The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles. Mike Krebill
opportunity to recover. This is one of the milkweeds that provide food for monarch butterflies. Harvest only where the milkweed is plentiful, and take only what you need for a single meal.
Common milkweed shoots have pubescent (hairy) stems, and the underside of the leaves is also pubescent. This is one of many ways they can be distinguished from the hairless common dogbane, which has a skinnier shoot and tastes bitter when cooked.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Blanch, vacuum seal, and freeze shoots and flower buds. Pickle young seedpods that are less than 2″ long.
Mulberry
RANGE:
U.S., British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Thrives along moist woodland edges and streams, in floodplains and pastures, and along fencerows. It is commonly seen in cities, often along property lines.
POSITIVE ID:
• Each mulberry fruit is made up of a columnar-shaped collection of small, fleshy drupes tightly attached to a green stem that runs through it. This type of fruit is called an aggregate or collective fruit, not a berry. A typical sized fruit ranges from 3/8–1/2″ in diameter by 1″ long.
• Fruit color is variable, and consequently, mulberry names can seem confusing. Ripe red mulberries (Morus rubra) range from a dark, deep red to black. White mulberries (Morus alba) can have white, lavender, or blackish purple fruit. Black mulberries (Morus nigra) are a welcome exception, as they are black.
• White and red mulberries ripen in late spring, while black mulberries ripen in summer to late summer. A tree’s mulberries don’t ripen all at once, but over an extended period of 4–6 weeks, which is good news for foragers who like them.
• The outer bark of a young mulberry tree typically has a yellow to orange tint to it. The young bark of an older tree as seen through fissures of its older, outer bark may be yellow; the heartwood is greenish-yellow to orange; the root bark is orange.
• Every mulberry leaf is simple as opposed to compound, and serrated instead of smooth edged. The leaves may be lobed or unlobed, and one often sees a variety of lobed shapes on a single tree. The leaves can be very glossy.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Eat ripe fruit raw, make it into ice cream, bake it in a cobbler, or turn it into taffy. Juice the mulberries to make a drink. Here’s a simple how-to link for making a drink: www.phamfatale.com/id_1724/title_Mulberry-Juice/
Making mulberry taffy with family or friends is a memorable activity. (See recipe, page 153.)
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Late spring to early summer, depending on location. (In parts of Florida, mulberries ripen in February.)
Only one ripe fruit here, the dark one. Unripe fruit can cause gastrointestinal problems, so leave the red ones to ripen longer. Generally speaking, ripe fruit will feel soft and juicy, and will stain your hands when picked.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Picking (or shaking) ripe mulberries from the tree doesn’t harm the tree.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Spread mulberries apart on a baking sheet and individually freeze. Once frozen, double bag and gently squeeze the air out or vacuum seal and return to the freezer. Use before the next season rolls around. Extract the juice by forcing mulberries through a kitchen strainer with a pestle (rounded stick) from a mortar and pestle; by wearing dishwashing gloves and squeezing through cheesecloth; by using a food strainer; or by steam extraction with a juice extractor (I use a Mehu-Liisa extractor) – then refrigerate or can. Mulberries may also be dried.
Oak
RANGE:
Lower 48 states except for Idaho; southern provinces of Canada
HABITAT:
Upland woods
POSITIVE ID:
• The oak tree produces acorns as its fruit.
• Acorns have a cap with a twig attachment and a thin-shelled nut below, which completely encloses an easily extracted nutmeat.
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