The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food

411 Pages·2012·87.24 MB·English

by  Gary Lincoff

Wild leek (ramps) flowers and bulbs
Gary Lincoff’s Illustrated Guide to Finding,
Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food
GARY LINCOFF
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
HOW AND WHY THIS BOOK IS UNIQUE
CHAPTER 1
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS: THE WHAT AND THE WHO
I Will Not Eat . . .
Wild Tastes, Wilder Flavors
Equipment and Tools for Working with Wild Edibles
Overharvesting and Sustainability
What Edible Wild Plants Are Not in This Book (and Why)
The Right Way and the Wrong Ways to Eat Edible Wild Plants
CHAPTER 2
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS: THE WHERE AND THE WHEN
Section 1: Before You Ever Pick an Edible Wild Plant
Inside the Home
Medicines and Ointments
Let Your Fingers Do the Stalking: Foraging for Edible Wild Plants on the
Internet
In the Marketplace
World Bounty and Regional Markets
In Restaurants
Section 2: Your First Foraging Outdoors: The Edible Wild Plants Growing
at Your Feet
Seven Foraging Walks
Walk 1: Lawns, Backyards, and Neighborhood Sidewalks
Walk 2: Parks: Open Spaces
Walk 3: Parks: Ornamental Trees and Shrubs
Walk 4: Wooded Areas
Walk 5: Wetland Areas
Walk 6: Seashores
Walk 7: Foraging Abroad: Is Foraging While Traveling a Good Idea?
CHAPTER 3
PLANTS FRONT AND CENTER: WILD PLANT
IDENTIFICATION
How Plants Survive
Plant Taxonomy and Classification
Different Taxonomies and the Naming of Plants
Common Names and Scientific Names
How to Identify the Edible Wild Plants in This Book
What Kind of Green Is That?
Identifying Fruits and Berries
The Plants
CHAPTER 4
RECIPES FOR THE JOY OF FORAGING
Snacks and Nibbles
Salads
Pickles
Soups
Potherbs (Cooked Greens)
Breads
Butters
Sauces
Entrées
Jellies and Jams
Pies and Tarts
Puddings, Compotes, and Gelatins
Frozen Desserts
Beverages
Seasonal Menus
Glossary
Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
NUTS
Acorns
Black Walnuts
Hickory Nuts
Hazelnuts
Chestnuts
Beechnuts
EDIBLE WILD FRUITS
Roses
Wild Strawberries
Blackberries and Raspberries
Cherries and Plums
Serviceberries, Juneberries, Saskatoon Berries
Wild Apples, Crabapples, and Haws
Mulberries
Blueberries
Cranberries
Ground Cherries
Wild Grapes
Elderberries
Sumac, Rhus-Juice
Edible Dogwoods
Pawpaws, Custard Apples
Mayapples
Persimmons
Currants and Gooseberries
Prickly Pear
Ginkgo
Spicebush
Wintergreen
EDIBLE WILD GREENS
Fiddlehead Fern
Cattails
Alliums (Wild Garlic and Wild Leeks)
Skunk Cabbage
Sweet Flag
Daylily
Watercress
Garlic Mustard
Wintercress
Peppergrass
Shepherd’s Purse
Sea Rocket
Wild Horseradish
Dandelion
Chicory
Burdock
Pineapple Weed
Jerusalem Artichoke
Sow Thistle
Spearmint
Catnip
Wild Bergamot
Mountain Mint
Dead Nettles
Stinging Nettle
Amaranth
Lamb’s Quarters
Glasswort
Japanese Knotweed
Curly Dock
Sheep Sorrel
Wood Sorrel
Purslane
Milkweed
Pokeweed
Chickweed
Violets
Clovers
Hopniss
Beach Pea
Bayberry
Linden
Sassafras
Seaweeds
Mallow
Orache
Arrowhead
THE POISON IVY GROUP
Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Poison Sumac
INTRODUCTION
HOW AND WHY THIS BOOK IS UNIQUE
One early July afternoon my wife and I were hiking along a narrow trail in a
sun-drenched area of ponds and low thickets about two hours north of New York
City. We were becoming dehydrated when we discovered the trail led through a
dense patch of blueberries. We descended on them, more to relieve our thirst
than anything, but soon we were sitting in among them eating and picking at the
same time, and we were filling the containers we had brought along, just in case
we found something edible to collect.
A Boy Scout troop came by and we cleared the path of our daypacks for
them to pass. The scout leader was visibly annoyed. “What do you think you’re
doing?” he asked. We told him, simply, that we were picking blueberries. He told
the scouts to pay no attention to us and to move along. He then turned to us and
told us that if he wanted blueberries he’d buy them in the supermarket, and that
we should know better than to behave like this in front of the children.
I was a scout when I was a boy. I still have the Handbook for Boys manual
published by the Boy Scouts of America. It was printed in 1955, and it says that
more than 14 million copies of it and earlier editions had been printed since
1910. This manual illustrates some 30 edible wild plants, and mentions more
than 60 different kinds. It gives instructions on how to cook these edible wild
plants, and even how to do it on camping trips.
During the Great Depression a cookbook was published in the U.S. that
became a classic for decades. The Joy of Cooking was something many young
brides were given so that alone in their new kitchens they could cook up a storm,
creating an endless variety of tasty dishes. Included in the book were recipes for
cream of nettle soup; instructions for using dandelion, sheep sorrel, and
wintercress; and ways to use more than a dozen wild and exotic fruits, including
elderberry, pawpaw, persimmon, and prickly pear. It’s unlikely that many urban
dwellers noticed these recipes or had market access to these plants. That they
could forage their own wild plants was not a skill they likely acquired at home or
in school.
What the world’s rural peoples have long known about their local, edible
wild plants is very slowly making its way into urban centers. Wild foods, such as
fiddlehead ferns, ramps (wild leeks), and glasswort (called sea beans in some
markets) are showing up in farmers’ markets now, and on the shelves of upscale
groceries. Fresh mangosteens, rambutans, even durians, can be seen in Asian
groceries everywhere large Asian communities now live.
The Joy of Foraging, unlike other guides on foraging for edible wild plants,
begins its lessons in your kitchen, where a number of edible wild plants may be
hidden in plain sight. We then travel to local markets, farmers’ markets, and
ethnic markets to see what’s available for sale where the risk in misidentifying a
plant is reduced, or at least where the vendor is trusted to sell what the product is
labeled to be.
Onward then to restaurants, especially those that offer foods or dishes that
you’re not likely to consider replicating at home. Some cities have a wealth of
foreign cuisines to choose from, and you may find unusual plant foods in
restaurants while traveling domestically and abroad.
Four wild fruits in Bali: Salak (Salacca edulis, a palm fruit); top right: Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)—
common now in Asian markets worldwide; bottom left: Tamarillo or Tree Tomato (Solanum betaceum); bottom
right: Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana)—odds-on favorite for being the most-loved fruit of many people in
the world (even though few Americans have ever heard of it. Mangosteen is now being sold fresh in season—
summer—in Chinese markets.)
Only then do we take you outdoors—first to your lawn, backyard, and local
streets, mostly to observe and learn rather than collect. Then we take a walk
through an open park, followed by a wooded parkland area, then a wetland area,
then along a seashore.
This way, step by step, locale by locale, plant by plant, you learn to connect
what you already know to what you’re observing. Wild plants become known in
context, and become “tamed” by becoming known, named, understood, and then
used (or eaten). In this way, the “wildness” of edible wild plants is demystified,
as the plants become an extended part of what you already know about the plant