h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a fascinating thread. Thank you, Effers for introducing it.

I recalled that in Salon.com, one of the bloggers was a freelance writer who had moved back to the coast of Oregon where there are close to primeval forests, here is one of her entries and a tasty recipe for foraged wild ginger:
http://www.salon.com/2011/05/14/scavenger_wild_ginger/


Here is also a intoduction to foraging:
http://open.salon.com/blog/aliquot/2011/03/15/foraging_for_wild_food_-_a_beginners_guide

When we went to the mountains in western North Carolina in October we were treated to ramps which are also called wild leeks at a local eatery.

Don't ramps have a reputation for making you stink for months afterwards?

They didn't tell us that. Maybe that's why people were avoiding us.

It's probably overplayed. After all, some people claim that garlic is pungent.

Whereas in Romania, there are (or used to be) people who eat garlic for breakfast. I know this - in 1980 an elderly lady offered me some, sliced, on black bread with butter, on a train at 5:30 in the morning.

Because of the vampires?

Could be. I don't know how a vampire could survive in Romania, the place was impregnated with garlic.

In the murky past, I indulged in some urban foraging.

Well, shoplifting. The principle's the same.

PS. The above was a joke. File it under blatant attempt to secure a quote of the day position. Then stick it on the first page.

You expect us to endorse petty crime, do you?

B

Well they publish your post columns, which are frequently both petty, and a crime...

"I don't know how a vampire could survive in Romania, the place was impregnated with garlic."

Exactly.

Shoplifting is not urban foraging that's going through skips/dumpsters or freeganning
Shop lifting is urban scrumping

>"I don't know how a vampire could survive in Romania, the place was impregnated with garlic."<

I'm not sure garlic would have stopped Vlad the Impaler doing his think

Blackberrying is still an annual treat for me. It always reminds me of wandering round Irish country lanes when I was a small child visiting grandparents. Near where I live now there are loads of bilberries in the hedgerows as well and elder trees for cordial and wine. Dandelion flowers make good wine too. I have eaten fungi from foraging, but only the small number of varieties I'm absolutely sure of.

Round here it's definitely small scale foraging only by local people, just part of countryside life. In fact I'm always surprised by how many blackberries are left on the bushes to go over, seems like not so many local kids are being brought up to know what they can safely enjoy picking.

Mmm, wild garlic time soon and I think I know where to look this year.

Dandelion Wine, you say?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandelion-Wine-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0007284748

Good book that, must look out my copy to reread while making this year's batch - if it ever stops raining long enough to collect the flowers.

Oh, yes...I forgot...blaeberries...or bilberries as Metal C called them.

Do you get them in hedgerows? I've only ever found them on moorland.

The vending machine in the Swedelish university I visit sells hot bilberry soup (Blåbärssoppa). And didn't Mrs Pogle make bilberry wine for Mr Pogle?

http://www.pogleswood.org/

>> - if it ever stops raining long enough to collect the flowers.

Do I detect another Ray Bradbury reference?

I think your blaeberries are our whortleberries, we've only got 'em off the hills