Harvesting Black Walnuts

To process black walnuts...

first find a Black Walnut tree. The leaves look feathered and fade from green to yellow in Fall. I found one at a local park.

The bark has grey flat-topped ridges with dark orange seems.

If it is mid October there is a good chance you will find what look like big green tennis balls at the base of the tree. Fill your collecting basket.

Step on each green ball to separate the nut from the husk (pavement will help).

Use old shoes and wear gloves because the husk is saturated with an orange dye which will stain anything it comes into contact with (notice the stained pavement).

Back home fill a bucket with water, get a scrub brush, and scrub the inky residue off the nuts (while wearing gloves). It took a minute for me to scrub each one.

This is what the nuts looked like before...

and after.

This is what a raw nut looks like cracked open...

and separated from its shell.

If you let the nut dry for at least a week the nuts inside dry and are easier to extract. This is what a cured nut looks like cracked open...

and separated from its shell. 

I ended up collecting 113 black walnuts! The nut meat is packed with fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. They smell like wine and they taste great! 

How to Make Autumn Olive Fruit Leathers

To make Autumn Olive fruit leathers...

get your collecting basket,

strip ripe berries from their branches into your basket,

and harvest as many berries as your heart desires (after all you are doing landowners, farm owners, and the government a favor by preventing the spread of this invasive plant (I collected 15 cups worth).

Back home assemble your blender, food mill, and dehydrator.

Place berries in blender...

and blend.

Put blended berries through food mill to separate the seeds from the juice and pulp.

Ladle the juicy pulp onto the non-stick sheets of the dehydrator trays.

Dehydrate at 135 Degrees F for about 14 hours or until the leather is somewhat sticky and pliable. You should easily be able to peel it from the dehydrator sheet without it tearing (it needs to dry longer) or crumbling (it was left in for too long). 

Roll them up and store them in jars for up to a year. You can enjoy this tart tasting, sweet smelling, vibrant red fruit roll whenever you have guests or want to be brought back to the cool crisp days of Fall.  

The Month of Autumn Olive

My love affair with Autumn Olive began on July 26, 2012 at an organic farm in Carlisle, MA. Wild edible expert Russ Cohen stood before this bush and explained both its invasive and edible qualities. Apparently it was planted along the highways to help fight land erosion but now farmers, gardeners and rangers are tirelessly trying to eradicate it. 

At this point the berries were underdeveloped, hard and brown, but Russ had us sample the fruit leathers he had made from the berries of last Fall. My thoughts at the time were hallelujah this plant is invasive! I could eat as much of it as I wanted and not bear a stitch of guilt. 

A short hike up a local hill in town led me to a gold mine of these edible fruits two years later. Finding it in a secluded area where it was not being exposed to exhaust and heavy metals like the ones along the side 190 was like finding buried treasure. Slack and I took turns holding a plastic grocery bag open while the other stripped the branches of their delicious fruit. When the berries are ripe they come right off the branch with little coxing. 

This bush has green oval leaves that are pointed and have silvery speckled grey undersides. The berries start off hard and brown and turn from yellow to orange to deep red as they fatten. The speckled berries are both sweet and tart. 

This past year I was attending an annual event called the Big MOE. This is an awesome free event for anyone who is interested in anything outdoorsy. They have fly fishing, rock climbing, and canoeing. You can also have your turn at shooting shot guns, rifles, airsoft  and arrows. Slack and I were working the raffle table. 

From my post I noticed young a girl outside the pavilion standing underneath a shagbark hickory. As people walked by with their kids and strollers she, without a care in the world, was flinging herself up to the branches and snatching the nuts. Her name was Kira and her parents were there working the mountain bike station. As it turns out we had both been on a walk with Russ Cohen and we both knew about the ginormous Autumn Olive bush by the archery field. 

Slack and I made our way over to the archery range. On the way we sampled bear meat, admired chameleons as they camouflaged themselves against their terrarium foliage and I had my turn at milking a goat for the first time. We took a quick detour at the forestry booth to learn about native versus invasive species. The ranger said he makes a point each year to get Autumn Olive jam at his local farmers market. 

At last we were at the archery field. In the spirit of my new friend Kira I just walked right up to the Autumn Olive bush and started sampling its fruit as I circled around its massive perimeter. As I rounded the corner I was surprised to see a family of three standing there in front of the bush their father already eating handfuls of berries. His body was already digesting the lycopenes before I could explain what he was eating. "This is so good" he said with a cuckle, "I could stand here all day!" And he did for 5 minutes more while Slack and I standed in line for our go at the 3D dinosaur targets. 

Encouraged that a perfect stranger would trust me enough to eat a red berry on my cue I was confident that my colleagues at work would give it a try. I knew there was a bush outside our work so I collected some during my lunch break. One response"Hmmm, not bad...I could see eating them if I was really hungry." Another response, "...I can see how these might be addicting." When I took them into Piro he sampled a few and said he needed to jump on a call. I offered him more and he grabbed a whole handful saying, "I am going to have the best snack at this meeting!"

At my sister's party last weekend there was another positive response to Autumn Olive as the mason jar of red berries was passed around and sampled among the guests. 

Autumn Olive is a wild food secret that is fun to share whether it be with strangers, colleagues, or family. I love the responses you get from people who sample the berries for the first time. It is invasive but it is this very quality that makes eating its fruit a guilt free pleasure. And this girl will certainly will reap the benefits as long as it is around!

Sumade

Lemonade is made from lemons and "sumade" is made from Staghorn Sumac (not to be confused with Poison Sumac which looks completely different with its smooth round white berries). Staghorn Sumac is a bush. Its leaves are pinnate meaning each stem has many leaflets(I've counted 28) growing oppositely each other along its length. The leaflets are slender, toothed like that of a saw, and are pointed at the tip. Touch the branches and with closed eyes and you will not be able to tell the difference in texture to that of velvet. At the tip of each brach is a flower. The flower is made up of thousands of little seeds that are coated in soft hairs and are clustered together to create what looks like a ruby red wooly cone. The hairs are saturated in malic acid which is this very characteristic that makes "sumade" the tart thirst-quenching drink that it is. You can sample the flower by dabbing it with a wet finger and licking the tip of you finger. It will be sour!

See the instructions below for making "sumade".

1. Removed a flower (this is easy because they tend to be low growing and easy to snap off).

2. Once home, break flowerhead into smaller sections and place in a pot.

3. Poor cold water over the flowers and let sit for 30 minutes. 

4. Next strain flower water into a pitcher or individual glasses.

5. You can add sweetener to taste.

You will have made a refreshing pale orange Summer drink!

Processing Sumade

Wild Chamomile

Wild Chamomile

I had had a seemingly unsuccessful day of foraging at my usual spot which is normally always bountiful but today with my bare legs and sneakers all it gave me were bramble cuts and scrapes and too much contact with poison ivy. To make matters worse the underdeveloped Autumn Olive berries and green pea-sized concord grapes were a tease and every ripe blackberry was guarded by shinny leaves of three. Foraging is not always a pleasant experience. It was when I was headed back to the car feeling itchy, irritated, and cheated that I got a call from Slack who was planning to go the the skate park. Round two.

The park was made up of a collection of fenced-in areas-track, playground, basketball court, and skate park. Slack rolled into his coliseum of cement ledges as I inconspicuously (or so I hope) ducked into my palace of palatable plants. I emerged from the woods and saw that most people were sitting in camp chairs and watching the basket ball game so I snagged a mammoth of a stag horn sumac berry bunch to make "sumade"later on. The berry clusters are coated in ruby red acidic hairs that taste sour and are packed with vitamin C. A great substitute for lemonade when the berries are soaked in cold water. On my way around the outskirts of the fenced-in areas I saw that a good portion of the field was covered with some type of white flower. At closer observation I recognized the small daisy-like flowers with yellow dome centers from my field guide and knew that I had discovered Wild Chamomile! I was giddy and all dignity went out the window as I squatted down, pulled out my cotton sack, and started cutting away clumps and stuffing them in my bag. All while little families made their way around the track on bikes, scooters, and in tow of dogs. And to think that I almost gave up for the day!

Chamomile can be mistaken for Pineapple weed and vice versa but both are edible and can be dried and used for tea. Both take up residence in dry/sandy soil forming mats of low growing multi-branched stems with feathered leaves and clusters of tiny yellow flowers that form little domes. Wild Chamomile has cleft white petals that encircle the little beehive centers and gives off a sweet/piney sent when bruised. Pineapple Weed lacks petals and smells exactly like pineapple when crushed.

Pineapple Weed (left) v.s. Wild Chamomile (right)

There is something wild and edible to be found anywhere you go no matter how unnatural the setting might be. It is almost more exciting to discover these plants in public areas because you know that most observers see weeds while you see food.

Wild Chamomile

Wild Chamomile Drying

Field Garlic

Field Garlic Flower Head

Field Garlic Bulb

Field Garlic Cloves

After two years of having seriously studied wild edibles I finally discovered Field Garlic for myself. I was ready to follow the same path I always do back to the car but decided to take an alternate route last minute. When I came to the field I immediately recognized the flower, having reviewed it profusely in my Peterson Field Guide, and then couldn't believe that its' photosynthesizing self was growing before me. The flower is supported by a tall hollow green stem that is grounded by a bulb, much like commercially grown garlic with its papery sheath encapsulating individual cloves. The flowers emerge from a sphere of what resemble blunt tipped spikes. Chive-like tendrils curl out and upward all around the surface of the sphere and emit a garlicky odor when bruised. The bulbs when crushed also smell of garlic although it is mild. Every part of this plant is edible, including the stem which can be used in place of chives and the flowers which can be sprinkled on salads. The flowers from my small experience are the most pungent portion of the plant but it could also be that it is where the energy of the plant is at this time of year. Being the flavor enhancer that it is as well as an antiviral, antibacterial, and anti fungal, and it is both food and medicine. It's amazing what you can discover when you choose to stray from your usual routine.

Groundnuts

Groundnut vines

I came to the park eager to check on the progress of the groundnuts along the power lines. I found them. Their vines emerge from the ground in search for their host plant. Once detected they proceed to lengthen on a winding upward course sucking in any vegetation in their path as they wrap around the vegetative shaft. The pinnate leaves grow oppositely along the its vine. In about 2 months, beautiful maroon pea-like flower clusters will develop in the axis of the leaves. The edible part of the plant grows just below the surface of the ground horizontally as part of a string of tubers. To located them you have to start at the tip of the vine and trace its twining length down to the ground. There you have to loosen the dirt and tug gently upward to dislodge the little potatoes from their subterranean nests. I pulled up a foot long string which ended in what looked like a rock the size of a Russet potato. It was not a rock but the mother of groundnuts-all 3 1/2 inches of it! Once home I scrubbed it and baked in in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Slack and I enjoyed the groundnut with eggs for breakfast. They are very filling have a thick consistency much like a potato. It's no wonder the Pilgrims survived their first Winter on them after the Native Americans introduced them as a food source.  

 

Wild Carrots

Wild Carrot

While on a wild edible foray this weekend I happened upon a field covered with little rosettes of feathered basal leaves characteristic of the Wild Carrot also know as Queen Anne's Lace. I have always steered clear of page 38 of the Peterson Field guide since it lists Wild Carrot along with it's poisonous lookalikes, Fools Parsley and Poison Hemlock, but today I put my observational skills to the test. So long as the leaves were hairy and its foliage carrot-scented when bruised it was a sure bet. The plant I targeted passed both tests so I dug around the tuft of leaves and pulled out the clump of earth. I separated the dirt until the tiny white taproot was exposed. A quick scratch and sniff confirmed that I had discovered the wild carrot. I was so eager to sample this wild food that I took a bite not minding the light coat of dirt. After all this is why we have an appendix! It tasted like a cross between a carrot and a parsnip. Awareness of this plant was like putting on glasses for the first time-all of a sudden I could see this plant everywhere and I could not fathom how I did not notice the likes of it before.

Wild Carrot is a biennial meaning it has a 2 year life cycle. In its first year of growth it is just a basal rosette of leaves powered by a taproot. This is the time that you want to harvest the root, before it sends its energy up the the flower in its second year of growth. You are supposed to harvest the roots from Fall to early Spring. Being the beginning of June I am a little late in the season. The roots that I harvested had a someone fleshy layer surrounding a tough woody inner core. Apparently domesticated carrots were derived from the Wild Carrot (http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html) but have been bread so that their inner cores are also edible and lack the inedible xylem tissue.

Back home I sample the carrots steamed and found that the tops of the taproot which joins with the stems to be the fleshiest. I will try harvesting them again in the Fall to see if there is a difference in texture, taste, and thickness of the flesh surrounding the inner core.

Wild Carrot-taproots

Wild Carrot-rosette of feathered basal leaves

Foraging for Spring Salads: Inconspicuous Extractions

Ever since I learned that Widman Steve Brill got arrested for harvesting a dandelion in Central Park, whenever I forage in public places, I try to be as inconspicuous as possible. For instance, while foraging for edibles in a field, one must assume a hunched over/crawling position in which to observe/collect the edibles greens of the ground. Every so often I look up and do a panoramic scan of the vicinity before I drop my focus back to the ground to harvest more wild edibles. The other day I finally understood how grazing animals must feel. Whenever there is a car or passerby I hide my foraging tools, plop my tookus down and look very immersed in my journal or guide, brow furrowed and all to give off the appearance that I am just a normal person doing normal things in a park.

This week I have been crafting wild Spring salads for me and Slack to enjoy with dinner. I've been gathering greens in the parks in town and it has been a trip! It amazes me when I come across a plant that tastes similar to a food commonly purchased in the grocery store. I would love to study the chemical makeup of these edibles in comparison to their mainstream "tastealikes" to test my inference that their chemical profiles must be similar. Both Dandelions and Wild Lettuces impart a bitterness to the plate. Violets offer texture and color with their mucilaginous spade-shaped leaves and five-petaled purple flowers. Plantain provides a somewhat mushroomy taste. Clover contribute a crispness which I liken to green beens off the vine.  Garlic Mustard adds a pleasantly pungent kick to the mix. Ground Ivy offers decadence with its spike of scolloped leaves and fluorescent blue flowers. See what you're missing out on? There is a whole mess of greens that can add texture, color and flavor to your meals and they are right under your foot-free for the tasting...just be sure you know your Miranda rights!

* Disclaimer: I do not assume any responsibility for the disappointment one might experience after tasting any of the greens above and deciding that my comparisons have been made in error. After all not all tastebuds are not created equal.

Wild Lettuce

Violets

Plantain

Dandelion

Clover

Garlic Mustard

Ground Ivy

Wild Spring Salad