Foraging

Yesterday I went forging with a group of people and a man who forages professionally.  It was loads of fun.  I used to forage often when I was a kid, mainly with my dad, and mainly for mushrooms and blueberries.  Fresh wild mushrooms and blueberries are incredible.  When I close my eyes I can smell both.

Yesterday we gathered wild leeks or ramps, wild ginger - which is unrelated to commercial ginger, but has a similar scent, which may be why they share a name, as well as stinging nettle.  Where I grew up nettle was everywhere, but I don't recall eating it.  In the past I've had nettle tea, and I've boiled it in water and used the liquid as a hair rinse; it made my hair super shiny and voluminous.  I googled prickly nettle benefits and came across this site, which lists many uses:

http://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/stinging-nettle-herb.html

One of the people in the group yesterday said he makes pesto out of it with sunflower and pumpkin seeds; someone else said he makes it with pine nuts and olive oil, like you would standard pesto, but uses the nettle in place of basil.  Whatever you do, don't eat it raw and don't touch it with bare skin.  We sampled trout lily leaves, and when we came to an area with nettle, someone decided to sample a leaf of that as well, poor fellow.

I only cut the tops off, which promotes growth of the remaining plant.  A lot of my nettle has slug bites, but it's ok, cause it's still edible, besides I plan to use it as a hair rinse.  I miss that shine, that no hair product ever gave me.

Here is the wild ginger, which doesn't look like and isn't related to ginger root, but has that similar scent and is more fragrant, without the heat.

I made tea out of it.  It had a lovely fragrance, but wasn't overwhelming and I didn't get tired of it; I had 2 cups in a row.  As much as I like lavender, I can only have so much of it at a time.

Wild ginger is a neat looking plant, with small tube flowers:

You can use wild ginger as a spice for pretty much anything.  I love the tea.

The ramps, or wild leeks, at first glance look similar to lily of the valley, except it's too early for those flowers.  When harvesting, it's best to use a spade straight down about 5", go around the bunch to loosen the soil, and dig them out.  Also, choose a bunch in the middle of a ramp bed, this way, they have a chance to fill in that gap.

Ramps can be used in anything you would use onions or garlic, they can also be pickled, sautéed, and probably fermented; I don't see why not, I have fermented conventional leeks.  I want to pickle the bulbs, sauté some of the leaves, cause I love sautéed leeks, and possibly try fermenting the rest.  I don't have too many, so they will be small portions.  I need to figure out how to get back to that forest, to forage more - morels should be up in a couple of weeks, but also just to hike and have a picnic when it warms up.

Once the roots are cut off, they can be replanted; probably best if they are replanted in the same area they were picked from, but I will try to plant them in my yard and see what happens.

After the foraging, I went to a nearby hobby farm and got real eggs.  Unless you know about this place selling eggs, you wouldn't guess just driving by, cause they don't advertise, it's just small amounts for those who know.  You walk into the atrium, which unless you knew this, it seems like a break in, and there is a fridge with eggs and a freezer with pork, a table with a money box and a notebook to write down your name and how many dozens of eggs you've purchased, no one was there to oversee the exchange.  The forager told us about this farm, but only a few people went, just as well, cause there were only 2 dozen left, and I got one.  If there were more, I would've gotten more.  I want to make custard ice cream from these yummies.  There was a fenced off part of the yard with lots of chickens running around.  I love chickens, they're so cute, and always make me think of bloomers  :)

Foraging for fun is fun, and you can load up on O2.