Some jasmine and some wild foods

[asakiyume]

ETA: I do want to acknowledge and warn that all milkweeds are toxic, and some are more toxic than others. I used common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), which is less toxic than other species, and the blanching process removes toxins. Please be very careful if you try this yourself: look at a number of online foraging sources, and know your milkweed... I speak as someone who once poisoned herself with mushrooms--I don't want to have your illness on my conscience.

Here is the jasmine, so pretty, so fragrant!



And below this cut are before-and-after shots of fried immature milkweed pods. This are very tasty! I've mad them in past years, but this year they're like a garden crop, I have so much in my yard. I've cooked them twice already.



Here they are raw. You blanch them in boiling water, then coat them in egg, then dredge them in flavored cornmeal or flour or breadcrumbs, then either pan-fry them or deep-fry them (I pan fry them).



Here they are cooked:



And beneath this cut is a portrait of my staghorn sumac tree, plus some sun-brewed sumac tea (or sumac-ade), made by squeezing/bruising the berries, covering them in cold water, and letting them sit out in the sun for a while. The result is very fragrant and mildly sour in a nice way.



Pretty sumac




Sumac tea--look at all the natural oils up top



Good night, all!

Comments

[asakiyume]

I'll tell you that story one day ;-)

I guess yes, I always have? I wanted to be the gatherer part of hunter-gatherer. As a kid, I would spend hours at the right time of year picking black raspberries. It was a reason to be out in wild land, places nobody was interested in (mainly beside railroad tracks or in empty lots), just, essentially, hanging out. Just wandering aimlessly and enjoyin the company of the world around me. And then I'd take my haul home and we'd eat it with whipped cream, and later on I started making jelly out of it.

There's a kind of profound laziness about it? Or childishness? I just want to sit in the lap of the world and have it provide for me without my doing a thing (beyond sauntering here and there, looking for stuff). No strife, no worries. I don't think I ever was so foolish as to believe that that was possible: after all, there are no berries for much of the year. And berries aren't very many calories. But in the moment, when I was deep in the raspberry canes, just picking, it felt exactly like that: like I was in the cupped hand of the universe, being given treats.

Maybe that was what prompted me to learn more: I want to know *all* the gifts that are laid out for us that we're just passing by.

In actuality, a lot of forage-able foods are not all that delicious or take a lot of work to get, or are not very plentiful, or are what the foraging books describe as a "nibble"--like, you can chew on this and it has a nice flavor, but it's not really a food. So now I restrict myself to things that just fling themselves in my face with their bounty (and that are pleasant to eat).

[sonia]

like I was in the cupped hand of the universe, being given treats.

Yes! I have always felt like wild blackberries warm from the sun are a sacrament. Especially during a long bike ride!

[asakiyume]

^_^ agreed, especially on a long bike ride