Food Finding Around Our County ~ Prunes and Rosehips

Just a caution, be sure you aren't picking fruit from areas that have been sprayed with herbicides or pest control sprays recently.

Ripe & Juicy prunes. 

Prune tree grove
on an old highway

Guess who gets to climb
the hill to pick a few rosehips!

Wild Rose bushes
full of Rosehips.

Blue Elderberry (Sambucus cerulea) Expedition

On our latest wild food expedition, we were searching for elderberry trees with ripe fruit. After seeing these shrubby trees for most of my life and knowing that jams, jellies, syrups, wine and home remedies were and still are made from the fruit I decided that this was the year I would try making some jam and syrup. Check for updates on that project!

While we were searching out the elderberries we also found some fruit trees that had self planted or were started from seeds critters or birds had dropped. You can find many different types of apples and prunes along the roadways and on old farmsteads. Our area was once full of apple and prune orchards and we even had a market for dried prunes. There are still many orchards in the area but now days mostly cherries, apricots and peaches.

Sometimes you have to get
creative to pick Elderberries!

One of many Elderberry Shrubs
we found today.

Loaded with berries!

Good morning! I'm working on some fresh coffee! Darn bug drowned it's self in my first cup while I was outside watering and having my coffee, guess it wasn't to be. Oh well, almost ready for another, bug free, cup! It's a cool 65 degrees, with a clear, smoke free sky.

I've hung out some laundry to dry and plan to catch up on my pictures and such. Hope you are all having a fabulous day.

Seed Saving and Self-Sown Plants

Our garden has several varieties of flowers that are self-seeding, a few herbs and one type of spinach. Just wish we had room for more, but we still get lots of enjoyment from our little garden. So, save the seed to plant later or sow the seed in a seedling spot (nursery bed), or do both.

A few rules to remember:

1. Learn to identify the self seeder seedling!

2. Don’t hoe or dig up the garden spot too early.

3. In the fall, toss the seeds in the area you want them to germinate.

4. In the spring you can move the seedlings to the beds to grow in for the season.

5. If you aren’t having any luck getting seed to germinate check to be sure you’ve started with heirloom seeds, that will produce viable seed.

6. In some cases you will need to start with fresh seed about every 3 years. Yes there are exceptions to that statement.

7. Storage: Put your seeds into a paper bag for a few days to be sure they are dry before storing. You can store them in a cool dark place in jars (plastic or glass) or in bags (paper or plastic) and they will stay viable for years. You should test seeds every year if you do plan long term storage of bulk seed.

If you are trying to decide if seed saving is for you check out the Seed Savers Exchange they have great list of 40 reasons to save seeds, on their blog. http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/40-reasons-to-save-seeds

The ever elusive Morel Mushroom

The morel season started almost a month early this year; normally we start searching around Mother's Day. As the old saying goes, "The early bird catches the worm," or in this case picks the morels! We have been very fortunate to find them and will enjoy every bite! The dehydrator was full so we froze two cookie sheets full, saved out a few for cooking fresh and gave some to my hubby's mother. 

It has been proven incorrect about the spreading of spores through keeping them in a mesh bag, also pinching or cutting them off is incorrect, they grow from spreading their spores not roots. What they have determined is that as soon as the mushroom pops up the first breeze will spread the spores, so by the time we pick them they have already cast off most of their spores. However, we do cut them off to keep them as clean as possible.

Garden's bounty

It won't be too long before we can gather up some nice fresh vegetables from the garden. The peas are up, the lettuce and spinach are about ready to pick and I'll be starting squash plants and planting beans soon. Sure hope we don't get a late frost!

Wattle Fence ~ for supporting the Sugar Snap Peas

Wattle Fence ~ My first attempt