Waidmann
04-26-2009, 07:46 PM
Ran across this article a while back. Here are a few excerpts. I'd recommend readinga the whole article. I didn't find any reference to my personal favorite--immature cattails. Grab the cattail head (in MIchigan, it's usually early June), shuck it like corn, and sautee it in butter or olive oil. My wife likes to sautee it in beef broth. Great. My kids grew up thinking cattails are a vegetable.
Any personal favorites?
Waidmann
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http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/live-off-the-land-in-the-city.aspx
Live off the land -- in the city
Wild greens, mushrooms, fruit and even fish and game can be harvested in America's urban jungles. Dandelion salad, anyone? Or some batter-fried squirrel?
...For example:
Chauncey Niziol fishes for bass and bluegills in downtown Chicago.
Steven Rinella traps squirrels and catches pigeons in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Jeff Yeager harvests shoots from bamboo that grows in his suburban Washington, D.C., yard.
Katy Kolker harvests tree fruit that otherwise would have rotted in Portland, Ore.
"Radical ecologist" Nance Klehm plucks salads out of city sidewalks and leads urban foraging walks around her home city of Chicago. A few clients are survivalists, she says, or foodies who are looking for "unusual tastes." But most are simply "curious about the world around them." Foraging is "about a connection and an interaction with an environment," she says.
...While Chicago native Niziol focuses mostly on fishing and hunting in his weekly ESPN radio program, he's not strictly carnivorous. Niziol swears by a good plate of fiddlehead ferns, fresh wild carrots (aka Queen Anne's lace) or a mug of sassafras tea ("it tastes like root beer").
And mushrooms? Don't get him started. "I use them every which way I can. I put them in stews, I dry them, I make a killer mushroom soup," says Niziol, a former outdoors columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
Mushrooms must be picked with care, he notes, because some fungi are poisonous. A good field guide is essential. What's even better is to find a local mycological society and start taking walks with experts.
...In recent years cities such as New York, Cincinnati and Washington have had special archery hunts to thin out deer herds. Some areas of Arizona are experiencing nuisance populations of rabbits.
"We have got bunnies galore," says Arizona Fish and Game spokesman Rory Aikens. Rabbits can be taken in the city limits with a bow and arrow or slingshot. So can "very edible reptiles," including the chuckwalla, a large lizard that Aikens describes as delicious when barbecued: "high protein, zero fat." Pigeons are also fair game, he notes; as a domestic species gone wild, they are not classified as wildlife, and no hunting license is needed.
Any personal favorites?
Waidmann
**************
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/live-off-the-land-in-the-city.aspx
Live off the land -- in the city
Wild greens, mushrooms, fruit and even fish and game can be harvested in America's urban jungles. Dandelion salad, anyone? Or some batter-fried squirrel?
...For example:
Chauncey Niziol fishes for bass and bluegills in downtown Chicago.
Steven Rinella traps squirrels and catches pigeons in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Jeff Yeager harvests shoots from bamboo that grows in his suburban Washington, D.C., yard.
Katy Kolker harvests tree fruit that otherwise would have rotted in Portland, Ore.
"Radical ecologist" Nance Klehm plucks salads out of city sidewalks and leads urban foraging walks around her home city of Chicago. A few clients are survivalists, she says, or foodies who are looking for "unusual tastes." But most are simply "curious about the world around them." Foraging is "about a connection and an interaction with an environment," she says.
...While Chicago native Niziol focuses mostly on fishing and hunting in his weekly ESPN radio program, he's not strictly carnivorous. Niziol swears by a good plate of fiddlehead ferns, fresh wild carrots (aka Queen Anne's lace) or a mug of sassafras tea ("it tastes like root beer").
And mushrooms? Don't get him started. "I use them every which way I can. I put them in stews, I dry them, I make a killer mushroom soup," says Niziol, a former outdoors columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
Mushrooms must be picked with care, he notes, because some fungi are poisonous. A good field guide is essential. What's even better is to find a local mycological society and start taking walks with experts.
...In recent years cities such as New York, Cincinnati and Washington have had special archery hunts to thin out deer herds. Some areas of Arizona are experiencing nuisance populations of rabbits.
"We have got bunnies galore," says Arizona Fish and Game spokesman Rory Aikens. Rabbits can be taken in the city limits with a bow and arrow or slingshot. So can "very edible reptiles," including the chuckwalla, a large lizard that Aikens describes as delicious when barbecued: "high protein, zero fat." Pigeons are also fair game, he notes; as a domestic species gone wild, they are not classified as wildlife, and no hunting license is needed.