Wild Edibles

Late Thursday night, a security guard at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey noticed an unknown man emerging from a restricted kitchen area. The man wasn't a hotel employee, and there was something strange about his appearance, so the guard decided to investigate. As he got closer, he realized that the man had stuffed his clothes with what later turned out to be 91 frozen lobsters. The perpetrator, 38-year-old Anthony Jones was subsequently arrested.

When I first read this story, I imagined that it had to be something of a fluke. First off, there was the impressive number of lobsters; how does one hide 91 spiny crustaceans in one's clothes? Second, there was the simple improbability of the crime. It's hard to imagine that a lot of criminals have attempted to steal lobsters through concealment in clothing.

When one googles "stealing lobster," the vast majority of hits focus on lobster poaching. Even a brief perusal will convince one that this crime is very serious, at least for the denizens of Maine, and the punishment is pretty severe. If the police catch you, you're looking at serious jail time. If fishermen catch you...well, let's just say that you'd probably prefer that the police catch you.

One of my favorite wild teas is Spice Bush, Lindera benzoin, a shrub or small tree that is of the laurel family that grows in the Eastern half of the US. The twigs and young leaves make a very nice herb tea with an unusual and very pleasant, spicy flavor. The berries, both green and ripe red, can be used as a cooking and baking spice; and they are somewhat reminiscent of allspice. The plant is very easy to recognize from the leaves, and berries in the fall. But all you have to do is pluck one leaf and crush it to be positive. The beautiful, spicy aroma is unforgettable. I often would crush up a bunch of leaves and rub my face with them because they smelled so good.

Spice bush makes a great ornamental garden shrub, as well as hedges, and attracts butterflies in the spring. When I was in college at SUNY Stony Brook I used to walk into the woods behind my dorm and collect the twigs in the spring and summer to make a fresh tea. But I much preferred it in the fall when I would put aside a huge stash of the twig ends to dry, and gather around half the ripe berries from each bush. During the winter I would use the twigs for herb tea, and the ground berries in cooking, or added to the tea for a little extra oomph

"Wildman" Steve Brill , a wild edible and medicinal foraging teacher who I know from NYC says this about Spice Bush. Every now and then "Wildman" would come to our campus to lead "wild walks." I knew the woods inside out from combing them for all types of wild edibles every day and would show him a few of the locations of interesting plants, but I never showed him my best places since then everyone would know as well. These secret spots of mine I saved to show a few really dedicated members of the Wilderness Club to pass along when I graduated.

The mallow family contains several plants we see growing wild. Common mallow is the one most easily found, and was growing all over my friends Adirondack farm. It seems to love disturbed soil and likes to grow along fences, barn walls, curbs, and other obstructions. Relatives include cotton, okra, hibiscus, and durian. The original marshmallows were made from a plant actually called marsh mallow by boiling pieces of the root of the plant in water, adding sugar and whipping. Then, the thick, white confection was dropped in spoon fulls onto waxed paper to dry into candy.

The kids and I spent 3 days last week in the Southern Adirondacks. A family friend, who is quite an outdoorsman, and experienced birdwatcher, purchased about 40 acres a couple years ago near Hinckley Reservoir in upstate New York. He has been telling me that I need to come up for a visit, and we finally took him up on the offer. One thing that he mentioned in advance of the visit was that he wanted me to show him what was edible on his property. The next several posts will all be from that visit.

While I was on the mushroom foray with the Maine Mycological Association last week I was on the lookout for several mushrooms that are easy to identify and always edible and safe. Ones where i couldn't screw up and poison myself. Sure, most inedible or poisonous mushrooms will only make you sick, or wish you were dead. very few are toxic and will kill you. But being conservative in my mushroom foraging is smart, and I recommend to everyone not to eat a mushroom, even if you are 99% sure it's safe. You have to KNOW 100%, preferably with an expert helping you positively identify a type the first few times.

That said, there are a few mushrooms that are so unique, safe, edible, and good; that even a newbie can approach them with a large degree of certainty. But even in these cases I can only be responsible for myself. So please educate yourself and go mushroom hunting with those who are experienced. Or else just pick, identify, but don't eat.

One type of mushroom that is easy to identify is the Puffball. There are quite a few types, but if you have a guide you can pretty easily tell which are which. When immature or mature they are round balls anywhere from 1/2" to a foot or more in the case of the Giant Puffball, Calvatia gigantea. The Giant Puffball has even been known to grow much larger and a huge blob five feet and 55 pounds is on record. I found some small Pear Puffballs on my foray, and someone found a 6" Giant Puffball and were kind enough to give me half. Just remember that there are some types of poisonous puffballs out there, and that immature Amanita's can look like a puffball from the outside. Although if you cut them in half you can see that the Amanita has the outline of the developing mushroom, but a puffball is solid white all the way through.