Posts belonging to Category 'foraging'
September 5, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
It’s harvest time, not only on the homestead, but off it as well. At the moment, we’re spending more time and effort gleaning than working our own property. Our own cherries aren’t quite ripe yet, but they are elsewhere in the area, and that’s causing problems—bear problems. A local doctor’s cherry trees are ready to [...]
Categories: foraging | 
Tags: gleaning, self reliance, share the harvest | 
No Comments »
August 1, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
Even though I’d already noticed that the mushrooms have arrived a bit early this year, I was still taken by surprise when I found a nice, big hawk wing on the trail. I took it home and sautéed it for that evening’s dinner, but this time I took a risk and tried something new and [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging for wild mushrooms, hunting wild mushrooms, self reliance | No Comments »
July 25, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
Two weeks ago, Michelle and I wandered down the beach to the cliff that more or less delineates the southern boundary of our property. When we arrived, we saw something that caused me to hail Aly, who sat on the veranda, reading in the sun. I called to her to come down to us, and [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging wild berries, self reliance, wild harvest or gardening | No Comments »
July 18, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
On July 10th, Michelle and Aly found a pleasant surprise on the trail home from town: the season’s first king bolete mushroom. Also known as a porcini, this is just one of the highly-sought and regarded, gourmet wild mushrooms growing in our area. Commonly, this variety appears sometime in early August, but the season appears [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging for wild mushrooms, hunting wild mushrooms, self reliance | No Comments »
May 9, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, or PSP, hangs like the sword of Damocles over beach foragers. This deadly alga can accumulate in and contaminate some of the most delectable mollusks: clams, cockles, and mussels. Cautious people harvest only from beaches that have been tested and certified as safe. In all of Alaska, with more miles of coastline [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging limpets, paralytic shellfish poisoning, PSP, self reliance | No Comments »
April 25, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
When it comes to mushroom hunting, knowing what to avoid is as important as knowing what to gather, if not more so. Mushrooming is a late summer/autumn activity on our homestead, with a brief exception at this time of year, when morels appear. Morels are among the most sought-after of all wild mushrooms. Even people [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging for wild mushrooms, morels and false morels, self reliance | No Comments »
April 9, 2010 | Posted by Mark Z
Recently, after breakfast, we pulled on our boots, bundled up against a steady southerly, and headed for the beach. The low tide was -3.6 feet; time to beach comb. The Tlingits say, “when the tide is out, the table is set.” They’ve lived here for more than 10,000 years, so they ought to know. In [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: edible seaweed, natural fertilizer, self reliance | 3 Comments »
November 8, 2009 | Posted by author
Foraging is fun, it’s self reliant, and provides opportunities to trade within our community for items that we don’t have in our vegetable garden. After making many jars of a sinfully deep-flavored jam from a huge patch of wild blackberries, I traded some of the finished product for a big basket of kale, two huge [...]
Categories: cooking and recipes, foraging | Tags: canning, cooking and recipes, foraging, self reliance, trading | No Comments »
September 30, 2009 | Posted by Mark Z
In autumn when I leave the house, I always carry a mesh bag. It’s mushroom season in Southeast Alaska; it’s not wise to enter the woods unprepared! Opinions differ on the proper container for mushrooms, but most agree on certain features. Some prefer a basket or cardboard box to protect the fragile fungi from breakage. [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: foraging for wild mushrooms, mushroom hunting tools, self reliance | No Comments »
September 23, 2009 | Posted by Mark Z
Since moving to the homestead, my search imaging has sharpened considerably as I increase my reliance on it. Search images are mental pictures humans develop to help them find things. We all use them. We develop search images either by seeing an example of what we want (or wish to avoid) or by imagining it. [...]
Categories: foraging | Tags: powers of observation, self reliance, setting search images | No Comments »
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