California wild rose (Rosa californica) produces fruits (rose hips) in abundance. These were eaten fresh and raw by California Indians. They gathered the fruits from late summer through fall, but considered them best and sweetest after the first cold nights of fall. All rose species (Rosa spp.) have edible fruits. They taste sweet and tart. They are exceptionally high in vitamin C content. They are often dried and made into a tea. Rose petals are also edible and have a light fragrant taste.
Sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana) have the largest cones of any conifer in the world! Besides having edible inner bark and seeds like all pines, their sap is particularly sweet, thus their name. It can be collected from wounds or off the scales on the cone (you can see it as yellow gobs on the pictured cone). The Northern Maidu, Shasta, Kashaya Pomo, and Wintu Indians used the sap as a candy gum. The sap was collected in the summer and fall.
I just finished teaching another foraging class, the third one so far. I host them in the SF Bay Area (usually the East Bay Hills) through meetup.com (Bay Area Foragers). This one was at Strawberry Canyon by UC Berkeley. If you’re in the Bay Area, please join us next time!
Leading the Bay Area Foragers class at Strawberry Canyon
Here is the list of species (common / scientific names) we saw and discussed uses for on today’s walk. It’s just from memory so I may have forgotten a few things.
Plants:
hazelnut / Corylus cornuta
California bay laurel / Umbellularia californica
buckeye / Aesculus californica
horsetail / Equisetum sp.
storksbill / Epilobium sp.
yellow curly dock / Rumex crispus
madrone / Arbutus menzeisii
blackberry / Rubus ursinus, R. armeniacus
thimbleberry / Rubus parviflorus
toyon / Heteromeles arbutifolia
mustards / Brassica sp.
thistle / Cirsium sp.
coast live oak / Quercus agrifolia
teasel / Dipsacus sp.
cherry plum / Prunus cerasifera
stream orchid / Epipactis gigantea
bracken fern / Pteridium aquilinum
sword fern / Polystichum munitum
incense cedar / Calocedrus decurrens
stinging nettle / Urtica dioica
redwood / Sequioa sempervirens
blue elderberry / Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea
grasses / Poaceae
mugwort / Artemesia douglasiana
monkeyflower / Mimulus auranticus
cleavers / Galium sp.
ocean spray / Holodiscus discolor
Willow / Salix sp.
Coffeeberry / Rhamnus californica
Plantain / Plantago sp.
Poison oak / Toxicodendron diversilobium
Animals:
Honeydew
European honeybee (and native bees)
Sphinx moth caterpillar
On Saturday, Emily and I went on a foray for mushrooms at a park on the SF peninsula. We were with MSSF people who were out to collect for the fungus fair which was the following day. But the rains were super late this fall, and despite the fact that it poured on Friday, the mushrooms were apparently quite scarce. Chris Schoenstein, the leader of the foray, told us just one good rain in Sept. would’ve probably been enough, and kept pointing out areas that were rife with mushrooms on the same day the year prior.
Good thing plants are always around. I wasn’t too bothered by the dearth of mushrooms since there was plenty of edible and useful flora to gather. See my cornucopia of a haul:
Toyon berries, bay nuts, buckeye seeds, soaproot bulbs with fibrous covering and young shoots, mint leaves, two spp. of mushrooms, an oak…
View original post 1,959 more words
the hunter-gatherer way
Peoples of the Gulf Coast
edible, medicinal, & useful || plants, animals, & minerals
Making stuff from scratch in the wild
Assembling nature into crafts
Bushcraft, wilderness survival skills and nature
musings of an ocean loving scientist
Now at: http://www.fatofthelandandsea.com/
The culinary flowers and herbs; beautiful, colorful, scented and ... edible!
You don't have to go far to find an adventure.
Edible Insects: the Eco-Logical Alternative
Wild Food Walks, Workshops, & Guided Nature Hikes
Creating home
THE WORLD'S MOST NATURAL DIET
using what nature provides in plants
Wildlife Tracking and Primitive Technology
The greatest WordPress.com site in all the land!
THE ADVENTURE THAT IS MY LIFE
...the art of gathering
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Exploring the origins and history of food&drink around the world.
where botany meets the cutting board
Experimental Homestead
Ethnobiology: exploring the nature-human relationship; ancestral arts; foraging, gathering, hunting, wild foods, primitive skills, tools, medicine, spiritualism, ecology, & natural history
Ancestral Arts 