Hello Aronia: one of the highest antioxidant fruits on the planet!

I've been foraging in the freezer, delighting in the harvest of warmer seasons. One gem that sparkles loudly is black chokeberry, aka, Aronia. After a fun, sweaty roller skating session (like last night), I crave it, blending it into an agua fresca, that I like to call Aronia Elixir.

Aronia Elixir: Tap This Superfruit In The Kitchen < Click here to view this video

Scientifically called Aronia melanocarpa, this fruit contains some of the highest antioxidants on the planet. Hosting a rich soup of polyphenols, anthocyanins, plus vitamin C and more, Aronia can boost our cardiovascular and immune health, while reducing inflammation and pain.

Flavor note: Aronias are sour, slightly sweet, astringent, mildly bitter.

Color note: the intense pigment of the fruit will color everything that it touches; and tells of its high antioxidant content.

Plant Aronia! If you don’t have any growing in your neighborhood, perhaps you’d like to plant some! It is very easy to grow. Then the whole neighborhood can benefit from this nutrient dense fruit.
For more about Aronia bushes in the garden < click here to the view this video 

Ramp-ness has Arrived—Ramps / Wild Leek / Allium tricoccum = same plant w/ many names.

Ramps need to be protected, replanted, and if harvested, to do so with care and consciousness toward these ends. Ramps take time to develop: production from sowing seed to root harvest can take 5 to 7 years.

They are slow growing Native American perennials of the “onion family’ who are endangered in some regions

If you find a well-established colony, harvest should be less than 5% of the plants. Another recommendation is to harvest only one leaf from several mature plants. This approach leaves the roots intact so the plants are not killed. My handful oframpleaves was harvested in this manner.

I encourage those of us that are able to plant this lovely, tasty friend so we can regenerate this resource, since zealous harvesting may cause it to become endangered.

If you can, plant seeds as they mature later in the season to create new patches. And if an area is super abundant and ramp congested, thin it a touch and dig up by the root to replant and create more abundance.

Ramp seeds found in the fall after their leaves have died back.

I'll preserve these ramp leaves in salt making a kind of bouillon to eke out through the year.  More about + recipe for making old school bouillon here: https://bit.ly/3nhC2o4

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Greetings WILD LETTUCE! Glad to see you reappear in early spring! = Happy salad bowl!

This Native American, hardy annual, scientifically named Lactuca canadensis, is sprouting wide basal rosettes, with tender leaves that make excellent salad.

I also refer to it as: “Native ancient WILD SALAD known as food for the nerves”.
Learn to identify, harvest & eat it with our free video lesson over on our Youtube channel: Wild Lettuce Video < click here to view.

TO HELP with ID, harvest and use, here is our Wild Lettuce illustrated page from Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook by Dina Falconi (me), illustrated by Wendy Hollender. More about our book on our site: www.foragingandfeasting.com The two photos are from the free wild lettuce video lesson.

Qualities:
Hearty lettuce flavor w/ slight bitterness. Eat raw or cooked. This is the tastiest of the wild lettuces, with just a hint of bitterness.

Like its cousin escarole, it can be added to soups and sautés; cooked with olive oil and garlic; simmered in broth; or tossed into fish stew, among other options.

Therapeutics:
This species of wild lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) is a mild relaxant, nerve tonic (nervine) that feeds / restores and calms the nervous system.

Offers mild pain support. Not a strong sedative like other species of wild lettuce. Note this plant can be eaten without causing drowsiness or addiction. It has nothing to do with opium.

Tasty wild lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) in mid spring! Eat it raw or cooked.

Fiddlehead Foraging: How To Sustainably Harvest, ID and Prepare These Gourmet Gems of Mid Spring

It's fiddlehead season! And I am excited to share with you all about this mid-spring, gourmet treat. 

In this lesson I focus on the fiddleheads from the Ostrich Fern, scientifically called Matteuccia struthiopteris. They offer a mild and pleasing flavor, to gussy up any spring dish.

The part we eat is the fiddlehead, the crozier— the tightly coiled part of the fern that looks like a fiddle’s (the instrument’s) head, along with its tender stem.  Gather when up to 6-7 inches tall, and still has a tightly coiled tip. Eat both the stipe (stalk, aka petiole) and fiddlehead. 

However, this gourmet, North American native perennial needs to be gathered sustainably. The first rule: eat only from mature plants that have at least 5 fronds emerging. Then gather no more than ⅓ of the fronds, so harvest only 1 frond from a plant with 5 emerging fronds; 2 from a fern with 6, and so on, (please watch video for more clarity). 

Look for Ostrich Ferns along river banks, and shady moist woodlands. They grow in rich moist soil, in shady to part shady conditions. As a Native of North America they can be found throughout the USA and Canada in hardiness zones 2–7. https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=MAST

If none grows in your area, plant some of these shade-loving, regal beauties. They are easy to grow, yet slow to take off, but once established and happy, they will spread = tasty eating.

Detailing Ostrich Ferns morphology.

This fern is dimorphic (pretty cool)! It grows two types of ferns, fertile and sterile. We eat the sterile ones that are green and soft, versus the fertile fronds that are stiff and brown.

Ostrich Fern ID+

• The leafy sterile (edible) frond grows 2-6 feet tall. When fully grown it is largest above the middle and tapers at both ends.

• The fertile frond is small, brown, and stiff and may grow up to a foot tall. It releases spores during winter and spring. 

• Both fertile and infertile fronds’ stipes (stalk) below the blades (expanded leafy part of the fern), and the rachis’ (the central stalk within the blade) have a groove—a u-shaped indent down its middle.

• The fern is not wooly or hairy and the sterile (edible) fronds, when they emerge, have a brown coppery papery sheath covering them.

Wishing you fiddlehead fun!

WITH MUCH LOVE!

Thankfully, there are so many herbs to help us stay well and to support us when we are sick. An abundance of herbs comes to mind that supports our immune systems: all the “spaghetti sauce herbs”—oregano, thyme, marjoram, and basil, and their wild native American cousin: wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); the alliums: field garlic (Allium vineale), garlic, onion, Egyptian onion, chive, leeks, etc. And then there is lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), a nice, tasty, relaxing, anti-viral herb. Elder, echinacea, boneset, yarrow, spilanthes, and elecampane are quite helpful, supporting us as move through illnesses. Keep in mind that by supporting the liver, kidneys, lymph, and digestion, we support our health. So bring on the liver supportive herbs: hello dandelion and burdock! Nettle, who so deeply nourishes, also supports these central systems. Grateful to all of this herbal support!

PS: To promote health, a nutrient rich, blood sugar stable diet is key, along with plenty of rest, and a good dose of outdoor activity, especially in nature. Then there is gratitude, the practice of being grateful. So many more thoughts come to mind but for now this will do.

What are you doing to support your health? Do tell!

Please note: this sharing is not intended to be used as medical advice.

Botanical illustrations from our book Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook by Dina Falconi, illustrated by Wendy Hollender ~ Click link in our profile for more about our book or here: http://bit.ly/1Auh44Q

SUMMER OYSTER MUSHROOM MADNESS (Pleurotus pulmonarius) = Treasure of the woodlands (found on 8/1/19 Hudson Valley, NY)

These beauties were growing on dead ash trees in a forested flood plain (now dry). So many (!) of them peeking out to see us, we left much abundance behind. And still gathered plenty to keep me busy processing for a few hours. I decided to bake them lightly coated with olive oil for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees, flipping them at about 8 minutes. Some we ate right from the oven but the majority (after baking) I stuffed into pint glass jars with a clove of garlic, a pinch of dried ginger, celtic sea salt (1/2 tablespoon per pint); and tamari, org. apple cider vinegar and org. olive oil to completely cover the mushrooms. I’ll store these in the refrigerator to savor over the next couple months.

These saprobic, white rot fungi grow in clusters off dead or living trees (in our case dead ash), see first photo above. Range: North America.

 Whitish shelf-like cap can be: 1.2–4 inches across lung-shaped (hence its scientific name) to fan-shaped or semicircular in outline.

Gills: Running down the stem (if stem is present); close or nearly distant; short-gills frequent; whitish.

Stem: can be absent, a nub or very short.

For more identification info check Mushroom Expert: http://mushroomexpert.com/pleurotus_pulmonarius.html

MUSHROOM SERIOUSNESS: A mushroom mistake can be fatal. You must triple confirm your id, and with an experienced mushroomer in person, before you consume any fungi.

Having heralded that warning, what mushrooms have you been finding lately?

Grateful to the fungi!