The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles. Mike Krebill
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and October. Ripe drupes that become rose-colored and almost spherical seem promising, but must be taste-tested before picking. Ideally, they should be pleasantly sour with no astringent (mouth-drying) aftertaste. If one drupe tastes good, all the drupes on that particular bush will be worth picking. Otherwise, skip that bush and try another.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
As long as you avoid breaking a branch, gathering fruit does no harm to the bushes.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Fruit leather can be stored for a year at room temperature in a lidded container kept in the dark.
When the wind blows, autumn olive bushes look silvery gray from a distance.
Black Raspberry
RANGE:
Coast to coast, with over 600 Rubus species; especially prolific in the Pacific Northwest. Besides tasty black raspberries, they include bushy blackberries, colorful raspberries, and the trailing, vine-like dewberries.
HABITAT:
At edges of woodland, fields and clearings, along paths, near logging roads, at the base of road cuts
POSITIVE ID:
• Black raspberry is a thorny bush with light green, round canes that arc towards the ground where the tips may root.
• New light green canes often have a whitish, waxy coating that can be rubbed off easily.
• Last year’s canes are reddish to purplish brown, lack the white, waxy bloom, and typically branch.
• The leaves are compound with 3–5 toothed leaflets per leaf. (The undersides of the leaflets are light green to almost silvery).
• The fruit is a compound drupe. When fully ripe, the black raspberry is purplish black to black and soft to the touch. When picked, it comes away cleanly from the receptacle on which it grew, leaving a thimble-like hollow. That helps distinguish it from blackberry, which retains its receptacle at the core.
EDIBLE PART & PREPARATION:
Devour handfuls of the raw, ripe berry, or use them to top ice cream, or make syrup by simmering a cup of them with sugar and a little water.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Typically early summer, depending on location and elevation. After picking, give remaining, unripe berries 7–10 days more to ripen, then return to pick the bushes again.
Two nice fruit clusters of black raspberries ripe for the picking. Rose Barlow once told me that she had picked 32 gallons of wild black raspberries in a single year. She explained that she had found eight nice patches. By the time she finished picking the eighth one, enough berries had ripened to return to patch number one and repeat the process.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
As long as you don’t destroy the bushes, picking the fruit should cause no harm.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Freeze the berries on a cookie sheet, then pour them into a quart bag. Vacuum seal the bag and stick it back in the freezer.
Most young black raspberry canes have a bluish-white waxy bloom that can be rubbed off.
Black Walnut
RANGE:
Native to 35 states and southern Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Rich bottomland soils of stream valleys
POSITIVE ID:
• The black walnut tree has alternate, pinnately-compound leaves 1–2′ long with 15–23 leaflets.
• Yellow-green, 1-1/2–3″ round fruit consists of a nut encased by a fleshy husk.
• When broken open and exposed to air, the husk flesh color changes from a yellowish white to dark brown.
• The brown nut has a corrugated surface.
Close-up of a black walnut tree showing a cluster of its tennis ball-like fruit (walnuts) and the long compound leaves. A leaf can be up to 24″ long and may have from 15 to 23 leaflets. The terminal or end leaflet is often missing. Because walnuts may be high in the tree, foragers typically wait until they drop to the ground in October to collect them.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Put on dishwashing gloves or equivalent to avoid staining your hands. Step on the green husk with a boot and twist your foot to pop the nut loose. Pull off clinging husk pieces, then rinse and brush or power wash the walnuts. Dry indoors on a tarp in front of a fan for two days. Let ripen and dry for two more weeks (no fan). Crack with a vise or hammer and use a nutpick to remove large pieces of the edible nutmeat. The strong flavor of black walnuts is perfect in brownies and ice cream (see Cinnamon Black Walnut Ice Cream recipe, page 137).
WHEN TO HARVEST:
October
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting walnuts from the ground does not harm trees.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Huskless, unshelled black walnuts may be stored at room temperature for two years. Extracted nutmeats are high in fats and oils that can turn rancid at room temperature, so they are best kept frozen. If vacuum-sealed first, they will last in the freezer for three years.
Left: walnut with tennis-ball like husk. Right: walnut with husk removed, then power washed. The brown nutshell has a corrugated surface.
Blueberry & Huckleberry
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the United States and Canada
HABITAT:
Many habitats, from wetlands to mountaintops. Best in sunny locations.
POSITIVE ID:
• Bush grows from 1–8′ tall with 1-1/2–3″ long, alternate, elliptical leaves.
• The pendant, bellshaped flowers are white and fragrant.
• Berries are powder blue to blue or black when ripe, except for the red huckleberry, whose berries are red to orange.
• Five-pointed starshaped pattern is on the bottom of the berry, a remnant of the blossom.
• Berries typically grow in clusters.
• Ripe berries are juicy, with a pleasantly sweet, mildly tart flavor.
Knee to waist-high blueberry bushes were a welcome sight