Thriving The Future Ep. 49 – Foraging – So much Much Bounty, So Close to Home

Foraging + 2022 Growing Season in Review

“The days grow shorter and the nights are getting long. Seems like we’re running out of time.” – Triumph.

In tough times and supply chain breakdowns, these foraging ideas can make the difference to augment your diet, generate some side hustle income, or help grow your homestead.

While walking in the woods I saw five of the largest shagbark hickory trees that I have ever seen.

Nuts littering the ground. Hickory nuts are some of the best nuts. Akiva Silver at Twisted Tree Farm even presses hickory nuts into cooking oil.

The local rural elementary school has two chestnut trees. In 2021, I foraged 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket from those trees and had enough to put up several buckets of chestnuts in sand to sprout out for Spring, plus enough to share with several friends. As you can see above, I grew them out in tall tree pots, two, and five gallon buckets. When they go dormant this year I will transplant them.

I happened across two weary pear trees in a county park. No one had been harvesting the pears, and they were scraggly enough that they clearly were not sprayed, so I grabbed a bag-full.

So much neglected fruit of the forest = so much opportunity for a forager, homesteader, or even a side hustle.

Before supermarkets and big chain stores, the early Spring months used to be called “the weeks of want” because people’s stores of food for the winter were used up and the spring field crops were still a few weeks out. Those homesteaders had to forage early greens from the forest.

Modern homesteaders can harvest lots of things from the forest: mushrooms, greens, early nettles, as well as fruits and nuts later in the year.

Pawpaws, for example, grow along many creeks in woody parts of Eastern and NE Kansas. They may not be as good as the Eastern US cultivars, but they still taste like a cross between vanilla and banana pudding.

As a Homesteader, you can use seeds and cuttings to extend your homestead. In February I take cuttings of elderberry, mulberry, and autumn olive, push the sticks in the ground, and let them grow. That’s about it. They either make it or they don’t – the ultimate STUN method (Sheer, Total, Utter Neglect – from Mark Shepard). I used to stick the cuttings in soil with rooting hormone and put them under the grow lights in the basement, but they didn’t transplant well later in the Spring. With the “pushing a stick in the ground” method I have multiple clumps of elderberry bushes growing all over my land.

Elderberry, growing from a stick in the ground

When you eat organic apples from a farm you know or from your own homestead, do like Mark Shepard does and stick the seeds in a bucket or in the ground. If in the ground, plant them closer together than usual and put more than one seed in each hole. Cull or cut down the trees that show signs of apple rust fungus (a big problem here on my homestead) or blight. Keep the ones that bear fruit first. Taste the fruit and if it tastes good you have some sort of new hybrid. If it doesn’t taste good, cut it down or graft a scion from another cultivar onto the branches of the grown tree and save time by using the same root system. (note: it probably will end up a full size apple tree since it is not on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock like trees that you buy at the store).

Apples and hazelnuts grown from seed. I have already selected for the ones that perform the best.

You can also do these things as a side hustle!

Grow foraged pawpaw seeds out into a seedling tree to sell.
Stick elderberry cutting in soil in a bucket (I was trimming the elderberry bush anyway). When it grows out, sell it.
Sprout chestnuts and grow the seedlings.

Plus, don’t forget to use as food and medicine. It is surprising how many people don’t know about nettles. Sure they sting like crazy. In early spring, wear gloves, clip the tops of the nettles. Take home and steam. The itchiness goes away. They are as nutrient-dense as spinach. My friend rolls the steamed nettles into balls and freezes them for later in the year. They are his primary source of greens in the winter time.

Nettles nettles everywhere. (I itch just looking at this picture)

In tough times and supply chain breakdowns, these foraging ideas can make the difference to augment your diet, generate some side hustle income, or help your homestead.

What do you forage?

(Note: please be respectful of private property and be careful not to dig things up on public land).

In this episode I also review the 2022 growing season. What worked and what didn’t.

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