Hi fellow Hiveians,
Today I wanted to share some of the wonders that I found recently while at an event!
Wild Edible Walk
I recently was able to attend an event for something and it was a park cleanup. The cleanup was a nice little escape for a few hours and gave me the ability to do something a little different. What I wasn't expecting though was that I would be surrounded by wild edibles when I was there!
The park is one that is not too far away, relatively speaking, and was something that sounded like it would be a good time to go to and allow me to volunteer and use some of my work volunteer hours. I certainly signed up for that opportunity! We went as a pretty big group and were meandering around this pretty nice park. I got separated from the group as the main person I was walking and talking with had to take a call so she headed back. I said screw it and kept trekking on, and went deeper into the wooded area. I was just browsing around on the ground when I looked and saw that it looked like there was a bush with a berry on it.
Most times I don't bother with this type of stuff because often the berries are poisonous and it's best to just leave the things alone so that I can go about my merry and healthier way without a little bit of poison coursing through my veins. This particular situation though, I for sure knew that these were not poisonous berries and that these were a little bit of wild edibles nestled in the trail! I was really excited, because I don't get the chance too often to have a little bit of a feast while I'm out!
I've been trying to get into wild edibles after watching this nice family on YouTube called The Adventure Agents. They live in Washington State and they own a bunch of land, in which grows all kinds of things but one of the big things that grows in their area is a lot of wild edibles that you can easily harvest and enjoy. I saw them harvesting wild blackberries and remembered that there is a species of blackberry that is delicious and edible but is invasive and grows quite strongly where it is. I immediately realized that I had stumbled upon such a treasure!
What was cool is that these things were everywhere! I was on the trail for about an hour and I found three different wild blackberry bushes growing around. I was at the right time too, end of June and it was about when the berries were really starting to turn and ripen but the birds hadn't stolen them all just yet. I risked life and limb, not really, just a bunch of thorns and the potential to get some ticks on me, to be able to get to some of the best ones!
There were plenty of delicious morsels to be had. I think by the time I was finished, I had eaten about 60 of them LOL I was probably going to die or end up in the hospital if the berries were not edible and were indeed poison at that point :D. Thankfully it worked out though! They were wild blackberries and they were quite readily available to be eaten. I wanted to share my find with some of the people who were walking on the trail as well but I didn't see anyone for a while which was a little annoying and comical. We were there for a volunteer event and cleanup but I saw maybe 5 people when I was out there after the group had started to walk over to the various areas. I guess some people are a bit lazy.. I didn't mind though, that meant more blackberries for me!
There were also some other berries that I was much more suspicious of, and not really sure but I do have an app on my phone that gives me some potential possibilities of what they could be.
This plant here was potentially honeysuckle and it can be edible. I didn't want to give that a try though, so I kept on going and figured that it would be best for me not to put that much risk on the day and the fortitude of my gut health for the day and week. I did appreciate the possibility that it was honeysuckle!
This little fella aaaaaaaalmost got me, let me tell you. I saw it and immediately thought "Whoa, strawberries too!!!" and I picked it. When I had it in my hand though.. I got a little suspicious of it and figured that it would be a good idea to look it up first before I start stuffing these suspicious little shits into my mouth.
Upon confirmation from the app and the AI image detection that it uses (it's been around for years, it's not a recent thing) it turns out that this is a "false strawberry" or "mock strawberry" source and it is indeed edible but it is far less palatable than the real strawberry that we are all accustomed to. When consumed in moderate numbers, it can have negative digestive side effects for the person consuming it.
I wasn't really going to eat it given how it looked initially but after reading some things like that, I was sure as hell not going to give that a risk lol. I did appreciate that it was yet another potential wild edible that I was exposed to on this relatively short walk. Given that my son and I go on quite a number of walks and hikes and rarely see wild edibles for some reason, I was flabbergasted to see three different species of berries all in one trip!
I know that I'm going to definitely be keeping a greater and keener eye out for wild edibles in the future though! Since I took this walk the other day, my son and I went fishing to a place we'd been before and sure enough, what did I find? A bunch of wild blackberries again! That invasive blackberry plant is indeed in quite a few places it seems, you just have to keep an eye out for it! The real giver for the blackberries is the thorns that it produces. They are potentially brutal if you don't watch yourself haha.
-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI.
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