Foraging - commonly means searching widely for food.
I realised I have been a forager since I was young. I have vivid memories of sucking the honey from honeysuckle flowers at family Christmas parties while the rest of the family were gorging on prawns.
These days I am rather fond of adding milk thistle to banana smoothies.
Recently I noticed the resurgence in this ancient practice and thought I would upload a quick post about foraging in Australia. There are many plants growing wild as weeds that are edible in Australia.
You must be careful not to eat from sprayed plants and I would not be too keen to eat from near a highway either.
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| Common sow thistle, milk thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) |
From left to right: wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)- delicious in salads, Coryza bonarienses - fleabane, Bidens pilosa - cobblers peg or sticky beak - young leaves are tasty, common dandelion (taraxacum spp.) - leaves can be used in salads or smoothies and roots can be made into a coffee substitute.
Chickweed (Stellaria media) definitely deserves a mention as well - this amazing plant is really high in vitamins and is great in salads, great for your chickens and grows in abundance in my yard in winter. This amazing little plant has also been used in skin remedies to heal itches, and abrasions.
Here is a link for an amazing little book that lists many edible weeds in Australia
http://www.eatthatweed.com/
Here are a couple of great little videos from Diego Bonetto about foraging showing many of the common edible plants you can easily find.
Good luck with your foraging - leave your favourite foraged plants in the comments below.
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