What are you harvesting/foraging/found?

I'll start

I collected desiccated black cherries off the forest floor January 1

They taste like dates.

Also, multiflora rose hips which are quite tasty, even though they're so tiny

Before that American persimmon in December, black walnuts can still be found, and Osage orange balls

I dug up a big Greenbriar hoping it would have starchy tubers under it like the Texas variety, no luck

And i transplanted wild ribes missouriense (gooseberries) into the sun hoping they'll make fruit. They're in such deep shade I've never seen a fruit

What in the world are you doing with those Horse Apples? Surely they're not edible?

The seeds are edible and I'm experimenting with them, but mostly just collecting the seeds to sell to peope who want to plant them

I've tried several times to start the osage orange from seed...but they never germinate. Going to try again this spring.

Those trees were at one time common here...but I see very few the last few years. I have only one on this place and would like to have more.

Today i picked more rosehips. Flavor is blue raspberry. Please dont cultivate multiflora, its a noxious weed. Rosa rugosa makes way bigger hips anyway

I also found chickweed which is much better in January than the summer, vitamin deficiency and all.

And indian currant, symphoricarpos orbiculatus, which tastes like a bitter non sour green blueberry, not a bad thing to nibble on in the woods but nothing to carry home.

The mountain mint is up. I've never tried it before, but it's actually very good, a lot like peppermint or chocolate mint but it's in a different genus

And these juniper berries taste a lot like hops, much closer than others. They would make a good beer but i think I'll leave them and see if they make mature seed

Oh and osage orange seeds are pretty darn good, like sunflowers but a little tougher and a lot nuttier. Way better than giant ragweed

The wild lettuce is coming up pretty strong now. The kind i have is very mild, nearly as good as cultivated lettuce at least for the first half of the season, and so i transplanted some into the garden where it will be eaten before the good stuff.

Dandelions are also leafing out. And garlic my dad planted 30 years ago is popping up in places i wonder if he planted. Or maybe it seeded/bulbilled itself in. I know it makes seed.

Oh and i had a shallot/onion survive the year. It was a zebrune. Bunching onions have disappeared. I will have to try those again

Now we wait for the chicory

Oh and i forgot to mention, we already found some oyster mushrooms, wood ears too

The wild lettuce is coming up pretty strong now. The kind i have is very mild, nearly as good as cultivated lettuce at least for the first half of the season, and so i transplanted some into the garden where it will be eaten before the good stuff.

Reminds me of my childhood in Missouri. The wild lettuce was good.... but the wild onions were dreaded big time.

We had whole milk from our own cows, and they always found those wild onions every spring. Made the milk undrinkable to me and I can still imagine that taste. Yuk!

Stinging nettle

...Oh and osage orange seeds are pretty darn good, like sunflowers but a little tougher and a lot nuttier. Way better than giant ragweed

@Martin Mikulcik have you had any success at starting osage orange (aka horseapple aka Bodark) from seed?

I really would like to re-establish it here on Meadowlark Ranch as it one was a hundred years ago but my attempts at starting from seed have all resulted in zero germination.

Following the definition of insanity, I have another attempt in progress but not optimistic.

@Martin Mikulcik have you had any success at starting osage orange (aka horseapple aka Bodark) from seed?

I really would like to re-establish it here on Meadowlark Ranch as it one was a hundred years ago but my attempts at starting from seed have all resulted in zero germination.

Following the definition of insanity, I have another attempt in progress but not optimistic.

I sowed a flat a couple weeks ago and I'm going to see what happens. We were 10 degrees last week so i don't expect them to come up for maybe a month

I've seen other reports of poor germination and i speculate it's an issue of the seed dying when it dries out and a stratification requirement.

If they don't come up I'll try scarifying but i know the seed is good, and i got unlimited supply. I was thinking i might be able to sell sprouted saplings this way.

I'll let you know when it works

I was thinking i might be able to sell sprouted saplings this way.

I'll let you know when it works

Put me first on the list to order some...I've tried stratifying also but hasn't worked for me.