come foraging with me

when i was growing up, my parents read Euell Gibbons, I remember going on foraging trips in the back of an old brown truck with a broom stuck in the back...

Now I have Euell Gibbon's book, 'Stalking the wild asparagus' and I have been trying to force my family to eat things I have gathered. I am just learning and I will post a bit every now and then about my success or lack of it as I go. I tried violet syrup this spring from the violets in my yard and it tasted like grass syrup. 

fail
 Actually that was my second try...I do have to say you should be very careful that what you are foraging & eating is really what you think it is, I thought I was picking violets my first time trying the syrup and when i decided to double check, and identify it through the internet I found I was picking something not edible. So now I am very careful before i make my family eat something.

recently I tried Elderberry blow fritters...

partial success

I gathered some elderberry blossoms, "elderberry blow" sounds better.

Euell Gibbons has a recipe in his book, and I followed it but any pancake batter recipe would do...

after mixing it up, cut most of the stem off the elderberry blossom, 

hold it by it's base and dip the blow in the batter then drop it into a frying pan of hot oil. Let it cook a minute or so then flip and cook the other side till done and turning brown.

after you take them out of the oil, we dipped them in sugar. I liked them, but my son thought you could taste the stems. Maybe it would be better to actually pull all the petals off and just stir them up in the batter to avoid those little bits of green stem.


Daylillies are next...