LTHForum.com

Too bad I am not a hunter, between them and the turkeys I could have some good eats.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

martin, glad you found LTH, Like I mentioned the other night, we will get together for a bbq soon.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Obviously I love where I live, for the quiet and for the wildlife. This week I finally saw the first buck on my property(typically its just daily visits by baby deer, and females. the other day was a monster 6 point buck probably tipping the scales over 300 lbs..

And today while sitting on my couch 22 turkeys just passed within my view out my front window..

A hunters or in my case a wildlife lovers paradise.

sorry no pics, my camera wasnt handy.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

I just have a small urbanish yard (I doubt I'll ever see a deer or turkey here, though I did spot a woodcock once), but this year was good for backyard eats. The star was the nice crop of morels, but I've also been enjoying garlic mustard pesto (revenge on weeds), nettle tea, black raspberries (and red, but I planted those), a few mulberries and rosehip tea. I tend not to eat the dandelions and lambsquarters much, but I know I could.

what I see(a deer, one of about 8 not in the picture) daily from my deck, or even my couch:




I wouldnt trade where I live for anywhere(other than down south or Florida)

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

wild black raspberries are in, and the patch increased in size almost 2 x from last year. Only got a few last night, but for the next few weeks I will have fresh ones almost daily.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

hmmmm... I see trade opportunities here...

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

certainly, ghost peppers, and okra are on my wish list.

however Shay picks and eats them pretty quick.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

We live in the city and have a gigantic, extremely productive mulberry tree on our parkway. I have to shovel the berries off the sidewalk daily. We mostly forage the raw fruit, but this year I have been experimenting with cooking. I made a mulberry-apple crisp and, most recently, mulberry-lime pectin jellies (from Peter Greweling's Confectionery at Home book).



The mulberries are very good this year-- I just wish I was organized enough to harvest a lot. Wine, jelly, sorbet,you name it! The mulberry has a thin stem through the middle, so I find it better in preparations that call for puree that was put through a food mill.

Jen

Beautiful, Jen!

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"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

the crop is starting to come in.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Those look a lot like the black razz I have growing -- got 'em from a neighbor. They're scary canes: left to themselves, they'll loop along the ground, creating the sort of thicket you need a prince charming to slash through. The fruits are deeply flavored but seedy: one of the best applications for them I've found is sorbet: run through a food mill you leave most of those seeds behind.

I had another quick forage yesterday: I planted mustard six years ago, and every year I get a couple stray plants growing at the edge of the yard. A sharp young leaf is great on many kinds of sandwiches, especially a bleu cheese burger.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

yes black raspberries, they do grow fast, and these wild onees have doubled the area they cover almost every year.

Thnaks for the sorbet tip.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Those are beautiful, Jen - I did a mulberry-lime jam last year that was excellent - the lime really offers a nice flavor contrast to the mulberries, which are mostly just sweet. We found it was one of the few preserves we liked better with seeds - they're crunchy and nutty-tasting - picking off the stems is really not that hard. I'm going to have to find the tree we foraged off of last year.

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

This takes foraging on your own property to a new level. Maybe you can whip up a mess-O squirrel-itos or perhaps some risotto. With food like this, maybe you can get Jethro Bodine to lend you his fancy pot passers.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ls29m.html

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I love foraging and with that I am going to try my hand at making some acorn bread this up coming fall and if for nothing else I can use the tannin I get to make some wine!

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Looking to get to that Culinary career? Take a look at California Culinary Academy

Does anyone know the rule for foraging off your property in Chicago?

It would be an interesting community mapping project to map the publically available locations where edibles or medicinals grow. Do you know if anything like that exists?

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"To get long" meant to make do, to make well of whatever we had; it was about having a long view, which was endurance, and a long heart, which was hope.
- Fae Myenne Ng, _Bone_

I'm brand new to gardening, but have been introduced to purslane and have it growing in abundance in one area of my yard. I have so far sauteed it with garlic and oil, used it in soup, salad, and also sauteed it with some roasted baby red potatoes.

Before I dove into this backyard beast, I wanted to be absolutely sure that it was safe to eat, and that there were no look alikes (a side effect of growing up on a 200 acre farm and having to eat epicac on several occasions as a kid cause I'd put pretty much eveything in my mouth, including random mushrooms!). Turns out, there's something VERY similar to purslane called Spurge. Spurge is toxic, grows anywhere that purslane will grow, looks very similar, and can actually grow right next to purslane. Here's a little blurp about it on a website.

Don't worry- once you know how to identify spurge, it will stick out like a sore thumb and is immediately identifiable.

http://hotdogjam.wordpress.com/2009/09/ ... or-spurge/

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Models Eat too!!!
www.bellaventresca.com

Here's an image from the site that shows both purslans as well as spurge growing together...

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Models Eat too!!!
www.bellaventresca.com

I've been pulling and throwing away purslane all summer! I'm sure there's still a lot I've missed around the yard so I'm going to try some of the recipes I found in the next few days;
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/arch ... cipes.html

There was a bunch of it growing next to our raised herb gardens. I thought it was thyme at first as it looks very similar to our thyme plants. But I tasted it and it didn't taste like thyme so I pulled it and tossed it.

Moss roses and purslane are both varieties in the portulaca family, and look very similar. If you grow (or have ever grown) moss roses, you can ID purslane instantly.

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Food & Flowers: Andre Jordan's sweet doodle for a cold winter's day; diary of an unhappy restaurateur, circa 1881; winter project - try a terrarium

my property in Marseilles is prime foraging grounds for some of the larger predators in the area - fox, lynx, and this big coyote I spied sunning itself, this is as close as I could get, the yote wanted nothing to do with me when he/she saw me.

Also check out those popping fall colors, mother nature is putting on quite the show this year..

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Gorgeous pic Jim--expecting to see recipes posted for coyote BBQ shortly

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Last week when it rained I had six wild turkeys in my front yard. Week before I had a wild turkey sitting on my front bench. I often see a group of them parading around the neighborhood. I do not imagine they would make good eating like a store bought turkey and its probably illegal to shoot them in your yard. They might make good fodder for the coyotes that are roaming and trying to eat my neighbors dogs. I live across the road from the place that has been in the news as where a coyote sunk his teeth into a fluffy white dog.

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare