Food Finds.

[+TeamSWAG]

Hey all. A few weeks ago we were taking a trip through the U.P. of Michigan and found a cache that was just surrounded by wild blueberries bushes. Link to cache. There were literally hundreds of small bushes on the 1/2 mile hike to the cache. The berries were just ripe but very small, probably due to the lack of rain this year.

 

So that got us wondering about other wild food locations. Anyone else have any interesting food find stories? Thanks.

 

Mike

[+Sue Gremlin]

There are zillions of wild blueberries in NJ, and it's peak season right about now. The deer are all fat and happy.

There are also mulberries, blackberries, and raspberries all over. They abound this time of year. Come and cache in NJ.

[+BadAndy]

I have the coords to about a dozen great huckleberry spots in Idaho. We guard these locations more than our favorite fishing holes......

[jupilli]

How about this

 

[+briansnat]

There are zillions of wild blueberries in NJ, and it's peak season right about now. The deer are all fat and happy.

There are also mulberries, blackberries, and raspberries all over. They abound this time of year. Come and cache in NJ.

Yep, I've been snacking on wild blueberries and blackberries for a few weeks now. In NJ they're all over the place. They seem to taste better in some areas though. In some places they are nice and sweet. In some quite tart.

[+LadeBear68]

Iguana Joe's.

[+Team Red Oak]

Jupilli-

 

Is that a cloudberry?? I just love cloudberry liquor, I have only about 1 or 2 shots left in the bottle and then I will sadly be without it again. Nothing like sauna and snow and alcohol! sigh.

 

edit: Oh yeah keeping on topic there are lots of Mulberries and pepper trees in my part of MD.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Team Red Oak

[+ohgrl]

Forager's Forest Is up in the Baldwin, MI area and although it wasn't blueberry season when I went...when you look over the horizon from the cache it is pretty much all you can see.

 

Here in Kalamazoo Cant Stump Ya is at the entrance to the bogs which have cranberries and blueberries...mmmm yum

[+reveritt]

I enjoyed snacking on wild blueberries at a RI cache this past weekend.

 

What the heck is that yellow thing?

[+4leafclover]

there is a guy that National Geographic did an article on who used to do tours through central park, all based on things edible growing in the park. I'll look for it later tonight. (He got arrested for it, too.)

[+Solitarian]

I'm in the process of placing a cache in Illinois (in a DuPage County Forest Preserve). Two months ago I scouted out a location, and this morning I was there to check on it before I go out with the Park Ranger to place it officially. (It's a permit thing...) I found that there are a bunch of wild rasberries growing around the whole cache site. I didn't try any, but then, I don't like berries.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Solitarian

[+4leafclover]

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Clippings...Geographic.html

[+Miragee]

There is a cache in north San Diego county that is right by a whole bunch of blackberry bushes. While my Geocaching partner was looking for the cache, I was eating berries.

 

I got berry full . . .

[Dinoprophet]

I wandered into a bunch of stinging nettles while caching once. I hadn't known what they looked like before, but I figured out what they were very quickly. Later that week, I found some in my garden (I discovered it when my hand started stinging). As an act of vengence, I made tea out of it. Tasted a lot like chamomile. I understand they're good fried, too. Cooking or boiling neutralizes the stinging acid.

 

My dad has found morels in his yard. We knew a spot when I was little where asparagus grew wild. And we used to dig for leeks on my aunt's property in Mesick, MI (motto: "Mesick of Mushrooms", famous for its morels)

 

Anyone know a good online berry guide? I'm always tempted but don't know enough to risk eating them.

[+CompuCash]

awesome blackberry bush close to one of my cacher -

 

that reminds me... HONEY!!!???? Get the berry pots out!

 

cc\

[+CompuCash]

So that got us wondering about other wild food locations.

 

we got some pretty wild McDonalds out here on the left coast...

 

duz that count?

 

cc\

Edited July 26, 2005 by CompuCash

[+flask]

i know where to find black trumpet chantrelles. i won't take you there, but i might pick some for you if you're very nice to me.

[+Snoogans]

There are lots of blackberries near a cache called Enron Sucks, in Memorial Park, here in Houston. The patch is about 50 yards wide and 3/4 of a mile long!!!!

Mmmmmhmmhmmhmm blackberries.

 

I've been meanin' to make some blackberry wine.....

 

There are lots of Muskadine grapes growing all over the place near my Row versus Wade cache. Those are ONLY good for wine making, but they make a mighty fine wine.

[+Jhwk]

Blackberries all over in MO right now. Dry season has hurt us, but you can still find them. As wel as blueberries and raspberries. Had some wild strawberries earlier this spring. Small and very tart. Then there are also the wild gooseberries, grapes, and snazberries

 

Can't wait till the next Morel season though...

[+EleriandBlade]

We came across some huckleberry 'pickers' when we were looking for a cache... a guy and his kids had broken *whole branches* off the bush, and then offered to share the berries with us. I had to make a nasty comment, much to Blade's dismay.

 

Around here I'm getting purple blackberry fingers while caching as much as I am getting sunburnt!

[medoug]

What about nuts? Granted you have to husk, dry, and crack them before eating.

 

Walnuts, hickorynuts, butternuts, and hazelnuts are common favorites.

Edited July 26, 2005 by medoug

[+GEO.JOE]

Perpetual Geocache was in an old grove of olive trees, that was neat to find.

 

Like many others, I have been snacking on Blackberries on my last few trips, and I spotted an apple tree on the way to a cache last trip, a bit small now but I will check back in a month or so.

GEO.JOE

[+pghlooking]

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Clippings...Geographic.html

Very cool story. Thanks.

[+Sue Gremlin]

You can eat stinging nettles?

Those things are evil. I used to have them all over my yard, and even with gloves, I couldn't pull them out, the little glassy needles would penetrate even heavy canvas.

I had to Roundup them and wait for the horrid things to die.

There are mother lodes of them in NJ, right next to the poison ivy.

Edited July 27, 2005 by Sue Gremlin

[+Yamahammer]

We've picked a few blackberries while caching in TX. ... Some people around these parts eat rattle snake. I'm not partial to it but rattle snake is as WILD as it gets.

 

[+VegasCacheHounds]

I stumbled upon a ton of mushrooms here in a wooded area near McKinney Texas last weekend. I wasn't looking for mushrooms, I was looking for a cache, but I never found it.

I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these were, and if they were edible or not.

I also discovered a whole field of corn while caching that day, but I think it was placed there on purpose

[+Sue Gremlin]

We found some lovely ripe raspberries on our way to a new cache last night. Mmm! It looks like the deer and (Tuscon Thompsen, the dreaded FTF guy who beat us there by 2 hours) took most of the good ones, but there were still some left for meeeee!

[+2qwerqE]

O how I love mushrooms! Check out this link for my pics of mushrooms found while geocaching around Indiana. Some are doubtless edible, but I am not cinfident enough in my amatuer identifiactions to risk my life and liver on a dare. so I just shoot them and leave them where they are.

 

Mushrooms of Indiana photos

[+Yamahammer]

Mushrooms??? I grew up in the 70's!!! This brings back some memories. It'd bring back more but I blame the memory loss on the mushrooms.

 

[+culp686]

there is a cache up here in rainier OR called "Rainier #6" that i went to last fall. i parked the car and started for the cache. i got about 100 ft. down the trail and looked to my left. i saw one of the largest patches of huge yellow chantrelles i have ever seen. i picked a few for dinner that night and went back 3 or 4 times for more. Mmmmmmm. good eatin.

Edited July 27, 2005 by culp686

[+briansnat]

O how I love mushrooms! Check out this link for my pics of mushrooms found while geocaching around Indiana. Some are doubtless edible, but I am not cinfident enough in my amatuer identifiactions to risk my life and liver on a dare. so I just shoot them and leave them where they are.

 

Mushrooms of Indiana photos

I had a bad experience with wild mushrooms. My mother-in-law swore they were good to eat. They weren't.

[+Team Cotati]

I've never had a bad experience with wild mushrooms. I wish that I could say the same about my mother-in-law. I really love mushrooms...yum yum GOOD!!

[+Team Red Oak]

What the heck is that yellow thing?

 

I believe it is called a cloudberry. They grow in Finland. I've never actually tasted one, but I've had liquor made from cloudberry.

 

http://www.webtender.com/db/ingred/210

 

 

MMMM MMMM Good

[+Yamahammer]

O how I love mushrooms! Check out this link for my pics of mushrooms found while geocaching around Indiana. Some are doubtless edible, but I am not cinfident enough in my amatuer identifiactions to risk my life and liver on a dare. so I just shoot them and leave them where they are.

 

Mushrooms of Indiana photos

I had a bad experience with wild mushrooms. My mother-in-law swore they were good to eat. They weren't.

And you believed your ... mother-in-law???

 

[jupilli]

Jupilli-

 

Is that a cloudberry?? I just love cloudberry liquor, I have only about 1 or 2 shots left in the bottle and then I will sadly be without it again. Nothing like sauna and snow and alcohol! sigh. 

 

edit: Oh yeah keeping on topic there are lots of Mulberries and pepper trees in my part of MD.

Sorry Team Red Oak, it took too long to answer, kind of occational reader here.

 

Yes, it is a Cloudberry !!

We have an exceptionaly good year 2005. All the swamps in northern part of Finland are yellow and orange on these days.

 

You are wellcome !! To taste the berries and caching also, but hurry, the berry season is very short !!

[+briansnat]

O how I love mushrooms! Check out this link for my pics of mushrooms found while geocaching around Indiana. Some are doubtless edible, but I am not cinfident enough in my amatuer identifiactions to risk my life and liver on a dare. so I just shoot them and leave them where they are.

 

Mushrooms of Indiana photos

I had a bad experience with wild mushrooms. My mother-in-law swore they were good to eat. They weren't.

And you believed your ... mother-in-law???

 

Hey, she paid. She ate a lot. I only had a few bites. I was sick for a few hours though. She was very, very sick.

[+shawhh]

briansnat,

 

lucky you didn't both die. doesn't take much of the wrong shroom to destroy your liver. wild mushrooms are definitely not worth the risk.

 

harry

[jupilli]

briansnat,

 

lucky you didn't both die.  doesn't take much of the wrong shroom to destroy your liver.  wild mushrooms are definitely not worth the risk.

 

harry

I agree that some are causing really nasty promlems to your liver and kiddneys.

If you have pieces left, save those in case you have to contact doctor. It sometimes takes days before they affect and if you can show the type of the mushroom it may help the treatment.

 

However, if you know what you are doing, picking the right ones, you will have VERY nice meals. My wife is just now cooking the mushrooms I picked yesterday and I can quarantee the soup will be delicious !!

I have never had any problems but once more, YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHICH ONES TO PICK !!!

 

I recommend, start learning the mushrooms, picking them works nice together with caching !!

[Dinoprophet]

(old joke)

My first wife died from eating poison mushrooms.

So did the second.

So did the third.

The fourth died of a fractured skull. She didn't like mushrooms.

[+ohgrl]

(old joke)

My first wife died from eating poison mushrooms.

So did the second.

So did the third.

The fourth died of a fractured skull. She didn't like mushrooms.

[+JimmyEv]

Last summer I was at my parent's in Pennsylvania. My sister (age: 34) wanted to go blackberry picking; I wanted to go geocaching. So I pulled out my handy-dandy 'blackberry locator' and showed it to her. At first she didn't believe me that this gadget actually detected blackberries. Then I explained to her that blackberries give off a certain pherome that this little gadget detects. All you had to do was follow the arrow. I found the cache, she found blackberries. Last I heard she was scouring stores in the Pittsburgh area looking for 'blackberry detectors'...

[+chris-mouse]

In these parts, just about every cache outside the city is surrounded by raspberries and blackberries., So is every park, bit of forest, or even just open spaces. They grow everywhere, and right now they berries are at their peak.

If you know where to look, you can also find wild strawberries growing along some of the trails. the srawberries are long over, and they're a lot more work to collect, but they're worth it. One tiny strawberry, smaller than a pencil eraser, has all the flavour of one of those big huge store bought berries.

[+The Bookends]

The piedmont of NC is covered up in black berries right now. In the mountains blue berries, black berries, raspberries and wild strawberries should be coming in soon if they havent already. You only think store bought strawberries are good until you find them in the wild. They are about the sive of your fingernail, but have the taste of 4-5 store bought ones.

[+Mr. 0]

You only think store bought strawberries are good until you find them in the wild.  They are about the sive of your fingernail, but have the taste of 4-5 store bought ones.

I was just reading something about that the other day. Fruits and veggies, among a lot of other foods, have been genetically engineered to be bigger and prettier since that's what people want and buy more often, but in doing so, much of the taste is gone. That's why the trail berries are usually much tastier than what you buy at the store.

[+chris-mouse]

Store bought berries are picked green, and ripened on the truck with an enzyme spray. since most of the sugar and flavour is added to the berry just as it ripens, that's missing from those that are picked green. The enzyme can't compensate for that.

They have to be done that way, because there's no way ripe strawberries would survive a truck ride across the continent from California to the east coast.

If you can get them, local berries are much better, because they're not picked until they're ripe. The problem is that the local farms can't supply supermarket quantities, so you rarely, if ever, see them in the local supermarket chains.

[+The red-haired witch]

I was just reading something about that the other day. Fruits and veggies, among a lot of other foods, have been genetically engineered to be bigger and prettier since that's what people want and buy more often, but in doing so, much of the taste is gone. That's why the trail berries are usually much tastier than what you buy at the store.

 

Actually, this was done mostly by cross-breeding and has been going on for many centuries. People wanted bigger strawberries, so the plants producing bigger strawberries were bred. Using this technique, after many plants generation the strawberries were bigger... but as they were using size as the primary breeding criteria and not taste, those strawberries are not as tasty as wild ones.

 

Many modern fruit and vegetable species have been developped to look good, keep long and be easier to transport over long distance, sometimes at the detriment of taste. A similar thing happened with some flowers : several very impressive looking rose species have no scent... they were breeding for more petals and brighter colors, the smell was lost somewhere during the breeding process.

 

Genetic engineering is still very new and very few products available on the market are genetically engineered. This technique is mostly used to create plants with completely new characteristics, like rice with vitamin A or plants that have resistance to insects or to specific pesticides (e.g. Roundup). So far, almost all research is done on the world's biggest crops (rice, corn, canola, soya...)

 

Store bought berries are picked green, and ripened on the truck with an enzyme spray. since most of the sugar and flavour is added to the berry just as it ripens, that's missing from those that are picked green. The enzyme can't compensate for that.

They have to be done that way, because there's no way ripe strawberries would survive a truck ride across the continent from California to the east coast.

If you can get them, local berries are much better, because they're not picked until they're ripe. The problem is that the local farms can't supply supermarket quantities, so you rarely, if ever, see them in the local supermarket chains.

 

Admitedly, I don't know all berries species, but strawberries, blueberries, raspberies and blackberries have to be picked ripe (and green blackberries are actually poisonous). No amount of spraying will ripen them after picking. If they are sprayed, it's with things like anti-fungal agents to stop molds from growing. Many modern strawberries can indeed resist 2 or 3 days on the road and over a week at the supermarket.

 

On the other hand, it is true that the local growers are able to use less resistant but tastier varieties, which is one reason their stuff is better. It's also fresher, which helps.

 

Sorry for the off-topic comments, but my scientific self felt the need to correct some misconceptions.

 

I'll try pick up some berries on my next geocaching trip...

[+treasure_hunter]

I find a lot of Dingle Berries around here.

 

Nah, j/k there are blackberries, rasberries, and mullberries around here. We were out on a caching trip not far from home and we found some mullberries growing and we stopped and loaded up a bag of them.

[+briansnat]

You only think store bought strawberries are good until you find them in the wild.  They are about the sive of your fingernail, but have the taste of 4-5 store bought ones.

I was just reading something about that the other day. Fruits and veggies, among a lot of other foods, have been genetically engineered to be bigger and prettier since that's what people want and buy more often, but in doing so, much of the taste is gone. That's why the trail berries are usually much tastier than what you buy at the store.

This is especially true with tomatos. I don't even bother with tomatos unless they are locally grown. The ones that come pre packaged in that little plastic "boat" are the worst.

 

Thankfully local tomatos are just starting to come out around here and local corn has been ready for a few weeks. Mmmmmm, local corn!

[+Mr. 0]

Sorry for the off-topic comments, but my scientific self felt the need to correct some misconceptions.

 

I appreciate the correction. You're right though, that was actually what was stated in the article, I just mis-typed by saying "genetically engineered."

 

Either way though, I know I for one like to pick a few berries if I find them while out in the woods. Around here I tend to find mostly mulberries, and blackberries. My father has been searching for a decent mushroom patch for years but rarely comes up with anything. I always keep my eye out when I'm caching, in hopes that I can point him towards a good patch.