Author Topic: Free, from the wild, food...  (Read 7859 times)

martynthewolf

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Free, from the wild, food...
« on: March 20, 2013, 07:00:04 AM »
Turns out, over here in the U.K we got some of your 'merickan bad ass Signal Crayfish! They are destroying our waterways and carry a disease that kills our native species. Booooo. 

Now it turns out that if I get permission from the Environment Agency and I then get written consent from a person who owns some water where they live, I can catch em and eat the little feckers. For free (with a £15.99 outlay for a crayfish pot)! I investigated this about a month ago, trying to find some water nearby that they had invaded. Unfortunately I came up short.

Until last Sunday that is, when I went to see my girlfriends grandparents. Her grandfather fishes quite a bit and I mentioned to him what I had been thinking about finding somewhere to catch the blighters, lo and behold the lakes he fishes at, about 15 minutes away from his house are jammed full of them. He's going to take me when the weather warms up because apparently they are all scared of the cold...

Does anyone else have any other ideas on free wild food?

kt

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2013, 08:05:10 AM »
i went on a walk to learn about foraging last autumn and it was very interesting. there is a tree trunk near me which has a chicken of the woods mushroom growing on it and i'll be taking some of that this year when it comes out.
i love blackberrying in late summer.
these are obviously rather minor things but the more i learn about the rhythm of the seasons the more i enjoy walking.
the crayfish idea sounds great! good luck with it!

martynthewolf

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2013, 08:35:17 AM »
Cool, who was the foraging walk provided by? I would be interested in something like that. Also, how could I forget blackberry bushes. Brings back memories of childhood does that....

kt

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2013, 08:48:39 AM »
it was part of a local food festival but it was led by this guy: http://www.jesperlaunder.com
try googling forage walks/tours/guides or looking at food festival listings.
i live 1 min from the park the entire walk was based in so it was ideal for me! then afterwards i swapped some free cake from another stall for beautiful chanterelle mushrooms. good day!

Hotstreak

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2013, 09:15:16 AM »
There seem to be wild blackberry bushes everywhere around here!  We also have apple trees in the park and next to the side of the road near my home, so in the summer I can collect those.  I also pick wild mushrooms (gotta be careful here, folks!) and other local berries when they're in season.  I've had some luck finding carrots & other little edibles out and about, but mostly they are very small and not what we're used to seeing at the grocery store.  However by far my favorite is wild game!  There are some great spots were Trout can be caught most weekends, and I enjoy Deer, Elk, and the ever-present Rabbits.  Of course friends with gardens always have extra from that too.  Three tomato plants sounds good at the start of the season, but the always get tired of them when they realize it's a 1lb/day harvest! Hehehe.

Jamesqf

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2013, 11:44:09 AM »
Around here the main wild thing I get are pine nuts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-leaf_Pinyon

GuitarStv

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2013, 11:52:05 AM »
Cats (when skinned and cleaned) look and taste very similar to rabbit, and can be found nearly everywhere since irresponsible owners let them wander the neighbourhood.  Outlay is about 50$ for a cage.  :P

Jack

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2013, 11:53:38 AM »
In my neck of the woods, there's an organization called Concrete Jungle that locates neglected fruit trees all over town (and occasionally plants new ones) and then organizes volunteer harvests to supply food banks. (Of course, these are all public trees, so harvesters are free to keep the fruit for themselves, too.) They've even got a map showing where everything is!

kt

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2013, 03:45:37 AM »
yeh i'm hoping to get involved in a community group harvesting local wild fruit this year, although i think some of it goes to community projects (maybe soup kitchens).
i'm going to train my cats to bring in rabbits and game! they brought in a very cleanly killed pheasant one day, was great to get a close look.

Gerard

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2013, 08:05:27 AM »
Usually I live in Newfoundland and harvest a bunch of blueberries, raspberries, and dandelions from my yard and neighbourhood, but this year I'm in Toronto, and so far I've found lots of blackberries and purslane (in the east end) and mulberry trees (in the Annex). I'm not sure everybody considers purslane food, though, unless you're Indian, Middle Eastern, or Dutch:
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/05/fattoush

Miss Stachio

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2013, 10:14:37 AM »
Some things I've foraged the past few years:
- chickweed, garlic mustard, sheep sorrel
- fiddleheads
- service berries, autumn berries, gingko berries
- wild mushrooms (found 5 lbs of hens last fall!)
- apples, nectarines, passionfruit, rainier cherries
- raspberries, blackberries, wineberries, blueberries, may apples
- black locust flowers, elm samaras, violets

Samuel Thayer has good books out on foraging with excellent introductions that address the general fear of eating wild foods.

meadow lark

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2013, 07:10:49 PM »
Cats (when skinned and cleaned) look and taste very similar to rabbit, and can be found nearly everywhere since irresponsible owners let them wander the neighbourhood.  Outlay is about 50$ for a cage.  :P
I was always taught carnivores taste bad.  Thanks for the mustachian tip.

GuitarStv

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2013, 07:00:10 AM »
Cats (when skinned and cleaned) look and taste very similar to rabbit, and can be found nearly everywhere since irresponsible owners let them wander the neighbourhood.  Outlay is about 50$ for a cage.  :P
I was always taught carnivores taste bad.  Thanks for the mustachian tip.

Disclaimer - GuitarStv makes no warranty on the flavour of wild caught cat, your relationship with the neighbours after they find you dining on kitty, or his own inexplicable inability to make a joke about irresponsible pet owners obvious.  That said . . . cats were eaten all over Europe between WWI and WWII and gained the nickname 'roof rabbit' (thank you wikipedia!).

tooqk4u22

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2013, 12:14:10 PM »
Cats (when skinned and cleaned) look and taste very similar to rabbit, and can be found nearly everywhere since irresponsible owners let them wander the neighbourhood.  Outlay is about 50$ for a cage.  :P
I was always taught carnivores taste bad.  Thanks for the mustachian tip.

Disclaimer - GuitarStv makes no warranty on the flavour of wild caught cat, your relationship with the neighbours after they find you dining on kitty, or his own inexplicable inability to make a joke about irresponsible pet owners obvious.  That said . . . cats were eaten all over Europe between WWI and WWII and gained the nickname 'roof rabbit' (thank you wikipedia!).

The server change is definitely affecting the site because I posted a reply to your reply where you said you comment was a joke.

The gist of my comment was that while you were kidding it is a legitimate option if you ignore that taboo element which is largely driven by cats being viewed as pets.  Some people keep rabbits as pets, they are cute too, but we eat them.  Aside from flavor/toughness/whatever, what is the difference between a cow and a horse - not much. 

Also, because of the irresponsible cat owners the feral cat population has exploded and is destroying native bird and animal population - so it good actually be good for the environment too.

Jamesqf

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2013, 12:30:05 PM »
...the feral cat population has exploded and is destroying native bird and animal population - so it good actually be good for the environment too.

Though one could argue that feral cats are merely replacing the native predators which humans had previously removed from the system.  Also note that hereabouts feral cats, and the non-feral ones whose owners let them wander, are better known as "coyote snacks".

GuitarStv

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2013, 01:14:54 PM »
Though one could argue that feral cats are merely replacing the native predators which humans had previously removed from the system.

I don't think that's a very good argument.  The solution to a damaged ecosystem is rarely found by introducing further damage.

stripey

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #16 on: October 26, 2013, 04:33:31 PM »
This is one of those topics where I realise how limited I am for 'free' food whilst living in suburbia... I used to be able to get my hands on blackberries, about five different types of mushrooms and all the rabbits I could be bothered shooting, but no more.

However I still have access to a heck of a lot wild greens, including dandelions, nettle, wild lettuce, plantain, several different species of thistle (in particular, I like sow thistle), wild brassicas and fat hen. Of course I need to make an educated guess about where I harvest them from, but they are nutritous, pretty much free, and very fresh. I am currently in the UK and I am amazed how much wild forage there is only a short distance out of London... on my 2mi walk today I encountered an abundance of dandelion, apples, blackberries, nettles, plantain, thistle and acorns (although I have played with making acorn flour, it's just too much work). I am amazed that people let free things like this go to waste... nettle gnocci is lovely!

cheeselover91

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #17 on: November 07, 2013, 07:41:14 AM »
I just started foraging this fall. I live in the country, but even just going by the roadside you can get raspberries, apples, mulberries, hickory nuts, pine nuts, and wild grapes. That's not counting greens and the stuff I don't know how to use yet- dock, cattails, wild greens. Also haven't gotten into fish, but there is a creekful of creyfish and and other fishies down the road.

Another thing I forage for is beer cans. 10 cents a pop... I figure it's worth it to bend over and pick them up, since I'm out and about anyway. I also pick up the glass bottles to reuse for bottling drinks, or, if too dirty or chipped, for shooting targets. :)

senecando

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2013, 08:37:34 AM »
Especially for those of you in the UK, you should look into Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's show Cook on the Wild Side. He runs around England and cooks with all sorts of wild and free foods. Goofy, awesome show. (I should add that he has an episode about catching Crayfish, but I forget which series it's in. I think it's in River Cottage.)

As for foraging, mostly just walnuts so far. My girlfriend and I did find about 25 pounds of rotten Chanterelles last weekend though. Just a few weeks late!
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 09:23:49 AM by senecando »

GuitarStv

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #19 on: November 07, 2013, 08:58:08 AM »
I live in the suburbs at the edge of Toronto on what appears to be old farmland.  This fall I discovered that our house is about a block from a disused apple orchard.  I would regularly take the dog for a walk in the overgrown orchard and pick/eat apples all fall.  Next fall I'm bringing a basket.  Some of these trees had hundreds of lbs of apples just rotting and falling to the ground.  Good apples too cortlands, macintosh, paula reds, etc (my dad has an apple orchard up in Ottawa, I know my apples).   Seemed like a real waste.

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #20 on: November 07, 2013, 09:39:17 AM »
Venison. My wife and I eat more of it than beef, because her dad is an avid hunter.

jba302

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #21 on: November 07, 2013, 11:44:02 AM »
Missed a sheep's head mushroom by a couple of days because I didn't look it up immediately. Thing was the size of a damn basketball :(. I'm trying to learn more about MN, seems there's a lot of tasties out here in the wild (or suburbs for that matter).

daverobev

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Re: Free, from the wild, food...
« Reply #22 on: November 07, 2013, 01:51:02 PM »
There's a good Collins book called "Food for Free" which is a nice little one to take when looking for edibles!