For a wild foods forager, now is the beginning of the spring cornucopia. I call this season “verging on verdant.”
Red alder — often disparaged as the weed of trees — is one of the Northwest’s most unappreciated native trees….
In teaching children about the cycles of nature, I often encourage them to look for signs of the season. The…
From a forager’s perspective, our Vashon forests are more bountiful now than any other time of year, and the other day I was able to prepare a lunch exclusively with ingredients I collected myself.
For the Northwest forager, early spring provides a unique array of tempting new edibles. Nutritious buds are appearing on the Indian plum, salmonberry, blackberry, huckleberry and Douglas fir branches. Sprouts such as sweet cicely, cleavers and bittercress are pushing through the warming soil.
Catching a glimpse of a hummingbird zipping away from a salal bush, I had to investigate what had attracted it. Much to my surprise, the bush was fully flowering — in December.
The smell in the air is distinctly autumnal.
As the big leaf maple pollen settles in a fine layer of yellow dust on everything, it signals that the cornucopia of spring edibles has arrived.
This time of year the foraging selection is slim.
