Do not trust #ChatGPT and #LLMs with identifying plants. They can double down on declaring something non-poisonous even when completely wrong.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTygkZNkm_H/

#UrbanForaging

Found a bush with beautiful lavender berries, which is apparently a #BeautyBerry. Unfortunately, I can't tell which type it is, which is sad because the American Beautyberries can be made into jam, while the Chinese ones cannot.

#UrbanForaging

Janine couldn't find bay leaves at the store, but luckily I know there is a #BayLaurel tree growing in the baseball backstop of the school across the street.

#UrbanForaging

Eat Hawthorns not Hollies.

https://youtube.com/shorts/OaVgw4VQMGs

#UrbanForaging #BlackForager

A tiny bit of flour and into the pan, and the result is actually edible!

It's nutty with fresh notes of sand, and the slightest hint of figs. It definitely feels like something you'd only eat when there's not much else available, but it's much better than I was expecting. Even Mr 8 had a piece and came back for seconds.

So Moreton Bay fig seed meal as a component in bush bread is definitely a possibility, albeit a high effort and gritty one!

FIN/🧵

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

Yeah, this has way too much water in it, and it's just dissolving in the oil.

The result tastes good, though! I wasn't expecting that. It's nutty and crunchy.

So not good as the sole ingredient in a bush bread, but certainly has it's place in a mix.

Next step is to add a little flour as a binder, to see what that's like.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

And after some hand milling it looks even less palatable now. I think I'm going to discover why nobody does this.

As usual for anything involving seeds, I have a bird supervising me.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

Back at home, and I discovered that since I foolishly put some of my "dry" Moreton Bay fig pulp in sealed containers, it has since gone mouldy. However there's still a little bit left that's good.

I've broken the clumps up with my kitchen rock, pushed the result through a sieve, and winnowed the result. Winnowing was a little tricky, because the pulp dust isn't much lighter than the seeds.

The end result is this! A bowl of spoiled pulp, a bowl of somewhat separated seeds, and a bowl of coarse bits that didn't make it through the sieve. The winnowed pulp is gone on the wind.

Now to grind the mostly-seed mixture and see if I can make it into a paste and cook it.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

Well, I blew my coworkers' minds by telling them that you can eat rose hips. Also, I needed to take a step back from that and tell them that #roses actually fruit after they flower. Also, the majority of fruit that we commonly eat are actually in the rose family, which kinda makes it like the brassica of fruit.

#UrbanForaging

Of all the #RoseHips I've tried recently, this one I found today was the most delicious. Not much flesh around the ample seeds, but by far the sweetest. Weird how the taste is fruity, but also like pea pods.

#UrbanForaging

So I ordered some #Hawthorne jelly from the internet to see if I was missing something, and holy shit is this stuff delicious. It actually tastes like a light and fruity chocolate.

Now I need to see if I can recreate this from the berries I got through #UrbanForaging.

Okay, #Hawthorne berries have been a bit of a letdown in my #UrbanForaging journey, since while they are plentiful, they just kinda taste like bland apples, but harder to eat.

That being said, this tree over on 66th has had the best haws so far. Look at how they are so meaty that they all split their little skins.

#Portland

I've collected a small basket of dried Moreton Bay fig seed/pulp masses. This didn't take very long at all, even with me being very selective to only grab the driest and cleanest ones.

I'm travelling at the moment, so I won't know if I'll have a chance to process these until I get back, but I imagine I'll want to lightly work them to loosen the seeds from the pulp, and then either winnow or float the mass to see if I can separate out the seeds.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

I was wondering how one would remove the pulp to dry and separate the seeds, but walking under one of the trees reveals that no work is necessary. Moreton Bay figs are a food source for many birds and other animals, and they just leave the seeds after eating the pulp. All one really needs to do is pick them up.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

Hello #foragingAustralia friends! I've long enjoyed eating Moreton Bay figs, but of course they have *so many seeds*. The seeds aren't disagreeable in taste, but they are dry and tough compared to domestic figs.

Has anyone any good experiences or references in grinding them and making a figgy bush bread?

#foraging #australia #urbanForaging

I didn't realize that when the #HoneyLocust in our backyard was knocked down in the ice storm, we were also losing access to a ton of free beans!

https://youtube.com/shorts/TpcGzMjVb4E

#UrbanForaging #BlackForager

I've been doing some #UrbanForaging recently, but I've had no plans of getting into #MushroomForaging due to the higher stress of getting poisoned, but now a tree down the block appears to have sprouted a Chicken of the Woods right at head height next to the sidewalk. Is that really what this is?

I told my boss that I just started picking Chinese crab apples from the trees in my neighborhood, and she said that is her favorite and she ate so many of those as a child when food was scarce in soviet Ukraine.

Here's hoping that my #UrbanForaging will remain a hobby, and not become a necessity due to the #ImpendingEconomicCollapse.

These crabapples I found a few blocks down are delicious! I've heard that crabapples are not good tasting, so I wonder if these are better because they are Chinese crabapples.

Not sure how to avoid eating the seeds though since they are so small, so I just tried not to chew too hard.

#UrbanForaging