Since moving to the farm I have been enjoying getting to know a bit more of "God's country" as Oregon is affectionately called. For my birthday a few weeks back Brian bought me a copy of Doug Benoliel's Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest
. If you live in the Northwest I can't recommend this book enough. I am a complete newbie to foraging and this book has been so informative and helpful but without being overwhelming.
. If you live in the Northwest I can't recommend this book enough. I am a complete newbie to foraging and this book has been so informative and helpful but without being overwhelming.
The other night our little family had fun roaming around the fields nearby harvesting a bit of our dinner from the wild. We added three "wildcrafted" greens to our delicious steak salad for dinner that night. They really added something to the meal-- exciting texture, a different taste (both sour and pleasantly bitter) as well as just the pure fun of knowing how we got (at least part) of that delicious dinner.
We harvested three greens-- Wood Sorrel, Purslane, and Green Amaranth. They were all three delicious. Wood Sorrel is slightly tart and bitter. Purslane is crisp, crunchy and refreshing, so good. Green amaranth is absolutely beautiful and tastes slightly spicy and pleasantly bitter.
I am excited to keep learning to identify plants and berries around our new home and learn their uses for salads, soups, teas and more. I will continue to share with you what I learn. I already have plans to make an Oregon Berry Plum Jam recipe from this book! If you don't already own a copy of Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest I highly suggest checking it out if wildcrafting is at all something you are interested in.
I highly suggest checking it out if wildcrafting is at all something you are interested in.
That is so fun! Little Owl is such a lucky girl!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie! Actually, Little Owl didn't eat any of it. She was in bed by the time we ate dinner. But she did get to help us harvest it. :)
Deletelooks beautiful
ReplyDeleteI love this!! When our kids were little, I used to walk around the Washburne area and gather apples, hazelnuts, and blackberries. One of my favorite Thanksgivings in our little cottage house was the year we served salmon that bill caught, and we gathered much of the rest of the dinner from our garden. I still have few snapshots of that year. Enjoy!
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