New blog

Hey everyone, this blog is moving to www.foragerchrisbennett.blogspot.com. Please update your bookmarks.

I apologize for not updating this blog for a looooong time! This past year I have been writing my first book, The Foraging Guide to the Southeast which is due very soon. The book writing process has taken up all my free time. In the coming year this blog will be updated a lot more and foraging classes will resume.

In season now!

Wisteria- Only the flowers are edible. Everything else is poisonous.

English Plantain- The seed heads taste like mushrooms. Cook them.

 Redbud- The flowers are edible. They do not not taste like much, but sure are pretty!

Wild Lettuce- Looks like dandelion, but has hairs along the mid-rib. Mild bitterness with classic lettuce flavor and crunch. My favorite Spring salad green.

 Curly Dock- The best part of the plant is the stem. Get it before it starts to form a flower bud. Peel the stem. Crunchy like celery. Delicious raw or cooked. Not every plant tastes great. Any red on a plant means it is going to be bad bitter.

 Blue Violet- Use the flowers in salads or candy them. The leaves are also edible. They have a mild peppery-ness  and a chewy texture. Do not take too many leaves.

 Field Mustard- The blooms are the best part. Classic raw brassica flavor.

 

 Field Garlic- Use the tops like chives. Onion flavor with hint of garlic.

 

Field Garlic- The bottoms are tiny. Perfect for pickling.

Virginia Pine- The needles are more fragrant than any other around. Citrusy, Piney, Grapefruit, Pomelo. Infuse them into liquids.

Winter Update

Below is what is in season right now.

Wild Watercress

Hoary Bittercress

Closeup of Virginia Pine Needles

Virginia Pine Needle Tree

Field Onion bulb

Purple Dead Nettle

Chickweed

A quote from Michel Bras

     There are strong bonds which link man with his native land, with the familiar landscapes, the summits, the springs which sculpt their way across the pastures, the villages which evolve slowly, or those that die, hamlets in the lee of the immobile rock or hidden in the beech woods dreaming of the past.  Whatever education and life may bring later on, each in his own way, every child has their native land- a country of their own- in their flesh, in their blood, and in their conscience.  Each person derives both their qualities and their faults from their upbringing, their liveliest instincts, their most acute feelings, their engrained habits, their deepest rooted prejudices, their most banal superstitions- all of these are rooted in the land where they grew up.  One's native land illuminates one's conscience.

Early Fall Update

Below are items in season right now.  

Wild Persimmon

Butternut

Black Walnut ready for it's husk to be removed

Chestnut Oak Acorns

Field Onions

Wild Lettuce

Curly Dock

In Season Now

Below are some pictures of wild edibles that are in season right now.

Wild Green Shiso also known as Perilla Plant

Wood Sorrel

Smooth Sumac

Loomis Mountain Mint

Kudzu Blooms