#urbanforaging — Public Fediverse posts

Hey #Narrm #Melbourne folks. It's autumn, and a lot of yucca is starting to bloom.

What you might not know is that the flowers are edible, and honestly pretty good. You can eat them raw, but they are *much* better cooked.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UCt1q6kPcrs

#foraging #UrbanForaging #foragingAustralia

I might be a bit too tired to do a full write-up, but there's a tonne of basket grass (Lomandra longifolia) in seed right now.

I collected a number of seedpods, threshed and winnowed them, soaked and boiled the seeds, and added them to porridge. They were very inoffensive, and could be eaten on their own, but needed lots of boiling to soften.

Apparently they can also be milled and made into bush bread, but I don't have good milling tools, so porridge it was.

This is a plant you see everywhere in urban Australia, as it's a very hardy and low-maintenance native. It's also widespread in the bush.

Extra information in the alt text.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #australia #UrbanForaging

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

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'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?

Here's all the dried, retted #yucca bundled up on the left. On the right is the finished product from my last batch. Beautiful, strong, cream coloured fibres.

To get there now just requires a lot of manual working of the bundle, followed by lots of and lots brushing.

This isn't particularly hard, but it is time consuming, so it's best done with company, and definitely done outside (it produces lots of chaff).

If you've got a crafts fair, ren faire, or other outdoors event in #Narrm #Melbourne that's broadly aligned with my values and would benefit from a fibre processing demonstration, hit me up.

Otherwise I'll likely be cleaning and dressing these fibres the next time I'm camping or at a picnic with friends. ❤️

#fibre #fibreArt #NeolithicTech #solarpunk #foragingAustralia #urbanForaging

The weather is getting nice, and my family has started to complain about the smell, which means it's time to take my retting yucca leaves and hang them up on the line.

I'm trying a less-effort run with these. I've scraped a few bundles to remove the retted matter, but the rest I've hung as-is. I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll just brush out when they're dry.

You can see what the process looks like in full in this thread: https://cloudisland.nz/@pjf/113625891996716616

#fibre #FibreArts #NeolithicTech #retting #foraging #ForagingAustralia #UrbanForaging

One of the nice things about knowing how to #forage is that sometimes one's garden just gifts you exquisite bounties.

I had to clear the way to my work stump, which involved harvesting this absolutely perfect bunch of mustard greens that had self-seeded.

These are edible (but piquant) raw, but are much better steamed or stir-fried, much like you'd use other brassicas like broccoli or cabbage.

#foragingAustralia #UrbanForaging

The other thing I've come across this walk are palm fruit! Date palms are the best known for their fruit, but many palms have palatable ones.

These ones were surprisingly decent! Good smell, very juicy, sweet, but also a bit fibrous and quite tart. Very much like some varieties of plums, including being better with the skin removed. They'd probably make a good jam.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #UrbanForaging

Needless to say, I've been selecting grabbing the dark acorns for soaking and eating.

I've grabbed a few light ones that looked like they were in excellent condition, but I'll process those differently.

I've heard of people doing acorn tanning, and I wonder if they moldstruck acorns would be better for this? It would make sense for them to make more tannins in response to disease, which is why they're even more bitter than usual acorns.

#foraging #foragingAustralia #UrbanForaging

Today while walking I spotted an absolutely huge goosefoot bush (aka fat-hen). This is one of my favourite wild greens¹. It's closely related to quinoa and is even grown as a commercial vegetable in many parts of the world².

#foraging #foragingAustralia #UrbanForaging

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¹ It's especially good cooked with eggs. If you can find eggs.

² https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenopodium_album