to Process Acorns
Preparing Dandelions for Cooking & Baking
Cinnamon Black Walnut Ice Cream
Keokuk 7th graders crack & taste hickory nuts.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEARNING MORE
INTRODUCTION
I imagine some of you may be wondering about the title of this book and whether the book will be of interest to more than only Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and their respective leaders. The quick answer to that question is yes. The Scout’s Guide is for everyone, from kids to adults to youth group leaders, teachers and parents. Whether you are just a beginner when it comes to edible wild plants and mushrooms, or a seasoned veteran who is looking for new insights and processing tips, the information in these pages will be useful to you.
This is a field guide small enough to deserve the name. It should be easy to carry with you on your outdoor adventures. True, a bigger book might contain more wild edibles. However, I find myself agreeing with wild foods legend Euell Gibbons. In his famous 1962 book, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, he wrote “There are many wild plants reported in the literature to be edible that I don’t like at all.”
With that in mind, I have selected 33 of the better-tasting edible wild plants and 7 of my favorite mushrooms, most of them widely distributed in the U.S. and in Canada’s lower provinces. To make the foraging experience even more memorable, I have included 10 engaging activities for individuals or groups and 17 mouthwatering, prize-winning recipes that are kid tested and kid approved.
A fairy ring of Chlorophyllum molybdites mushrooms, the mushrooms that are responsible for more poisonings in the U.S. than all of the Amanitas together.
Identifying
Accurate identification is paramount. Dr. Peter Gail, a lifelong forager whose Ph.D. is in Plant Ecology, strongly believes that there is a best way to do this: it is to have the plant pointed out to you in the habitat where it grows. Ideally, the person who points it out to you should be a knowledgeable forager with a botany background and years of experience with edible wild plants. This foraging instructor should not only know what the plant is, but should be able to point out how to distinguish it from plants that look similar.
For more than a decade, Dr. Gail strived to develop a directory of foraging instructors across the U.S. His ambitious goal was to find enough people so that there would be someone within 50 miles of anyone wanting help. Eventually, Dr. Gail agreed to pass the task on to Sunny Savage. She worked on it for several years and then found that Deane Jordan (aka “Green Deane”) was willing to post the list on his website. To learn if there is an instructor near you, go to http://www.eattheweeds.com and click on “Foraging Instructors.”
Harvesting
To have a good experience with edible wild plants and wild mushrooms, it helps to know more than just their identity. You must also know what part of the plant or mushroom is edible. For example,
