Comments on: Hungry? Pull Over. Here’s Your Guide to the Best Bets of Roadside Foraging

By: Carol Ross

Carol Ross — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:25:58 +0000

One fruit that was not mentioned in the section on blackberries was the wineberry, which grows wild on roadsides and at the edges of wooded areas here in eastern Pennsylvania and is incredibly delicious when ripe. They look like red orange raspberries and when ripe fall easily into one’s hand. So easily that one ends up retrieving them from the ground, The canes are covered with various sized thorns and are sticky. Raw they have a very distinctive flavor, but when cooked taste so much like red raspberries that it’s difficult to detect the difference. Another wild fruit to gather is the elderberry, although it is strictly for making into jellies, jams, and syrups.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:46:51 +0000

Pamela – picking wild mushrooms that you cannot identify, then bringing them home and cooking them up for a party, is a recipe for disaster. Those could have been death caps, known to be yellowish and very tasty, but with a nasty side effect that would have dissolved your liver and left you dead or on life support. Please know what you are picking before eating.

Dan – calm down. The author clearly stated that foragers should ask for permission before picking, and in the case of commercial orchards, to only pick fallen fruit off of public ground. The only things that should be sacked are all those left-to-rot avocados!

By: Robert Black

Robert Black — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:10:07 +0000

Down in S. Florida, the premier tree fruit is the mango. In the suburbs during mango season, there are often stands selling this superb fruit for the low price of a dollar or two. As most mango trees are prized by their owners, there aren’t very many that can be had by picking them up off the ground, but this is by no means impossible. A more serious problem is that fruit that drop from the tree often rot before they ripen, so it is better to pick the fruit from the tree.

By: Dan Alexander

Dan Alexander — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 01:58:32 +0000

Dear Readers,
This article encourages trespass and theft. In most instances fruit growers’ livelihood and property depends on harvesting their crops at peak or near-peak ripeness. Over-ripe fruits (cherries, for example) still have market value for the grower as sources for flavor.
I am astounded editors of this publication are so thoughtless. A correction, a mea culpa, and maybe even a sacking would be appropriate penance. Please note the criteria governing the Smithsonian reservations below.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:49:20 +0000

Last autumn here in NJ we had rain upon rain upon rain … and in 20 years of living here, I have never, ever seen the extraordinary abundance of mushrooms that sprouted. One was a cluster of bright yellow caps, 6″ and more across, one on top of the other. I couldn’t identify; neither could my book; but I could not resist and took a bite. Scrambled eggs, They tasted like scrambled eggs!! Fabulous.
And I always park my car along a certain old roadways and search for raspberries – but this area has become much too ‘civilized’ suburban and everything is cultivated to death. Sad.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 13:43:31 +0000

How very serendipitous. This morning my friend just posted about finding wild grapes (Mustang) in Texas while out riding his bike.

http://wearenotfoodies.com/picking-wild-grapes-in-the-tame-suburbs-of-katy-tx.html

By: Alastair Bland

Alastair Bland — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:40:29 +0000

Comment from the author: You make a good point, Richard—and the possibility of getting sick from wild foods is why I tend not to mess with wild greens and herbs. “Little red berries” can be a tricky zone, too—but, in general, tree fruits are safe to eat and easily identified by anyone who has visited a grocery store. But with mushrooms, take caution.
-A.B.

By: richard spinner

richard spinner — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:46:51 +0000

Landon Cook is the master forager of native plants in the Seattle area. There was a good piece on foraging recently on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/20/155423555/seattle-forager-inspires-others-to-learn-about-wild-forgotten-foods

“The forager’s golden rule is that you never, ever eat a food you can’t identify with 100 percent certainty.”

Seems reasonable to me…