[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
SkyzykS wrote:
Here’s a couple that I picked this spring. It wasn’t a great year for them, but better than the last few.
You MONSTER! I wondered when you would tantalize us with those mushroom pics. I pay anywhere from $40/lb to $60/lb for Morels!
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Hehehe! You like?
New York strip and a lovely gravy made with the catch of the day.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
OctoberGirl wrote:
SkyzykS wrote:
Here’s a couple that I picked this spring. It wasn’t a great year for them, but better than the last few.
You MONSTER! I wondered when you would tantalize us with those mushroom pics. I pay anywhere from $40/lb to $60/lb for Morels!
Hehehe! You like?
New York strip and a lovely gravy made with the catch of the day.
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I do love them. And you showed your dog. When I ordered the Morels and they were fresh, I was opening them up in the kitchen and the next thing I knew my big black lab had his face buried in the bag! I have his pic in my profile. The other dog didn’t care, but Zack was following them all over.
Renton - You mentioned a good 'shroom ID book, what’s the name? Can you recommend any other vegetation-for-food field guides?
Here in Maine, we are a wildlife haven. My wild food addiction is fish. Wild low-bush blueberries abound that keep the bears and people happy.
One curious delicacy we have are ‘fiddle head’ ferns. As the fronds pop out of the melt in early spring, the fern fronds unroll and look like, well, fiddleheads. Most people pickle them. Some sautee them or just chop 'em up for salad.
I just got the call from my sister. We’re heading out now for our first forrage of the fall.
I’ll be looking for these. They are chantarelle that don’t fully develope. They have the best flavor when sauted for a minute at high temprature. Then they burst when you bite them.
skyz-
You’re in prime fungus country, eh? You could probably find an abandoned coal shaft and cultivate your own! 
[quote]Roual wrote:
Saying that, I’ve never actually tried the pigeon. Anyone know what it tastes like (chicken I’d imagine). And at the risk of asking a stupid question, I’m guessing they’d be specially reared, not just strays taken out with an air rifle, right?
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The cullinary term for pigeon is Squab. Yes, they are specifically bred for eating.
They have a gamey taste compared to chicken.
Actualy, a seam my pap used to mine runs beneath my house.
I’ve tried cultivating from spores a couple of times, but no luck. I have developed some very god and productive maps over the years though.
You land any leviathan lately? Our steelhead season is just rampin up now a little to the north. I’m thinking about building a nice steely rod in 7 or 8 wt.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
The plants are localy known as May apples, and produce a very tart but sweet blushing white to red drupe type of fruit.
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I’ve seen something very similar up in North Mississippi (I live on the Gulf Coast). They’re called “May Pops” up there 'cause they pop when you open them up.
Also, we have muscadines, a kind of grape that grows wild. If you can get to them before the deer (sound familiar, SkyzykS?) they make a pretty fair wine. There are lots of blackberries and raspberries, too. Gotta watch out for snakes, though. They DO hang out around berry patches. I’ve seen too many rattlesnakes to say that’s an “Old Wives’ Tale” about rattlers waiting for birds around blackberry/raspberry bushes.
I grew up hunting (family owned a good sized acreage), mainly for deer. I skin, clean, butcher whatever I kill. If I can’t do everything from the shot to the table then I feel I shouldn’t be hunting. Here, on the Coast, there are all kinds of fish. My favorites are speckled trout, flounder, redfish. Plenty of crabs and crawfish in the water here, too. New Orleans is only an hour & a half away, that style of cooking has, of course, influenced this area.
I’ll shut up now, that Metabolic Drive Complete I had this a.m. suddenly seems less than adequate!
[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
The head of the Hog was on a stump and I swear it as staring at me. That wigged me out so bad I refused to get out of the car to pee.
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You end up peein’ in the car, OG?
[quote]WxHerk wrote:
Also, we have muscadines, a kind of grape that grows wild. If you can get to them before the deer (sound familiar, SkyzykS?) they make a pretty fair wine. There are lots of blackberries and raspberries, too. Gotta watch out for snakes, though. They DO hang out around berry patches. I’ve seen too many rattlesnakes to say that’s an “Old Wives’ Tale” about rattlers waiting for birds around blackberry/raspberry bushes.
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That does sound quite familiar. The snakes too. We have a good population of copper head around here, but they are very shy. I’ve almost stepped on several, and my wife took a strike to her hand this past spring. Fortunately it was a false bite, no venom. She was climbing the bank of a creek when we were out gathering morrels and thought it was an exposed root that she could grab on to.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Fortunately it was a false bite, no venom. She was climbing the bank of a creek when we were out gathering morrels and thought it was an exposed root that she could grab on to.
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Yikes! I’m glad to hear that it was a false bite. Copperheads don’t get a lot of press due to their shy nature but they can sure ruin someone’s week. Grabbing it like she did is SO easy to do; their color scheme matches their habitat almost perfectly. I had a similar experience when I was in college. I was playing the golf course where I worked and went into the woods after a ball. I was straddling a very small ditch, about 6" deep and a foot wide, when I saw a copperhead slithering away between my feet. It blended in perfectly with the dry leaves. I just eased away and let him escape. Pure luck that I wasn’t bitten.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
brick cap psilocibe
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?!?!
For its nutrient profile only, I assume
[quote]Roual wrote:
Damn, I’m starting to feel ashamed that I’ve never tried gathering or hunting for my own food.
I’d love to try spear fishing (as in free diving with a spear gun) but there’s no where round here they do it (not actually sure about the legality of it in this country anyway).
I live in a small town surrounded by villages that consist of about 4 houses and a pub. I’ve found that these remote pubs pretty much always offer rabbit, venison, pigeon and some other meats that escape me at the moment. Whenever the opportunity arises I’ll give the weirder meats a try over the more conventional ones.
Saying that, I’ve never actually tried the pigeon. Anyone know what it tastes like (chicken I’d imagine). And at the risk of asking a stupid question, I’m guessing they’d be specially reared, not just strays taken out with an air rifle, right?
So Renton, when you inviting some of us over for a hunter gatherer party?[/quote]
Any time you are in the area mate! Just call in. That goes for anyone else too. Depending on the time of year the menu will be different but expect a good few hours foraging or hunting with .22’s (Got a few friendly farmers close by).
You mention pubs selling meat? Ahhh the poachers life! If you have any interest in foraging or covert hunting you should spend a few quid on beers for the shadier looking locals. They’ll know hunting techniques that’ll blow your mind!
You spear hunting question? I’m fairly sure it’s illegal in the UK. Diving for scallops though is great!
The only pigeon I eat is wild but not from anywhere near a town. Town and city pigeons are rats with wing, eating crap and tasting worse (I’m told).
If you have some near you though they will be wild country birds and should taste just fine. Peg out a couple of decoys (either plastic pigeons or a dead bird or two) withh either some grain or in a field with young shoots and sit quiet.
They have good eyesight and will see the decoys and come down to feed. Bag them at will. You’ll usually get one kill then they’ll fly off for a bit but they are stupid and come back.
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Renton - You mentioned a good 'shroom ID book, what’s the name? Can you recommend any other vegetation-for-food field guides?
Here in Maine, we are a wildlife haven. My wild food addiction is fish. Wild low-bush blueberries abound that keep the bears and people happy.
One curious delicacy we have are ‘fiddle head’ ferns. As the fronds pop out of the melt in early spring, the fern fronds unroll and look like, well, fiddleheads. Most people pickle them. Some sautee them or just chop 'em up for salad.[/quote]
SD - Those ferns sound similar to some we have over here. I’ll have to look into that.
When you say about fish - sea fish or have you been trying the freshwater varieties? Obviously there is trout and salmon etc. but I tend to eat carp and pike too if caught in either running water or a large lake.
My shroom ID books are …
For in the field, rough ID - Collins Gem - Mushrooms (A nice pocket sized volume with lots of good info). It gives a good idea of what’s good and what’s not but unless I know for absolute sure I consult How to Identify Edible Mushrooms by Harding, Lyon and Tomblin (published by HarperCollins). It’s too big to carry round though!
One of the bibles for foraging is Food For Free by Richard Mabey. It’s written with the UK in mind though and hints at where to find various plants by County.
Wild Food by Roger Collins is very good too, again covering plants.
I have very little on what animals are good to eat other than what I was taught in the forces. If it’s a mammal and a carnivore then leave it alone. Anything else is worth the risk! Obviously there are a few exceptions but this generally holds true.
Don’t even think about eating Polar Bear unless you want to be real ill (or potentially dead if you eat it’s liver). Seagull, although edible, tastes so bad you’ll have trouble keeping it down.
I guess really that in a country as huge as the US with so many separate climates then local knowledge will mean more than any books unless you can find locally written foraging info.
I suspect area with similar climates to the UK will have similar plants though. Nettles for making wine, beer, and for cooking and eating, beech trees for beech sap wine (Well worth it - if anyone has beech trees near them let me know and I’ll tell you how to harvest and make the wine).
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
And finaly, a good days gathering of honey mushrooms, sheeps heads, aborted entolomas, brick cap psilocibe and a couple of lepiotia that were too close to call.
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Damn good haul!
[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
SkyzykS wrote:
brick cap psilocibe
?!?!
For its nutrient profile only, I assume
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Yea. Brick caps are non halucinogenic. The psilocybe family is huge. Some edible, some toxic, some halucinogenic.
Funny thing though- Every year at this time we get a massive bloom of Big Laughing Gyms. I’m talking pounds on one log or stump, and numerous sites of occurance.
If I still into trippin…
Anyhow, Thanks Renton. We have a couple of stands of old growth hardwoods in this region that realy produce. I have a couple of sweet spots where the honey mushrooms and aborted entoloma cover almost an acre.
Today wasn’t very productive though. A couple of handfull of Oysters, and found a few micellium emerging, but we need some rain.
Renton/Skyz-
Been a pretty dry season for the fishes. The stripers held out at bay all summer and likewise the bluefish never really came in. Some nice mackerel, browns trout and lots of White Perch (cousin of the stripers) filling in for lack of the striped bass. They don’t get real big, but the meat is firm and tasty like the stripers.
Renton- we have beech and birch abound!! I’ve never even heard of beech wine (but have done birch beer)-- definitely interested in the beech wine!
we have tons of snakes here
this year was bad due to local construction.
but 20 points to anyone that can name this plant
we do not have too many edible plants around here but everything in my yard is native and medicinal
for cuts,scraps burns whatever have ya you use the goo inside the flesh
pure natural aloe vera
they spread like wild fire also.I planted a couple starters from the back of the yard and placed them up against the house.
these ugly things stink and they are a pest,but if you are having stomach problems or cant eat,take the leaves and make a tea and sip it is a potent decongestant as well.
both tea form and also if you boil the leaves and breath the steam very usefull I use this often actually and it does work well.
this is a creosote scrub and they are impossible to get rid of.