Hi Ho a Merry O, A Foraging We Will Go

First word that comes to your mind when you hear foraging – go! Is it hippy? woods? survival? Morrel? I suppose it could be a little bit of all those things.  Foraging could be done in the woods for a good morrel, but it could also be done in the prairies and sand hills of Nebraska for sand cherry or elderberry.  There are several wild or native plants to Nebraska which can be sought out for their fruit or edible parts.  The most popular is probably the Morrel mushroom found along riverbeds and forest edges, usually in April and May here.  A few more less known include: wild asparagus, wild plum, chokecherry, elderberry, sand cherry and paw paw.

Here’s when you can find them, the forage is up to you…

• Paw Paw tree – beautiful maroon flowers, green oblong fruit ready early fall
• Mulberry tree – look for the stained ground below in early summer
• Wild Plum tree – fragrant white flowers, reddish fruit by early summer
• Sand cherry shrub – white blooms followed by early summer fruit
• Chokecherry tree – white clustered flowers, dark fruit by late summer/early fall
• Hazelnut shrub/tree – males have catkins, females have round husks over nuts in late summer
• Elderberry shrub – white flowers atop pink stems, berries set late summer
• Wild Asparagus – wooded areas in May, same time as lilacs bloom

CAUTION – Be sure to rightly identify the plant you are looking for (there are look alike plants) and only take what you will use from a clean area (aware of environmental factors like agriculture treatments, factories and pesticides)