wild and free, What do you gather?

[Blossom]

:) I come back from my morning dog walk with a huge bag of wild food most mornings, it is so abundant just now-Young nettle tops ,dandilion greens,fat hen,chickweed,sorrel,brambles(blackberries)rosehip s(small and the sweeter large variety)haw berries, plums,and fantastic sweet red wild plum shaped wild apples. I live in the beautiful Ayrshire countryside in Scotland, What do you guys gather?

[Eva]

I live in the city and can't gather anything for now... but I did just recently try sorrel for the first time. I knew immediately that you were in Europe because that was new to my taste buds in the US!

What a lovely morning walk, it sounds like. I long for the day when I can have walks like that. :)

[Veganforlife]

Gathering this time of year is not conducive right now, but in the spring, I did gather young dandelion leaves, and purslane, which I have frozen for the winter for my green smoothies.

It DID sound like a lovely walk! Think of us here in the U.S. on your walks! ;)

[juliebove]

Mostly I don't. I've been known to pick berries when I'm in the woods, but around here, I don't think it is safe. You never know what they might be sprayed with.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

I'm unable to gather right now, but when I do, I gather dandelion, huckleberry, blackberry, raspberry, salmonberry, nettles, and I'm looking to gather a lot more. This time of year is not good, though, except for nuts.

[petaltothemetal]

I never thought I'd miss dandelions, but there aren't any near me. We have a yellow flower that looks kind of sort of like dandelions with serrated leaves, but it tastes nasty.

I gather blackberries, huckleberries, salmonberry, strawberries, elderberries, salal, claytonia (miner's lettuce), camas bulbs and mushrooms in early spring and sometimes I just nibble things like my goats do. What's this leaf taste like? That one? I have a huge tree with an antiseptic smell to it and I had to taste the leaves. Yep, tasted like antiseptic. And some kind of mint relative that grows in the lowlands that is ok, but not great, and has inspired me to grow my own. Tasting everything horrifies my mom! I did taste something I thought might be a red huckleberry last year, then suddenly got afraid because the leaves were three lobed and I was afraid it was a variety of poison ivy I hadn't seen before so I spit it out and washed my mouth out with water from a water bottle I'd brought along. Turns out it was RED NIGHTSHADE, also called European bittersweet, a nervous system toxin. Good thing I spit it out!

[petaltothemetal]

Oh, and two notes on the above list of things I gather in case anyone here tries it:

Salal is pretty sour. Eat the berries only.
Blue camas bulbs are very good but do not eat any bulbs from any plant with a white flour - so don't even try to collect these when they are not flowering because you could end up dead!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Blue camas bulbs are very good but do not eat any bulbs from any plant with a white flour - so don't even try to collect these when they are not flowering because you could end up dead!

Good to know!! Thanks :)

[jacsam]

Girl....it sounds like you just took a walk through the garden of Eden. Sounds great!!!

[coco]

purslane!!

and mulberries in june, yum.

[kitlynne]

Did I mention jealous? Not much around here to gather accept for basil out of my pots =)

[Blossom]

It is very easy to take it all for granted but I will gather with deep gratitude from now on. Thank you all.:)

[coco]

*jealous of your basil* i want some with tomatoes right now!