How would you rate your 2022? So-so, satisfactory, spectacular, staggeringly stupendous? One would hope for better than 2021 or 2020, but to be fair, that bar was pretty low.
I’m happy to report my 2022 has been sensational (and then some), and I have lots to share.
Continue reading “NAGC News: Turkeys, Trips, and Good Times”Most Minnesota foragers—whether berry seekers or not—are familiar with blueberries. Our native blueberries are both abundant and widespread, popping up in varied habitats. While not every year is a good year, pickers of all ages can usually enjoy decent harvests of these flavorful, nutrient-packed treasures more often than not.
Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Blueberries”Turkey hunting tends to get us up early. Normally, it feels like a death march from bed to the kitchen. But not the other day. I practically sprang from bed, not having slept very soundly all night.
Continue reading “Three Magical Days: Part II- First Turkey Hunt”Today is Friday, supposedly. It’s normally my favorite day of the week, but this one feels too….ordinary. I’m having trouble embracing it.
Continue reading “The Best Ordinary Day”It was Sunday, the second day of deer camp. My daughter and I sat quietly in the stand for the second morning in a row, eyes and ears straining for signs of life.
Continue reading “Moments to Remember”When it comes to foraging, nothing says “end of summer” like wild plums. During that late August/early September time with cool mornings and moderately warm afternoons, I know without looking that American and Canada plums are coming ripe.
Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Wild Plums”I never paid much attention to wild grapes until a couple years ago. Growing up in the Minnesota River valley, we often encountered beefy grape vines in the woods that disappeared into the tops of the tallest treees. They were sturdy enough to swing on if you could break them at the bottom. The fruit I tasted on occasion wasn’t very good compared to the green and red grapes from the store, so I wrote them off in my youth. For decades, I didn’t know what I was missing.
Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Wild Grapes”A couple days ago, my daughter found a single cherry. I could not have been more elated.
It was our first Sand cherry. We’d been searching hard for two whole days, covering almost 10 miles on foot, in three distinct parts of Minnesota. The triumph was not so much the harvest (ultimately a couple dozen cherries) as it was the successful conclusion to our foraging quest.
Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Sand Cherry”You don’t need to be told how horrendous 2020 was. We all lived through civil unrest, a hundred-year pandemic, a spiraling economy— all in an election year, no less. We complained, we laughed, we shared memes. We clung to anything to get us through, including a shared belief that 2021 could only be better.
Here we are, and I don’t feel any different.
Continue reading “I Don’t Want to Go Back”Yesterday I found my first hedgehog mushrooms of the season. It was on a short outing with my daughter; she was after raspberries and I wanted to follow up on the sudden burst of mushroom activity in the yard. I suspected some edible mushrooms would be available, mostly chanterelles and lobsters. Those were good finds, but I hollered out loud when the first few hedgehogs appeared on the forest floor- they are among my most favorite mushrooms to eat. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Hedgehog Mushrooms”
Berry foragers, rejoice! The juneberry crop this year appears to be robust- as was last year’s- and they’re fruiting right now. Never had juneberries? I’m not surprised. They’re easy to miss, but maybe you should give them a closer look. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Juneberries”
Every year about this time there is a lull in the foraging season here in Minnesota. The early season has passed and the frenzy over morels, fiddleheads, and ramps is over. The summer mushrooms and berries really haven’t started. However, while raspberries, blackberries, thimbleberries, and other members of the Rubus clan have yet to even finish blooming, their little brother is here to take center stage.
Enter Dwarf Raspberry. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Dwarf Raspberries”
If you’re itching to get out and forage some wild berries this year, I have good news for you: the strawberries are in. They won’t be for long and they won’t offer the volume of picking as later berries, but they’re still worth pursuing. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Wild Strawberries”
The Ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) seems to be gaining in popularity among foragers, if mentions in social media are any indication. Posts about “fiddleheads” are becoming more and more common this time of year. Also apparent in the social media soup is how much confusion there is when it comes to knowing which species are edible and how they are identified.
Some people- a proportional few- are vocal in their opinion that the Ostrich fern is not the only edible fern in Minnesota. While that may be true for sometimes complicated reasons, I will not subscribe to that school of thought. Allow me to explain why. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Ostrich Ferns”
Once again, I blame social media. For what, you ask? For the ridiculous fame that ramps seem to be “enjoying” nowadays.
Of course, people have known about ramps for a long time, even holding spring festivals for them in parts of the eastern U.S. where they used to grow prolifically. I say “used to” because it is well known that wild ramp populations are hurting. Because of that, they really don’t need any extra harvest pressure. Every foraging group I subscribe to on Facebook, however, is currently experiencing Ramp Mania. Continue reading “Foraging in Minnesota: Ramps”
