Foraging for food

I love the idea of foraging. In the UK my foraging only went as far as eating the berries while walking the dog in the nature reserve. In Croatia, I think there is plenty opportunity for it but there are a couple of problems main one being potential left over mines from the war and you don't want to play with that. Although a lot of people do go around still.
I would love to go pick mushrooms but am not feeling confident enough to pick only non poisonous ones. I have used nettles and elderberry flowers before for cordials and teas.
 
This does sounds like a very fun experience. But as you mentioned, there are some risks involved. I hope that I have the opportunity to go out and pick me food that way it would be a dream.
 
I would love to be able to hunt for my own food. In my old age I have been trying to get away from so much of the preservatives, and God knows what else they put into supposedly "natural foods". Except for a few obvious plants, I would be afraid I would choose something poisonous. Even with the use of a book or a cell phone with internet available, some plants look so similar, I feel I would be taking a big risk. This makes me wonder how people from the past were able to choose plants to eat. Was there one person who just took the risk, and when he died the village added that plant to their knowledge of something you DON"T eat?
 
The more you are out in the woods, the easier it is to identify plants. My dad can walk through the woods and tell you just about anything you would ever want to know about a specific species; it is amazing. I have learned a little over the years from him, and there are characteristics you look for. Every plant is unique and it will clue you in to whether it is the right one you are looking for. A nettle for instance looks a little furry and has the little floret (that's what I call them) bundles that hang down. The top part of the leaves will not hurt you if you touch them, but if you touch the underside, it stings bad! Nettles are edible, so this is how you can tell a true nettle. A similair plant will be shiny or will not sting you when you touch the underside of the leaf.
 
Rosyrain said:
The more you are out in the woods, the easier it is to identify plants. My dad can walk through the woods and tell you just about anything you would ever want to know about a specific species; it is amazing. I have learned a little over the years from him, and there are characteristics you look for. Every plant is unique and it will clue you in to whether it is the right one you are looking for. A nettle for instance looks a little furry and has the little floret (that's what I call them) bundles that hang down. The top part of the leaves will not hurt you if you touch them, but if you touch the underside, it stings bad! Nettles are edible, so this is how you can tell a true nettle. A similair plant will be shiny or will not sting you when you touch the underside of the leaf.
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In the UK there is a plant called the dead nettle (Scientific name: Lamium purpureum) which can have a variety of different coloured flowers and there is even a varigated form of it. It is also edible in exactly the same way as the 'standard' nettle (in quotes because there are so many different forms of the nettle and some are actually quite nettle)
 
Interesting that you both mention nettles. This is an added point to being careful what you eat. Nettles are only edible when tightly wound. This means that they are only edible for a certain season. This is likely true of many more plants. So, a person not only has to be able to recognize minute differences in edible and poison plants, they also have to have information on what season a plant is edible. On a side note, I discovered how people in the past learned what was safe to eat. The Native Americans watched what the animals ate and what they avoided.
 
primalclaws1974 said:
Nettles are only edible when tightly wound
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can you explain?
Here nettles are best eaten when the leaf is young and fresh with no holes in it because the older leaves have a build up of an acid in the leaves which is fatal in high doses (but we are talking kilos of nettle leaves a day here). to the best of my knowledge and certainly from having eaten them for the last 20 years, nettles can be harvested at any time of year - the key is to keep the crop going by constant cutting and forcing the nettles to produce new growth. this however does mean that the nettle stem is not long enough to make cordage or fabric from in the autumn/winter months because you need nettles that are meters high for that, but for eating you need to keep fresh growth which means constant cutting back. Nettle seed on the other hand is best a certain stage and best when dried out - so it is less potent again at anytime of the year when the plant has finally produced some.
 
I have never eaten them myself, but I have watched shows like "Bizarre Food" that have done segments on nettles. If they get too old the plant develops tiny hairs that would be like eating spun glass. I don't know if this is unique to North America (they were in Maine), or if it is for all varieties of nettles. I would definitely do the research before trying to eat something that could leave you in very bad shape if you tried to consume it.
 
primalclaws1974 said:
I have never eaten them myself, but I have watched shows like "Bizarre Food" that have done segments on nettles. If they get too old the plant develops tiny hairs that would be like eating spun glass. I don't know if this is unique to North America (they were in Maine), or if it is for all varieties of nettles. I would definitely do the research before trying to eat something that could leave you in very bad shape if you tried to consume it.
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I've not had any issues and regularly eat them and have done for well over 20 years. But I 'cook' them, I don't eat them raw which could be the difference.
 
i pick nettles far from any tracks when they are young,wash them well and use them for soup seasoned with nutmeg,they can be eaten raw as they have a nettle eating completion in the summer in Dorset uk and the leaves are de stalked and rolled up,so they are not young
 
A great foraging programme on the bbc last night ,a chef abroad with Monica galetti
In the Jura mountains in france,nettles mushrooms,juniper berries,wild Cummin,
 
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