After a pattern of foraging emerged, i decided to land any notes and updates related right here.
3 aug 2021
barriers to foraging
sloth [capacity]
fear of future labor [capacity]
time [capacity] vs. lifecycle
semi spontaneous attempt to forage by four humans with improvised vessels and eight hands
blackberries ripened through smoke haze: some burned by heat but remainder juicy
barriers to blackberries
thorns/dense growth/extrahuman height and span [inherent]
capacity of hands/vessels [variable]
extremely high density of large spiders/spiderwebs [conditional] [subjective]
one yellow sign reads RATTLESNAKE HABITAT [random] [inherent]
it cannot be disproven that spiderwebs are the true connective tissue of the berries/thorns
as time spent gazing increases, total number spiders sighted increases proportionally
no fewer than three varieties of spider
size range from median human thumbnail size to median human thumb size
approx. one per visible square foot
barriers to foraging
irrational fear of the other [capacity] [care]
eight blackberries collected: two per human [capacity]
recommendation: return coming season as black bear, swallow, spider
5 aug 2021
returned to same spot listed above and found spider-less blackberries. ate on sight, no storage.
9 aug 2021
the street plums june got last week were early and i fear they’re going bad in the fridge so i make them into a plum kuchen (recipe from liz), share it with mary, sarah, margo.
10 aug 2021
walk and photograph multiple berry-bearing trees that i don’t know with the pure intention of ID-ing them at home and finding out if any are edible. the plums on the street are more ready. downloaded iNaturalist because people have recommended it but didn’t upload the photos right away.
picked a good amount of pie cherries off the tree behind the community center, yellow jackets, bird bites, but many perfect. borrowed margo’s cherry pitter, contactless, via front porch.
11 aug 2021
pit the cherries and decide i need about a cup more for a whole pie. return to the tree and get more. cook down into filling with just a little sugar and cornstarch on the stove. all butter crust, chilled in the fridge. six mini pies with lattice tops in a cupcake tin. the best and cutest thing i have ever baked.
12 aug 2021
more pies are required. went out to the same cherry tree, also worried that smoke and heat may damage the last of the fruit and want to use it, and picked enough for another round of pie. ran into the guy who runs the nearby restaurant and said this tree is the better of the two, but pointed out a second cherry tree nearby. but this first one is “the good shit”. plans to pit, simmer, bake again tonight. dreaming of mushrooms, more plums, researching trees.
24 aug 2021
tree research comes back from the mycelial mind of the internet: chokecherry. technically edible, but one big seed. haven’t i dug out enough one big seed in myself these years? filed away for more dire times.
25 aug 2021
baked plum bars with the last (?) of the street plums. if the foraging of others counts here, we also receive a huge paper bag of chantrelles from a friend of a friend…
26 aug 2021
made a small batch of jam with the neighbor’s plums. he is sick and can’t eat the fruit off his many trees–he tells me to come take it all. cleaned the chantrelles for pasta tomorrow night.
28 aug 2021
dehydrated the remaining chantrelles in the oven (which takes forever and probably wastes a lot of energy). maybe this is the year to buy a dehydrator. once they are dry, i powdered them in the food processor and mixed with a small amount of salt. thinking popcorn?
31 aug 2021
rosehips to test on the way home from looking at a trailer. brewed a tea into a very light syrup. a base for kombucha?
4 sep 2021
the neighbor’s plums are everywhere in the street blanketing the yard impossible to pick them without filling shoe tread completely with goo. squirrels need to step up (or me) and i get a big bag full, the most i can carry right now.
5 sep 2021
now at the neighbor’s, the peaches are just about ready. he comes out to talk to me again and shows me where the pear trees are, talks about how to ripen them best. some of them, though, he just doesn’t like and can’t say what the variety is. just doesn’t care for them.
6 sep 2021
into the forest with Jess hoping for more chantrelles but it’s too dry. we find: two big lobster mushrooms, roughly a dozen beer cans, a creepy abandoned game trap, and a ton of mullein to dry out and smoke during lung infection season (as though that isn’t potentially always now). we went to the burn that kept the forest we’re in closed off all summer and found a still-smoldering tree, documented the trail and place because in the spring that should be full of morels. back in town, we visit Margo and borrow her dehydrator. the fruit from the neighbor won’t slow down any time soon.
7 sep 2021
dried a big batch of neighbor plums. sour, but good. boiled down pits and strained into juice.
8 sep 2021
peach cobbler. prepped lobster mushrooms for bisque and bought a dehydrator online.
10 sep 2021
made the lobster soup, picked peaches.
11 sep 2021
today is gay baseball and i get up early enough to bake the peaches into mini pies to sell at concessions for mutual aid. the full size pie doesn’t get busted into and gets sent off with the food not bombs crew for the following day.
12 sep 2021
yet more peaches.
13 sep 2021
peach cobbler for my sister’s birthday.
sep 2021
peaches and life have me losing track of the days, but at some point, i dry a batch of peaches in the newly arrived dehydrator and make a batch of fruit leather. it is a bit too thick, crunchy on the ends, but an acceptable start.
22 sep 2021
back to the forest with Jess, Mary, and Sarah. we don’t find a lot, but we find a few. enough chantrelles for a small meal, the goodness of being in the forest. more plums back in town at the neighbor’s.
23 sep 2021
i know picking from other people’s domestic trees is more gleaning than foraging, and that means that gleaning has taken over the post. but both are postural, just picking something up easily to sustain oneself. all that to say, more plums. cleaning and cooking mushrooms.
24 sep 2021
a first big batch of prunes. hard to tell when they’re done, how chewy is right.
lord knows where and who and how i was in early october…
17 oct 2021
not technically foraging, but we wildly pull into an unmanned farm stand on the way home from Walla Walla. a humble cash box and suggested prices protect acorn squash, plums, apples, and pumpkins. the world is full of food and it is a golden autumn day. June takes me by motorcycle to meet some mules she met while i was away. they live at the best apple tree around. we fill a backpack with apples picked from the highest branches and feed the mules until one of them pukes up foam, but happily. the pumpkins will become soup, the apples dried rings and pie and butter.
24 oct 2021
back to the forest for what may be the last good mushroom weekend day with Jenni, Jessica, and Ryan. two sets of sisters creating forest magic (we hope). i learn so much every time i go out there with Jenni. we see so many new kinds including a pearlescent oyster-looking Clitocybe that belongs in the ocean. good enough to collect are: a few Matsutakes, a delicacy which will hopefully soon become ramen; Clitocybe odora–tiny, bluish, not edible-looking, but the smell of anise identifies them. i take them home and dry them into powder to flavor baked goods (we’ll see!); Zeller’s boletes and a Fib King bolete; a handful of the last lovely chantrelles.