Fall foraging forges forward, and by that alliteration I mean to say that foraging for wild food "has not yet ended" this fall, so don't put away your scissors or your plastic knives or your bare hands just yet!
Just yesterday I came across some fabulous fall dandelion greens in the Colorado high country despite its notoriously short growing season. They were growing amidst the deep, down-trodden grass at the base of willows lining an old mining road, and some were nearly as long as an arm! Up here, anywhere the miners and their mules once trod is a good place to look for dandelions. At the very least these early travelers toted the seeds along by accident. Other good places to look for fall dandelions are next to water sources in shady, protected places and any lawn in any neighborhood, provided it has not been sprayed by the owner or town/city tree-spraying operation.
So I happily gathered a bouquet of luscious green dandelion leaves, exclaiming our good fortune and dreaming up stir fries all the while--and YOU, too, can have this experience (extreme habitats excluded) if you can just figure out where the fall dandelions are growing (and, of course, make sure your identifications are correct using a plant guide or two as necessary)!
Author's Note and Invitation:
I started this piece on foraging for fall dandelions with the intent of directing wandering wild food aficionados who stumbled across my miscellaneous, writing-about-anything website, etmarciniec.com, over to the new, foraging-only-focused-site, Wild Food Girl, where one can follow the author and her faithful sidekick on wild food missions and culinary adventures (including the occasional misadventure).
To whet your appetite for WILD FOOD GIRL stories, then, here is an annotated list and links to a few current entries:
- Fall Foraging in the Colorado High Counry, which contains the story of the hike during which we found our fall dandelions, among other treats, and the exciting conclusion on how we cooked them for dinner!
- Expectorating with Sticky Gumweed, an entry which might be alternatively titled, "How I Made an Expectorant Cough Syrup with a Wild Medicinal Plant and It Cured My Ailment Entirely" (I exaggerate slightly).
- Jellies and Jams, My Currant Obsession - One in a series of stories about jellies and jams and the wild stuff with which I prepared them, thereby cementing my suspicions of latent homemaker tendencies. ...I mean, who actually makes jelly?
Anyway, hopefully one of these stories piques your interest, and thanks, as always, for reading:)
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