FRIED COFFEE

May is wild asparagus month so grab your binoculars, bone up on your asparagus calling skills and hit the boonies. Asparagus found in its natural environment puts the store bought vegetable to shame – no comparison. It can be found in woods, roadside ditches, and open plains. Take along a small pocket notebook to record where you find your treasure because it’ll be there next year waiting for you. There are plenty of guides and web sites pertaining to the identification and harvesting of wild edibles. My favorite is Stalking The wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons. There are lots of good eats in the out-of-doors; everything from “soup to nuts” – (I’ll be discussing soup bush patches in a future blog.) Foraging is a great family activity affording the opportunity to foster respect and nature husbandry while gathering the free bounty our planet provides. Look for info on cattail shoots, ramps, fiddleheads, and edible flowers. Good Hunting !!!

Last a note from Matt Pinkham who sums up the philosophy of foraging better than I…

“I want to talk a bit about harvesting with the right frame of mind. A few of my mentors teach harvesting with what they call a “caretaker attitude.” By this I mean taking plants, or anything for that matter, with a certain respect and reverence for the life that you are removing. Never remove all of the plants from one area and always spread some of the seeds for future generations. By harvesting in a caretaker manner you can actually help the remaining plants by thinning and removing only some to allow room for others to thrive. When plants are collected for use it is no different than killing an animal for food. You are still taking a life to fuel your own life. Just because a plant doesn’t bleed or have eyes or communicate in the way that animals do, it does not mean that the life you are taking is any less significant”…. Matt Pinkham