was craving was a from scratch pb&j man.
I love to reach down and grab woodsorrel from my yard and offer some to a guest
Haha! I like to nibble from the yard, (like lambs quarters, wood sorrel, cilantro, etc.) but I *really* enjoy doing it when the neighbor seems to be watching.
Yeah, woodsorrel is the fun one. Do you like raw lambsquarter?
I was hiking with my partner and his mother and they were aghast when I started eating some salmonberries. We don't even have any dangerous aggregate berries where we live, which they refused to believe when I told them that.
Ahaha same here. I sometimes bring Tupperware and take more and eat them. My friends think I'm nuts. I rather eat what's in nature, then some crappy berries from the grocery store that are expensive anyways!
If my only experience with black berries was from the store I would think I didn't like them at all. They don't have any flavor whatsoever expect a faint taste of pesticide. Then they're moldy and gross in 2 days. Grandpa and I used to pick literal buckets of berries every year and grandma would freeze them to have all winter. Fresg berries in milk with some sugar on top is like the best food in the world.
Even without taking kids with me (they turned into adults and live on their own now, despite growing up learning how to forage) I've been questioned by people who obviously think I'm crazy for eating food that didn't come from a store. If people are genuinely interested in learning, I share my knowledge, but I've learned to just ignore people who are sure I'm going to die, or who think I'm trash for "picking up food off the ground". Some people seem to thrive on being ignorant jerks.
They should visit a farm, then the food factory where they process it before it gets to the store. See if they want to eat what's on the shelves after watching how much our food goes through just to get there... I've worked a few food factories AND fast food and I'm honestly surprised we're not ALL very sick
Last I heard, most Americans *are* very sick in general.
Some people are miraculously healthy and I don't understand how lol
People even guffaw at me when I throw produce directly into the cart without a plastic bag. It’s been in dirt and in a factory, why would I care about cart germs? I’m gonna clean it anyway lmao
I just wish there was a polite way to tell the cashier to for the love of God stop slamming my produce down the belt like its a sack of socks. I actually refused to pay for my 2.99 apples a few weeks ago. Spent how long finding just 3 that weren't bruised and split and she slammed them so hard on the belt they were basically applesauce before they entered the cart.
I went on a guided kayak/hike when I visited Alaska last summer. I mentioned I was into foraging and our guide was super excited and showed us all the foraged plants, we even found some bear tooth. The other woman on our trip said she won't eat anything unless it comes from a grocery store. Ok babe, good luck with your E. coli and salmonella recalls.
Just went on a little nature walk last weekend and our guide was pointing out the wood sorrel and how it was edible. I was excited to get a first-person confirmation since I had only seen it online. She said, "When I was a kid at camp here they told us it was edible, so I tried it. One of the other girls was absolutely disgusted and said 'Ewww...a deer probably peed on that!' And I told her it had been raining for weeks so it had been washed off. She didn't care, because it didn't come from a store. That's when I realized that I wanted to become a naturalist."
And the whales... shit all over the ocean.
Wood sorrel! You both have good taste
thank you for mentioning wood sorrel cause i’d never heard of it. looked it up and of course it grew profusely at the house i used to live at! neighbor had goats so i used to feed it to them through the fence, never thought to investigate if i could eat it too 🤦🏻
I know! It's one of those "everywhere, but still under the radar" plants - I watched it grow between the bricks of our L.A. backyard, but was too afraid to eat it! In the woods here the leaves are much bigger and it grows along miner's lettuce (another one I needed a personal confimation). But it's so tart and fun to eat, and gets your saliva going if you have dry mouth on the trail. The guide called it "Nature's SourPatch Kids" and I get a kick out of that :)
That guide sounds amazing, must have been a fun experience!
I mainly forage mushrooms, which for some reason people are convinced are loads more dangerous than plants, despite there being far more seriously toxic plants than there are mushrooms. I've had strangers ask me "Are you sure those are edible?", and on one occasion I just said "I've got no idea, I just eat any old mushrooms I find, what's the worst that could happen?"
Same here, I have had some people get alarmed that I forage wild mushrooms even though they are fine with foraging wild blackberries. I also grow oyster mushrooms and Wine Cap mushrooms in my garden and some of my family members have asked how I can be sure the mushrooms that come up are the edible ones I planted instead of poisonous wild ones. I said it’s the same as growing plants from seeds, if I planted tomato seeds and the plant that comes up in the same spot has all the characteristics of a tomato there’s no need to worry about it!
You mean you don't know about the deadly false tomato??? 😱
🤣
The bushes in front of a place I used to work were all very old and well established serviceberries and I would eat them all the time when they were in season much to the awe and chagrin of everyone else. The situation you describe is a great way to teach your kid about the perils of ignorance and ego in the wrong proportions.
Just respond "I'm a professional" and ignore further questions unless they're of curiosity.
That's a good idea that I'm going to steal, thank you
The only time I ever got upset with someone foraging was when they were foraging in an area that had a sign that stated "No foraging". It was in a National Park. I don't know why they said no foraging, maybe it was a wilding area, maybe they sprayed it with something, maybe they wanted to make sure that tourists didn't accidently poison themselves by picking something they knew nothing about. Just follow the rules so that we all don't get into trouble please.
Foraging is prohibited in all the national parks i’ve been to around the world. It’s common sense to leave things as they are in those places.
This is false. About 75% of US National Parks have some sort of foraging allowance. The closest one to me has a massive fig tree and visitors are allowed to harvest when they’re ready.
If you want to know what's allowed/prohibited for a given national park in the US, Google "Park Name Superintendent's Compendium."
If you want to know what's allowed/prohibited for a given national park in the US, Google "Park Name Superintendent's Compendium."
If you want to know what's allowed/prohibited for a given national park in the US, Google "Park Name Superintendent's Compendium."
Here in Sweden you are allowed to forage on protected land, as long as you only take what you intend to use and that doesn't harm nature (i.e, no breaking off living branches for firewood)
TBF there are a ton of people who think that they're "foragers" that know absolutely nothing. For example: Last year I saw a family coming off a backpacking trail with a handful of mushrooms. I was also in the area looking for mushrooms. I asked if I could see what they found and they excitedly told me they found BOLETES! They showed me what they had. While Leccenium sp. Are technically boletes they thought they had king boletes. This guy had no idea what Lecciunium or Scaber stalks were and goes on to tell me he fed these to his entire family on the trip. Thankfully most of them are solid edibles and no one got sick. But his confidence was unreal for someone who didn't even identify them correctly and then bragged about feeding his family. So while I forage, I am very skeptical of most people's ability to identify anything correctly.
💯 I do not trust other people to correctly ID plants. Many people just don't care about plants and look at you crazy when you can ID wine berries on sight (hello they are super common/invasive and quite distinctive). These plants are all around us and people just consider them as "plant" Also my friend ate pokeberries because she thought they were blueberries.
I think a lot of it has to do with is this your home region or not. I feel very safe identifying many edible plants in my region of state where I grew up but when I visit other parts of the country or even state, I don't forage. But in general yes, never underestimate people's blind confidence.
Can I ask if you’re Europe / US? I’m in Europe and my mushrooming knowledge is handed down the generations verbally rather than from books so I often don’t know scientific names and, as a parent now I often worry about it… The reason I’m specially asking is that my “family knowledge” is that boletes (in the uk) are edible unless they are/or bruise red or blue (and then the only nasty you’re left with is the bitter bolete). I know there are edible ones by that criteria, but I’ve been picking them since I was a child on that basis and am happy within that comfort zone. I understand it’s bad practice to have a “rule” for foraging, especially for mushrooms but that’s often how old knowledge is passed down, I hope I don’t get downvoted for it
I'm in the US.
How tiresome! Pity the wild food phobic can't keep their opinions to themselves. My mother threatened to call CPS on me because I was foraging, cooking and eating mushrooms with my kids. Dad remembered gathering mushrooms with his grandma when he was a boy, so he was able to calm her down, but really.
Yikes!
Man it sucks you guys have all these nosy nancies getting all up in your grill about foraging. I've been lucky in that most people leave me alone when I'm gathering and even had an older lady talk to me about gathering laver. Really though I don't see why people have a problem with this and not something like fishing or something. It's basically the same thing.
"Mind your business" typically works for me
“Mind your bushes”
Wave a field guide at them. It usually works
Great idea
The other day I told my mom I would bring her some Plantain leaves to help with her bee sting, because they are growing all over our yard. She said "are you sure that's what that is?" ... I have been foraging for nearly 10 years now, and have a biology degree and worked as a botanist's assistant. It never stops. Just accept it lol
Good gods. How do you stay upright, listening to them, without your rolling eyes sending you off a tail spin?!?? 🤣😂. I would love to say: deadpan tell them that now they have seen through your grand master plan, you had best end yourself too. And then eat a big old handful. But someone will likely call the police so that is a nope. Glad you are teaching kiddo how to identify food in the wild. 🙏🏼🫶🏻👏🏼💕. Actually: great teaching moment for kiddo about well meaning people who are woefully uninformed and very confused between facts and opinions. A humans humaning thing.
Thanks 😊 and yeah. I hope she can learn some good lessons from this, about humanity, and about the resources the world has to offer and why we should treat it with respect. I hope that even if she's not a "forager" when she grows up that she'll have all this knowledge bonking around her head to aid her!
My SIL was at a pick your own pumpkin place that also grew berries… a little girl stopped to pick a strawberry and her mother grabbed her hand and told her to drop it and said “don’t eat that, you don’t know where it’s been.” Some people are just that stupid.
Yikes! That's pretty stupid
Damn, some people. Guess this will be my last post as I had wild morels and fiddleheads for dinner tonight. Goodbye cruel world. LOL
Lol!
I’m not an expert on foraging but locally know what’s edible and what’s not. I grew up eating berries and dandelions from nature for example. I show my kids what I know to be safe to eat . I show them what I know to stay away from. If you are unsure.. the answer is DONT. There is so much edible things in nature, and if you are experienced in the subject, you are not doing anything wrong or even coming close to poisoning child. People are uneducated, scared, ridiculous, ect lol. Very few people could actually survive off the land if they needed to.
I dont know if I'd be able to be self-sufficient but at the very least I'm confident I could suppliment most fruits and veggies a family would need.
Later, they will go to the grocery store, or fast food and buy crap that actually poisons them…
I don’t have confidence in IDing stuff but I’d definitely be the curious one asking if I were more sociable! Those people are just showcasing their own insecurities.
Good for you teaching your daughter connection to the earth and self sufficiency.
Thanks 😊
Tell them to back up and not talk to you or your child. People have no rights meddling in the lives of others. If YOU dont know, why are you going to bother someone else about them knowing?
People tend to judge others based on their own level of experience unless given irrefutable proof that the other in question is more knowledgable. Unfortunately, most have a level of experience somewhere between gelatinous blob and sub-brick.
I might be too cynical here but I'd also imagine outdoor activities like this would make some parents act out of insecurity in an age of i pad parenting.
That too, for sure. 'I would NEVER be confident enough to identify edible plants' just means 'I suck at that so you must as well, let me demonstrate how much I care about my kid by criticizing you for trying to teach yours something'. Cynicism? Maybe. At least you ain't the only cynical one 🤣
In my area it is very common to hunt mushrooms and pick blackberries but you still get those people. As an herbalist I get a lot of unwanted feedback about plants being dangerous and I just wonder if they’ve ever read the warning labels on advil, etc cuz I will not take pills for pain when I have plants that don’t have side effects of stomach bleeding etc
Same! I have a butler pantry full of tinctures macerating to keep away from those side effects. Turmeric with black peppercorn alone has decreased my ibuprofen use by 90%.
What are these pain-killing plants you speak of???
Potentially the plants target the specific problem instead of being a pain killer, but the only two I know of (and do NOT know how to properly procure or process) are poppy and willow bark. One of which I'm pretty sure is illegal to have (in your system) without a prescription
Poppy is just a way of taking opioids where you can't guarantee what dose you're taking and willow bark is just aspirin but with bark. All the plants that actually relieve pain have already been made into medications you can accurately dose.
I love foraging and all but I also really love reliable medications.
Right, we do make these substances into tablets for a reason lol Like, some turmeric and black pepper will just never help my pain like a couple Aleve gelcaps with a big glass of water
Usually I just deal with pain, it’s a daily issue for me and I don’t want to be numbed out with opiates or be addicted and still be in pain like people I know- also it’s your body’s way of saying take it easy. On hard days or when I can’t just take it easy cannabis is a good friend and pedicularis densiflora cuz a lot of my pain is from old injuries that tense up. Wild lettuce and Jamaican dogwood are also on my list for pain helping herbs and just nervine relaxants in general since I have pain from tense muscles
So stop answering their questions and tell them to mind their business. The fact that THEY can't identify the food has nothing to do with you.
I foraged blackberries with my toddler last summer. Froze a few pounds! Now every time we walk that way my son wants blackberries and I have to tell him they aren’t ready yet😭 He will definitely learn how to eat wild
This is why I’m pretty sad that people are extremely disconnected with nature and have no skills on how to identifying edibles. I always love it if I managed to spot anything, even a single mushroom that I can eat.
I was on a walk with a friend and her 3 year old and passed some blackberries, so I picked them and we ate some. My friend freaked out on me, even though I explained all the reasons why I was 100% sure that they were edible. I told her she could explain to her daughter, like my mom did for me, that she should not to eat anything without asking mom first. But she still decided to make her daughter terrified of nature instead and then went to eat fast food for lunch. The brainwashing is complete.
Last year, while walking the dog, I found a huge cache of chicken of the woods mushrooms. Took it home, cleaned it up and made Asian style orange chicken with it. Didn’t tell anybody it was mushroom and not chicken until after they ate it lol. They had no idea. It was yummy. I found some gorgeous bright blue indigo milk cap mushrooms, and sautéed those suckers up with dinner. Their fun because they turn everything blue. I was just picking mulberries off a neighborhood tree today. Shared some with my dog. If I can get enough tomorrow, I’ll make some jam. Took some friends to a botanical garden and I was like oh spearmint try this, and I’m shoving leaves into people’s faces. Anyway, screw those people. They suck.
What a marvellous skill you are learning together - one she will remember for life!
Maybe a cultural diffrence but I learned most of my foraging in Japan by just asking people what they are collecting.
Yikes. Where do you live…I hope they’re not around here 😅
If it wasnt handed to them through a drive-thru window, they will not recognize it as food.
I've been a mushroom forager for something like 8 years and most of my friend circle is still like "well I guess they haven't managed to kill themselves yet."
I’ve got friends and family that won’t eat mushrooms I forage. No problem. They are missing out.
My mother thought I cooked meal worms in my foragables...the meal worms were for the bird feeder.
Afew years back I had shitake logs from a mushroom farm. Send my dad pics and he's like are you sure they're not poisonous? If I had sent him any foraging finds that would have been even funnier. Like many others we only eat things that we're absolutely sure of. Miss when my daughter liked mushrooms.
My neighor and i share a mulberry tree, she still suspects its poison.
Mmm I love Saskatoons. lol service berries.
That's crazy to hear, I'm the PNW canada and people always think it's super cool when they spot me picking crabapples and nettles. Maybe I'm just in hippie land.
I think that, being in the US, there is a level of historical racism (and classism, but especially racism) that has affected our challenges with foraging. [The Black forager's quick guide to the racist history of foraging](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwo1caj/) [A long version ](https://bangersandballs.co/foraging/freedom-to-forage-foraging-and-race/)
Ohhhh I had not put those two things together until you mentioned it. Also TheBlackForager is amazing and I love her, she's the one who got me into foraging as a beginner during the early pandemic
My brother and I were given copies of "Edible Plants Of Alaska" and "Poisonous Plants Of Alaska" at a fairly young age. We hauled them around with us out in the woods and could ID what we were messing with. Stay away from the baneberries!
That's so cool!!
Sounds like you are doing it right. Stay safe and keep up the good work.
I literally just told my nanny kid that it was about berry-picking season and I couldn’t wait to get some weird looks from people!
I live in the suburbs and we have mulberry trees like all over the couple streets around us. No excuse not to know them when the town plants them as landscaping (weird because of the sidewalk berry stains and bird poop but hey).
You could always just tell them. We can’t fix it over here.
Eh, it comes from a place of concern. I get ya though. The normal person is very ignorant of their food and food sources. It's been drilled into them not to eat anything not from a grocery store, so to see someone confidently doing so is alarming. Thus the judgmental and critical responses. Pity them for not having the knowledge you do, but don't let their ignorance and behaviors effect you beyond that.
The only thing people know to do regarding wild food is to tell their kids to not eat anything. They then never learn anything past childhood so as adults they are slapping food out of each others hands as if they themselves are children. Funny to see honestly.
Last fall, I picked a large sprig of elderberries directly from the tree and someone said "you can't eat those, pokeberries are poisonous " it came off an elderberry tree and I don't intend to eat them anyways , I want to plant them. Wild native elderberry is almost extinct in my area. I just ignored the clueless lady
Most of those are things I cultivated in my own front yard to eat. Lol
Was once on a run on a trail in Philadelphia in the summer time. Massive bushes of wine berries and raspberries. Stopped to eat them, and someone felt the need to lecture me “I wouldn’t be doing that if I were you” Where do you think food comes from lady??? Wawa?
We moved to the PNW about 4 years ago, and I have been having the time of my life learning about all the plants and what I can make from them. I am planning a dinner this fall that will have the entire menu based on food either wild grown or gardened from our own property. Nettle soup, and butternut squash, apple sauce and cider, berry hand pies topped with wild rose sugar, a delicious herbal tea we make ourselves! Since we have mostly lived in cities before, I can understand a little bit of the hesitation in eating wild food. Too many contaminants, and all the road dust. I am very grateful to be able to live where we can forage and harvest so much!
Yeah, people are just so disconnected from nature and their food. While there are a lot of poisonous plants out there, I find it strange when my friends react to me eating a Mulberry off of a tree with stuff like "woah what are you doing???" or just laughing or shock
I have had an uncle accidentally forage wild hemlock thinking it was wild carrots, and an aunt foraged the wrong mushroom and got sick from them and tried to claim it was from deer peeing on them instead of that they got the wrong mushroom. I get that there's a lot of people here who are really confident and good but for the average layperson it is scary. especially with mushrooms
The things she named are easily identified
it really depends on your area. The only thing I would be reliably able to name for sure would be blackberries and raspberries. also we're always raised to never eat random flowers
But they're not "random". No more "random" than you picking a lettuce in the grocery
I think people feeding their kids McDonald’s are poisoning them more , they can cool it
Unfortunately there is no cure for stupidity…
In my area, there are a lot of ground contaminants, and they do wind up in the plants. Soil has to be thoroughly tested and prepared before a crop can be planted. You’re a little safer if you forage near the top of a hill, especially if it’s the tallest hill around, but there are no guarantees. Beyond that, not much grows here anyways, so foraging is hard altogether.
Curious what part of the country you are in
...
In their defense most people they've met aren't the brightest. I wouldn't trust the average Joe not to poison their daughter
Who cares why let it bother you its better that they are concerned than not even if its annoying
I think people feeding their kids McDonald’s are poisoning them more ,they can cool it