foraging and wild game

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What foods do you forage including wild game? Also how often do you eat foraged food? Is it bringing down your grocerie bill???? We eat venision, elk, bear, salmon, sturgeon, trout, grouse, pheasant, I understand that cougar is very good although I have never had it. Dandilion, black berries, huckleberries, wild cherries. Chantrelle mushrooms & morells. Honey two times we found bee trees. Im sure there is more I just cant think of them right now. I dont know if we save money due to hunting license costs and travel to areas where food is available but we have great memories. We probably eat wild game 4 to 5 times a week. Just wondering about everyone else. Ronda

-- ronda (thejohnsons@localaccess.com), January 05, 2002

Answers

I miss the wild game. Dear Spouse currently doesn't hunt, and my Dad quit hunting when his best friend died. My Dad always kept my freezer full and my kids grew up preferring bear, moose, elk, fish and goose over beef and chicken. That and a garden kept my grocery bill way down.

I live in an area of the country where a person could truly live off the land. I let the wild greens grow with my salad garden and harvest all of them all year round. There are some great herbs growing wild, too.

Within walking distance from my house are the best fishing holes in the country and huckleberries, blackberries,thimbleberries, salmonberries, elderberries, salal, saskatoons and ash berries, rose hips, apples, pears, wild plums and cherries. Fall winter and spring provide us with loads of mushrooms. We also have selected root crops if we really feel like digging. Then we have the ocean bounty to harvest if we so choose.

When harvesting from the wild, it is important to leave enough so they may continue to propagate themselves. Leave the best.

Right now I go shopping once a month. I am working toward only needing to go twice a year. Hopefully, Dear Spouse will take up hunting again and I can have elk on the table again.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), January 05, 2002.


Excuse my envy,aaggghhh! I wanna forage a lot more, I really love foraging. I've never hunted or fished-except one time. I do forage for poke, dandylions, violets, other herbs, blackberries, black raspberries, persimmons, grapes, rose hips and petals, nuts, etc.

-- Cindy (SE. IN) (atilrthehony@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

I'd really like to learn more about foraging wild plants_I used to get poke and wild cress with my Grandmother as a Child, but I've forgotten about it now. Currently, we get blackberries(TONS) wild cherries, plums, grapes, and nuts, plus fish-though the fish are rather small and a lot of work to clean for what you get to eat. This place squirms with rabbits, squirrels, turkeys grouse and deer, if anyone hunted which every fall they talk about but no-one ever does.

-- Kelly (Homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002.

A good friend of mine "forages" grocery store dumpsters. That might be a bit off the topic but he tells me that a lot of produce gets tossed out just because it no longer looks good. He says that it is usually less than 50% trim, and about 50% good (free) stuff.

I live in a poor area, and we have lots of food pantries here. I notice that folks who get food at the pantries are sometimes a bit picky. I live out, but fairly near town. We have quite a bit of road frontage where there are no houses. There is one spot, at the edge of my property which seems to be a favorite dumping site for undesirable "pantry food". I just notices yesterday about 40 pounds of potatoes, and some boxes or (usda) dry milk. I forage there sometimes. Last year at Christmas time there were 4 cases of oranges there, no such luck this year.

Your tax dollars at work, thanks for the free delivery.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.come), January 06, 2002.


We keep wild meats from deer, hogs, saltwater fish and quail in the freezer. We grow as much as we can from a small backyard garden. Mainly tomatoes, green peppers, and some beans. We also harvest prickly pear pads (nopales), oranges and lemons from our two trees, and a few medicinal trees growing on our property. This year, we plan on adding a chicken tractor for keeping the lawn shipshape / eggs/ and possible meat. Edible landscaping to me just makes sense; if you have to water it, it might as well give you something in return.

-- j.r guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), January 08, 2002.


We are able to get deer meat, turkey, grouse, various kinds of fish, murel mushrooms,sheep head mushrooms, raspberries,and blackberries.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 08, 2002.

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