FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. WHITETOP MUSTARD BUD CLUSTERS Instructions: Preheat oven to 375. Sauté oyster mushrooms in butter until golden brown; then set aside. Sauté chopped onion together with onion flakes until the onions are translucent; then set aside. Blanch whitetop in boiling water for one minute; then strain. Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. In a frozen pie shell (or pre-baked fresh

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and FUN WITH WILD WATERLEAF Fun with wild waterleaf. Waterleaf is an interesting edible wild plant that does not get a lot of attention in the wild food media. The local species I know is Fendler’s waterleaf ( Hydrophyllum fendleri ), a native perennial that grows from Colorado’s Front Range west, in damp to moist soil mostly from the plains to the middle elevations. JAPANESE KNOTWEED SEASON Japanese knotweed leaves in summer, after stalk season has passed. Parts of Japanese knotweed are high in resveratrol—a polyphenol found in red wine and grape skins shown to have cancer-preventative, cardio-protective, and lifespan-improving effects in lab and animal models, with growing evidence of its human benefits emerging from

clinical

FORGOTTEN RHUBARB OF THE OLD WEST It makes a thick punch that needs to be stirred each time before pouring, and gets a frothy head on top. Rhubarb punch made by cooking down and blending together rhubarb, sugar, and water, then mixing with soda and fruit juice. I used orange juice, but NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. WHITETOP MUSTARD BUD CLUSTERS Instructions: Preheat oven to 375. Sauté oyster mushrooms in butter until golden brown; then set aside. Sauté chopped onion together with onion flakes until the onions are translucent; then set aside. Blanch whitetop in boiling water for one minute; then strain. Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. In a frozen pie shell (or pre-baked fresh

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and FUN WITH WILD WATERLEAF Fun with wild waterleaf. Waterleaf is an interesting edible wild plant that does not get a lot of attention in the wild food media. The local species I know is Fendler’s waterleaf ( Hydrophyllum fendleri ), a native perennial that grows from Colorado’s Front Range west, in damp to moist soil mostly from the plains to the middle elevations. JAPANESE KNOTWEED SEASON Japanese knotweed leaves in summer, after stalk season has passed. Parts of Japanese knotweed are high in resveratrol—a polyphenol found in red wine and grape skins shown to have cancer-preventative, cardio-protective, and lifespan-improving effects in lab and animal models, with growing evidence of its human benefits emerging from

clinical

FORGOTTEN RHUBARB OF THE OLD WEST It makes a thick punch that needs to be stirred each time before pouring, and gets a frothy head on top. Rhubarb punch made by cooking down and blending together rhubarb, sugar, and water, then mixing with soda and fruit juice. I used orange juice, but NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

October 3, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 3 Comments. Legions of soft, plump, frost-kissed rosehips hang heavy upon their slender, prickly stems. Many are perfectly ripe, slipping off the ends of their branches with a soft, orange gush, leaving a sticky paste to be licked off the fingers. First I made rosehip sauce, by cooking .

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and WILD GREENS & POTATO PIE WITH KOCHIA Then I folded the greens into the potatoes, packed the pie crust, brushed the outer crust with egg, and baked at 425 degrees for 30 minutes (the recipe called for 40) until the crust started to burn. Gregg’s last minute suggestion to grate some tasty Robusto cheese on top and stick it back in the oven until it melted was a fantastic

final touch.

ELM SAMARAS ARE EDIBLE, GOURMET From afar you might think they are leaves, but actually they are thick clusters of young fruits—which are not only edible, but delicious. As Sam Thayer puts it in The Forager’s Harvest (2006): “Elm samaras are simply gourmet.”. We do not get elms here at my home elevation of 10,000 feet in Colorado’s high country, but a trip a

couple

DOCK TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME Dock Cream Cheese Spreads – Inspired by dad’s salmon cream cheese spread and mom’s presence, I used some finely chopped, thawed, blanched dock to make two spreads—hopping around on one foot, mind you, on account of my recent knee reconstruction. The first consisted of dock, cream cheese, a tiny bit of sour cream, and garlic. SEAWEEDING THE EASTERN SHORELINE Irish moss seaweed (Chondrus crispus) is used as a thickener for both food and commercial applications. I collected these pieces on the Connecticut shoreline and dried them to a hard crisp for storage. The same thickener, Gibbons writes, works well in LAND CAVIAR FROM KOCHIA SEEDS The entire process feels quietly transformational—and all the more so with kochia seeds, which turn into such magical “land caviar.”. When the kochia turns red in fall and then dries to brown, I exhort you, go ahead and collect some seeds. Let them dry WEIRD CLOVER FLOWER SOUP Then I added potato cubes, ¼ cup tahini, and a cup of water and simmered for 40 minutes, longer than the recommended 20 to 30 so the potatoes would cook through. I sampled the broth while cooking and it tasted like watered-down tahini. “For a thicker soup, puree half of the soup in a food processor or blender,” says Barash. FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. FUN WITH WILD WATERLEAF Fun with wild waterleaf. Waterleaf is an interesting edible wild plant that does not get a lot of attention in the wild food media. The local species I know is Fendler’s waterleaf ( Hydrophyllum fendleri ), a native perennial that grows from Colorado’s Front Range west, in damp to moist soil mostly from the plains to the middle elevations. NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy EATING CHICORY GREENS Chicory, too, produces a milky latex when cut, and like dandelions, can be extremely bitter if you gather the leaves late or under less-than-ideal growing conditions. In early spring, however, chicory greens can be quite mild and nice, with just a hint of nutritious bitterness. That was the condition in which I found this recent batch. LAND CAVIAR FROM KOCHIA SEEDS The entire process feels quietly transformational—and all the more so with kochia seeds, which turn into such magical “land caviar.”. When the kochia turns red in fall and then dries to brown, I exhort you, go ahead and collect some seeds. Let them dry SPRING INTO WINTERCRESS Wintercresses are early spring mustards that produce a basal rosette of rubbery, thickish leaves in which the terminal lobe is large in comparison to the smaller, opposite lobes that precede them, similar in form to arugula. From the rosettes emerge one or more ridged flower stems when the plants bolt. Flower bud clusters form early, then rise FALL FORAGING IN THE COLORADO HIGH COUNTRY Fall Foraging in the Colorado High Country. September 26, 2010 By Erica M. Davis Leave a Comment. Tart purple gooseberry on a spiny bush. We had a great hike on Pennsylvania Mountain near our house in the Colorado high country yesterday afternoon. My intention was just to go for a short jaunt because we both have non-wild-edible-plants-related FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. FUN WITH WILD WATERLEAF Fun with wild waterleaf. Waterleaf is an interesting edible wild plant that does not get a lot of attention in the wild food media. The local species I know is Fendler’s waterleaf ( Hydrophyllum fendleri ), a native perennial that grows from Colorado’s Front Range west, in damp to moist soil mostly from the plains to the middle elevations. NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy EATING CHICORY GREENS Chicory, too, produces a milky latex when cut, and like dandelions, can be extremely bitter if you gather the leaves late or under less-than-ideal growing conditions. In early spring, however, chicory greens can be quite mild and nice, with just a hint of nutritious bitterness. That was the condition in which I found this recent batch. LAND CAVIAR FROM KOCHIA SEEDS The entire process feels quietly transformational—and all the more so with kochia seeds, which turn into such magical “land caviar.”. When the kochia turns red in fall and then dries to brown, I exhort you, go ahead and collect some seeds. Let them dry SPRING INTO WINTERCRESS Wintercresses are early spring mustards that produce a basal rosette of rubbery, thickish leaves in which the terminal lobe is large in comparison to the smaller, opposite lobes that precede them, similar in form to arugula. From the rosettes emerge one or more ridged flower stems when the plants bolt. Flower bud clusters form early, then rise FALL FORAGING IN THE COLORADO HIGH COUNTRY Fall Foraging in the Colorado High Country. September 26, 2010 By Erica M. Davis Leave a Comment. Tart purple gooseberry on a spiny bush. We had a great hike on Pennsylvania Mountain near our house in the Colorado high country yesterday afternoon. My intention was just to go for a short jaunt because we both have non-wild-edible-plants-related ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

October 3, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 3 Comments. Legions of soft, plump, frost-kissed rosehips hang heavy upon their slender, prickly stems. Many are perfectly ripe, slipping off the ends of their branches with a soft, orange gush, leaving a sticky paste to be licked off the fingers. First I made rosehip sauce, by cooking . KOCHIA | WILD FOOD GIRL Land caviar from kochia seeds. October 11, 2015 By Erica M. Davis 6 Comments. I almost didn’t believe my first bite of wild-made tonburi—a preparation that involves boiling and soaking kochia seeds to make what is referred to as “land caviar.”. The green and black seeds swell to a gelatinous texture with a shiny finish, and the mouth LAMB'S QUARTERS PESTO Instructions: Place cheese in food processor and process until well pulverized. Add nut or seed and garlic and process until medium-find ground. Add wild greens and process until mixture is well-minced. With food processor running, add olive oil until the desired consistency is reached: 1/3 cup oil produces a thicker consistency—nice for WILD GREENS & POTATO PIE WITH KOCHIA Then I folded the greens into the potatoes, packed the pie crust, brushed the outer crust with egg, and baked at 425 degrees for 30 minutes (the recipe called for 40) until the crust started to burn. Gregg’s last minute suggestion to grate some tasty Robusto cheese on top and stick it back in the oven until it melted was a fantastic

final touch.

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and WHITETOP MUSTARD BUD CLUSTERS Instructions: Preheat oven to 375. Sauté oyster mushrooms in butter until golden brown; then set aside. Sauté chopped onion together with onion flakes until the onions are translucent; then set aside. Blanch whitetop in boiling water for one minute; then strain. Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. In a frozen pie shell (or pre-baked fresh FORGOTTEN RHUBARB OF THE OLD WEST It makes a thick punch that needs to be stirred each time before pouring, and gets a frothy head on top. Rhubarb punch made by cooking down and blending together rhubarb, sugar, and water, then mixing with soda and fruit juice. I used orange juice, but SEAWEEDING THE EASTERN SHORELINE Irish moss seaweed (Chondrus crispus) is used as a thickener for both food and commercial applications. I collected these pieces on the Connecticut shoreline and dried them to a hard crisp for storage. The same thickener, Gibbons writes, works well in COLORADO'S WILD BLUEBERRIES Colorado’s wild blueberries. Wild blueberries, Vaccinium myrillus, collected in Colorado on hands and knees in early August around 9,000 feet. If you’re looking for blueberries like the kind you buy in the grocery store, look elsewhere. The Colorado high country “blueberries” I’m talking about are not those, but several

related

FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. LAMB'S QUARTERS PESTO Instructions: Place cheese in food processor and process until well pulverized. Add nut or seed and garlic and process until medium-find ground. Add wild greens and process until mixture is well-minced. With food processor running, add olive oil until the desired consistency is reached: 1/3 cup oil produces a thicker consistency—nice for EATING CHICORY GREENS Chicory, too, produces a milky latex when cut, and like dandelions, can be extremely bitter if you gather the leaves late or under less-than-ideal growing conditions. In early spring, however, chicory greens can be quite mild and nice, with just a hint of nutritious bitterness. That was the condition in which I found this recent batch. NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy JAPANESE KNOTWEED SEASON Japanese knotweed leaves in summer, after stalk season has passed. Parts of Japanese knotweed are high in resveratrol—a polyphenol found in red wine and grape skins shown to have cancer-preventative, cardio-protective, and lifespan-improving effects in lab and animal models, with growing evidence of its human benefits emerging from

clinical

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and FALL FORAGING IN THE COLORADO HIGH COUNTRY Fall Foraging in the Colorado High Country. September 26, 2010 By Erica M. Davis Leave a Comment. Tart purple gooseberry on a spiny bush. We had a great hike on Pennsylvania Mountain near our house in the Colorado high country yesterday afternoon. My intention was just to go for a short jaunt because we both have non-wild-edible-plants-related FORAGING THE WILD FOR PLANTS AND STUFF TO EAT. Wild chewing gum. March 8, 2021 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. I am so taken with wild chewing gums lately. These are obtained from the resin or pitch that exudes from injuries to certain plants, that one can pry off and chew into waxy perfection. Chewing gum from tree resins is a tradition that spans the globe—from the mastic gums or chios BEST DANDELION SOUP EVER Wash and rough-chop dandelion greens. Boil a couple minutes until desired softness. Compose manest: Drain and plate a mound of dandelions in a bowl. Add sausage. Pour veggies and broth overtop and serve with a healthy dose of fine-grated Italian cheese. We used a parmesan romano blend; Cooking with Nonna recommends pecorino. A TALE OF FOUR DAISIES A tale of four daisies. Daisy flowers make a lovely salad garnish, though I’ll admit that after choking down a whole flower, I cut the rest into bits. This salad uses ox-eye daisy greens too. My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. ABOUT | WILD FOOD GIRL About. This is a parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). You can grow them in your garden, or you can look in wild spaces where they’ve escaped cultivation. They get much more common eastward, but can be found in Colorado in disturbed places at lower elevations. Hi all, thanks so much for visiting. My name is Erica Davis, formerly Erica Marciniec. LAMB'S QUARTERS PESTO Instructions: Place cheese in food processor and process until well pulverized. Add nut or seed and garlic and process until medium-find ground. Add wild greens and process until mixture is well-minced. With food processor running, add olive oil until the desired consistency is reached: 1/3 cup oil produces a thicker consistency—nice for EATING CHICORY GREENS Chicory, too, produces a milky latex when cut, and like dandelions, can be extremely bitter if you gather the leaves late or under less-than-ideal growing conditions. In early spring, however, chicory greens can be quite mild and nice, with just a hint of nutritious bitterness. That was the condition in which I found this recent batch. NEW ENGLAND FORAGING ADVENTURE New England Foraging Adventure – Part II. May 8, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 5 Comments. Seemingly innocent poison ivy lies in wait, plotting your extreme discomfort. One of the things I noticed about foraging in New England that does not present a problem here at 11,000 feet in the Colorado High Country is the seeming ever-presence of poison ivy JAPANESE KNOTWEED SEASON Japanese knotweed leaves in summer, after stalk season has passed. Parts of Japanese knotweed are high in resveratrol—a polyphenol found in red wine and grape skins shown to have cancer-preventative, cardio-protective, and lifespan-improving effects in lab and animal models, with growing evidence of its human benefits emerging from

clinical

PENNSYLVANIA

Two Variations on Marinated Dandelion Salad. September 27, 2010 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments. Not to go overboard on the fall dandelions or anything, but last night’s fresh marinated dandelion salads came out so good and were so fast and easy to make that I figured I’d write up a short post about them. The recipes start out the same and FALL FORAGING IN THE COLORADO HIGH COUNTRY Fall Foraging in the Colorado High Country. September 26, 2010 By Erica M. Davis Leave a Comment. Tart purple gooseberry on a spiny bush. We had a great hike on Pennsylvania Mountain near our house in the Colorado high country yesterday afternoon. My intention was just to go for a short jaunt because we both have non-wild-edible-plants-related CONTACT | WILD FOOD GIRL Free Issues, Samples, & Periodic Updates. If you would like a free issue of the Wild Edible Notebook in PDF form, join the email list! One of these days I'll write with news, updates, or freebies as they become available, and you can unsubscribe any time.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

October 3, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 3 Comments. Legions of soft, plump, frost-kissed rosehips hang heavy upon their slender, prickly stems. Many are perfectly ripe, slipping off the ends of their branches with a soft, orange gush, leaving a sticky paste to be licked off the fingers. First I made rosehip sauce, by cooking . FORGOTTEN RHUBARB OF THE OLD WEST It makes a thick punch that needs to be stirred each time before pouring, and gets a frothy head on top. Rhubarb punch made by cooking down and blending together rhubarb, sugar, and water, then mixing with soda and fruit juice. I used orange juice, but LAMB'S QUARTERS PESTO Instructions: Place cheese in food processor and process until well pulverized. Add nut or seed and garlic and process until medium-find ground. Add wild greens and process until mixture is well-minced. With food processor running, add olive oil until the desired consistency is reached: 1/3 cup oil produces a thicker consistency—nice for WHITETOP MUSTARD BUD CLUSTERS Instructions: Preheat oven to 375. Sauté oyster mushrooms in butter until golden brown; then set aside. Sauté chopped onion together with onion flakes until the onions are translucent; then set aside. Blanch whitetop in boiling water for one minute; then strain. Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. In a frozen pie shell (or pre-baked fresh KOCHIA | WILD FOOD GIRL Land caviar from kochia seeds. October 11, 2015 By Erica M. Davis 6 Comments. I almost didn’t believe my first bite of wild-made tonburi—a preparation that involves boiling and soaking kochia seeds to make what is referred to as “land caviar.”. The green and black seeds swell to a gelatinous texture with a shiny finish, and the mouth FUN WITH WILD WATERLEAF Fun with wild waterleaf. Waterleaf is an interesting edible wild plant that does not get a lot of attention in the wild food media. The local species I know is Fendler’s waterleaf ( Hydrophyllum fendleri ), a native perennial that grows from Colorado’s Front Range west, in damp to moist soil mostly from the plains to the middle elevations. SEAWEEDING THE EASTERN SHORELINE Irish moss seaweed (Chondrus crispus) is used as a thickener for both food and commercial applications. I collected these pieces on the Connecticut shoreline and dried them to a hard crisp for storage. The same thickener, Gibbons writes, works well in SPRING INTO WINTERCRESS Wintercresses are early spring mustards that produce a basal rosette of rubbery, thickish leaves in which the terminal lobe is large in comparison to the smaller, opposite lobes that precede them, similar in form to arugula. From the rosettes emerge one or more ridged flower stems when the plants bolt. Flower bud clusters form early, then rise LEAVES OF THREE, STRAWBERRY! Strawberryyy! Perhaps it is imprudent to borrow from that age-old warning, “Leaves of three, let it be” (which reminds us that plants bearing sets of three leaflets, like poison ivy and poison oak, can cause a nasty skin rash if you touch them) for a discussion of strawberries. But strawberries, too, bear their leaflets in sets of

three.

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THE DELICIOUS ‘WILD WONDERBERRY’ October 1, 2019 By Erica M. Davis

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I am just back from the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival , where a big bowl of black nightshade berries (_Solanum nigrum_ complex) dressed the banquet table at Friday’s annual wild potluck. Foragers there are well-versed in the edibility of these diminutive wild treats, which are in the same family as tomatoes, eggplants, and chilies, not to mention a cultivated vegetable called “wonderberry” or “sunberry” that was brought to the prairie states by Volga German

immigrants.

See the plant material with pointed bracts attached to the berry? That’s called a “calyx.” Those on black nightshade berries (pictured) are small. Those on the toxic belladonna (below) are significantly bigger. Photo by Gregg Davis Many people think black nightshade berries are deadly poisonous, apparently due to a confusion of common names with belladonna, a very poisonous, black berry-producing plant that is often referred to as “deadly nightshade.” Confusingly, members of the black nightshade group are also sometimes referred to as “deadly nightshade,” even though their ripe berries are not deadly but instead totally edible. Foraging author Samuel Thayer explains this in his book _Nature’s

Garden _ (2010),

where he debunks the “black nightshade is poisonous” myth based on extensive research and first-hand experience, and provides the definitive account on how to identify, prepare, and eat black nightshade berries and (young, boiled) greens. Fortunately belladonna is not common in the U.S., and is furthermore easily distinguished from black nightshade species. It has shiny berries (compared to the often-matte-finish of black nightshade berries), a large calyx that is more than twice as wide as the berry (compared to black nightshades’ small calyx), leaves that are rarely bug-eaten (compared to the often bug-eaten leaves of black nightshade), and singly-borne fruit (compared to the cluster-borne fruits of black nightshade), Thayer explains. Belladonna also has purple flowers, whereas those on black nightshade are whitish. The calyx on the poisonous plant belladonna, or deadly nightshade, is many times larger. Distinction courtesy of Nature’s Garden

by Samuel Thayer.

Photo credit: “Atropa belladonna”

by anro0002

is licensed under CC

BY-SA 2.0

There are other toxic nightshades. Bittersweet nightshade (_Solanum dulcamara_) produces purple flowers and bright red, oblong berries—so if you can tell fire-engine red from black you should be able to avoid eating this one by accident. Other _Solanums_ in our region produce yellow to green berries. This account is only about those that produce purple-black to dark black berries. Black nightshades are common to disturbed and agricultural areas around the world, including the lower elevations of Colorado and surrounding states, and east across the Great Plains to the Eastern Woodlands. Hence, road stops along my annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin for the festival are often fruitful. I have collected black nightshade in late September around a fishing pond in eastern Colorado, a well-trafficked trail system in Iowa, and a public parking area in Wisconsin. I’ve also found it growing as a common weed in plenty of places around Denver, including a farm where the gentleman leading our tour noted its similarity to the “wonderberry” of his childhood, with fond recollections of his grandmother’s wonderberry jams and

sauces.

Black nightshades of the _Solanum nigrum_ complex have simple, alternate leaves that are roughly triangular or diamond-shaped, lobed or wavy-margined, and often bug-eaten. The black nightshades are sprawling plants whose foliage and flowers evoke that of potatoes or tomatoes, but the leaves are simple rather than compound. The berries are full of soft seeds like tiny black tomatoes. Often, I’ll find a plant loaded with berries whose leaves have started to yellow, dry, and fall. The berries on such plants are usually plenty ripe, which is good as Sam advises sticking to ripe berries without green striping. He also suggests starting with small quantities and working your way up, and to _not_ eat the berries if they taste bitter or unpleasant to you. A reclining tumble of black nightshade berries, foraged in early October 2017 in eastern Colorado, in a disturbed area on a sloped bank next to a fishing pond. Photo by Gregg Davis To me black nightshade berries are reminiscent of tomatoes, but sometimes have an edge of bitter at the finish, or a bit of bite like a chili. They cook down to the deepest, most brilliant purple. I love them cooked with sugar as a dessert sweet, whether on ice cream or highlighted by whatever baked goods I can dream up. Slightly sweetened, this intensely purple black nightshade or “wild wonderberry” sauce is perfect over ice cream or pancakes, if WFG can be kept out of the kitchen

until dessert.

Savory preparations are fun too, from salads to my latest favorite—cooked with peppers, onions, and pork into a green (purple) chili, to be spooned over tamales, enchiladas, or breakfast burritos. I swear, I need to spend more time in the prairie! For those of you living in parts lower, however, I hope the “wild wonderberry” makes a great new addition to your foraging repertoire, if you are not

already eating it.

Share and enjoy!

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EATING NODDING THISTLE STALKS June 17, 2019 By Erica M. Davis

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Wild Food Girl

3 months ago

Another edible plant I found on my road trip through Utah was red barberry (Berberis haematocarpa syn. Mahonia haematocarpa). It has holly-like, tough leaves with spines on the points—features I am most familiar with in the related, low-growing Oregon grape (Mahonia repens), whose tart, powder-blue berries I enjoy. But this high-desert-loving red barberry is a shrub bearing big, sweet/tart, fruity... See MoreSee Less

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I took myself on a solo road trip to Nevada last week, and I’m so happy I did! I have been studying pinyon pines, primarily our local two-needle pinyon (Pinus edulis), but I wanted to check out the singleleaf pinyons (P. monophylla) of the Great Basin too. They are having a mast year there, so the trees and ground were covered with pinyon nuts of many colors, shapes, and sizes. Even better, when I...

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3 months ago

Here is a neat plant I found for the first time on my cross-country trip last week—purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata). I first read about this plant in Kelly Kindscher’s book, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie. Then Sam Thayer chose it to grace the cover of his latest book, Incredible Wild Edibles (2017), and of course included a very useful account. This relative of common mallow (Malva ... See MoreSee Less

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* The delicious ‘wild wonderberry’ * Eating nodding thistle stalks * Spring is Japanese knotweed season * Best dandelion soup ever * Samuel Thayer’s new book ‘Incredible Wild Edibles’ * Three pennycress mustard recipes * Forgotten rhubarb of the old west * Narrow dock in mushroom sauce * Eating chicory greens * Elm samaras are edible, gourmet * Hank Shaw’s Latest: A Cookbook for Deer, Elk, Antelope, Moose &

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