Suburban foraging

Long, long ago, in a country far, far away, a young couple went on a foraging date one afternoon in the rain. They returned soggy but happy that they had 'harvested' a large supply of Labrador Tea. This pair had also harvested at various other times, clams, crayfish, and wintergreen berries from the area surrounding Marquette, Michigan.

Years later, they would add, among others, wild mushrooms, thistle stalks, young milkweed pods and maple sap to the list.  

Today, this couple and their daughter and grandsons continue with this tradition of living off the land, at least to some degree. 

This post will show you some of the riches that are there to be gathered, even in our suburban environs, here in NZ.

A George Ward Park wind row of 'hay.'

Here, the hay that Jeanne and Allie 'made' completes it's drying. It will be used for bedding, and for nibbling on, by the 5 guinea girls.

And here it is, in the barn, ready when needed during the winter. 

There's a pear tree over beyond the playground.

This is the only pear tree I know of in a public place and the pears are just beginning to ripen. 

These beauties were transformed into pear/rhubarb crumble. 

In the fore-ground is an apple tree whose branches are bending under it's load of not yet fully ripe fruit. In the back-ground is a bosk pear tree.  I noticed that the owners of the house didn't seem to be picking any of the fruit that had already fallen to the gound (or cut the grass either).
So, yesterday I went over to their house armed with a couple of denominations of paper money and a plastic bag. I introduced myself and asked if I could buy some pears. The very nice lady of the house told me to take whatever I wanted and went on to say that I could have some apples as well when they ripened up. My kind of people!

This is not my fig tree. But it Is the fig tree in Andy's yard that provided the branch that has now become my fig tree. As you see, a few branches on this tree hang over the fence into the side walk, making the figs that grow there fair game to pedestrians. The figs disappear as soon as they are even close to being ripe and since this tree is just over a kilometer from our house, I rarely get more than one or two per season. Hopefully next year I'll have my own supply in our back yard. 

Here is one of three olive trees that hang into other pedestrian lanes as well. I have never seen anyone else picking the olives from the trees, nor the ones that fall to the ground. I noticed that the best of  the trees has recently been pruned, so my supply this year has been 'negatively affected'. 

An English white oak, Quercus robur.  

There are no squirrels in New Zealand. Look at the bounty that would be available to them. 

There are hundreds of them, just begging to be collected.

So we did. 

Just look at these beauties.
I had always read that acorns are edible and given the size and availability of these, I could not resist the temptation to try them. To make them palatable, the tannins contained in them must be removed by soaking in many changes of water or by boiling in several stages. So far, and I write this a couple of weeks after I took this picture, the acorns have remained pretty tanic. The jury is still out on this. I'll report back.             -djf

Jeanne and I just got home from the first assembly of the new school year. This is a video they played for the kids. I thought you might like it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh4dTLJ9q9o