NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1500361
June 2023 • Nebraskaland 39 began foraging as a youngster in small-town Millard in the 1960s. On July mornings, my sister Teri and I would hoof it down to Grandma's house to pick luscious raspberries from fence line bushes, and when playing along the local creek, my friends and I often snacked on plump, ripe mulberries. Now much older, I still pluck wild fruits whenever the opportunity arises and strategically stock our shelves with enough jars of wild plum syrup and jam to feed an army. Regarding the latter, my wife says I get carried away. I respond that foraging is in my blood, and I can't help myself. Modern humans are descendants of hunter- gatherers, and the urge to forage is ingrained deep in our genome. By luck of the draw, I was born with more foraging genes than most folks and unabashedly express them. I will also argue that it's high time others unleash their suppressed urge to forage. Foraging is a great family activity, an opportunity to introduce children to Mother Nature. And in times of high food prices, why not stock your shelves with free, wild food? Also appealing is the fact that unlike many hobbies, foraging requires little fi nancial investment: All that is needed is a bucket, sunscreen and for the soft-handed, gloves for picking berries growing on prickly bushes. The web provides ample information on how to clean and preserve your harvest, as well as a plethora of recipes to transform the fruit to wonderful desserts and preserves. Although Nebraska off ers many wild fruits to forage, I will focus this short article on a few tasty species that are easily identifi ed, still relatively common on the landscape, and in many years, can be harvested in abundance: wild plums, chokecherries, sand cherries, raspberries, blackberries and mulberries. Wild Plums and Cherries For jelly-makers, wild plums, chokecherries and sand cherries are heaven. They belong to the rose family and more specifi cally the genus Prunus, all having white fl owers and fl eshy fruits surrounding a central pit. Wild plum (P. americana) is a tall, thicket-forming shrub found growing along roadsides and in fencerows, pastures and woodland edges. Its dense clusters of fl owers bloom in mid- April before the leaves emerge, turning the thickets into snowballs of white. The oblong plums, up to an inch long, ripen to a glossy deep red or purple color in late summer. Inside the rather thick skin lies a delicious orange pulp. Native American children so loved the plums that they picked the bushes near their villages clean before the fruits ripened. The tribes gathered the ripe plums and sun-dried them, either whole or pitted, for later use. Euroamerican settlers reportedly harvested plums by the bushel and wagon-load for sauces, pies, puddings, jelly and preserves. I start making the rounds of the plum thickets around my hometown I Wild plum pie drizzled with cream.