The following edible and medicinal plant walks are being lead by my neighbor, and fellow plant aficionado, Steve. He is currently a student of plant medicine.
August 7: Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk at Linear Path, Ephrata @ 3 PM. Meet in parking lot on Fulton St.
August 13: Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk at Roland Park, Akron @ 10 AM. Meet by the pond.
August 21: Medicinal and Edible Plants of Middle Creek. 3 PM Meet in the visitor center parking lot.
I’m planning on attending the Middle Creek walk. Email me at nathanrupley@yahoo.com if you want more info.
It has been a while since I posted anything, so here is a quick update on some of the foraging and related activities that I have been doing.
Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius)
After a disappointing harvest last year, I managed to gather 4 or 5 quarts of wineberries this year. While I don’t like their flavor quite as well as red or black raspberries, they taste pretty good (especially when almost over ripe) and they make great deserts.
Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) pod.
Common milkweed has numerous edible parts available throughout the growing season. This is my first year trying them, and I have to say they are equal to any commercial vegetable. I plan on growing a large patch of them when I have a piece of land. Samuel Thayer covers them in his book and his DVD, both titled The Forager’s Harvest. The DVD shows a lot of useful tips on harvest and preparation, while the book goes into more detail about inedible plants that could be confused with it and why there is no need to boil it in multiple changes of water as is often stated.
Photo from early March of evening primrose (Oenothera species) rosette on left, staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) on right.
Above is a photo from my post from March 2nd about planting a minimal forage garden in a pot. Well the staghorn sumac tree didn’t survive the transplant, but the evening primrose is doing well. It is now taller than I am, and has started flowering.
Evening primrose (Oenothera Biennis) flowers and flower buds.
This is the tip of one of the lower branches on the evening primrose stalk. The flowers and flower buds are my favorite part of the plant. Evening primrose is another wild edible covered in The Forager’s Harvest that produces multiple edible products throughout the year.
Thanks for reading, I hope to have some more book reviews up soon.
Nate
* any pictures or descriptions of plants (or fungi) or information about them is provided for your information and inspiration. I highly recommend foraging, but buy yourself a reliable guide like either of Samuel Thayer’s books from Forager’s Harvest Press.
** I rely heavily on Nature’s Garden and The Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer, and to a lesser extent Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill, as well as Abundantly Wild by Theresa Marrone. All of these books are quite good, however I find Thayer’s work to be the most reliable and detailed.
Nathan Carlos Rupley 