Which wild fruits grow in your area?

[Falvlun]

So, I was hiking with my dog yesterday and while munching on a not-quite-ripe apple from a tree along the path, I wondered what free bounties are available in other locations.

Here in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula, we get wild raspberries, blackberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries, blueberries, and apples. There are probably others, but these are the ones I encounter most prevalently. There's enough of any of these to be able to freeze or jam or make applesauce with completely free fruit. I love it.

 

[Revoltingest]

Wow! You have the same fruits we have here in Revoltistan!

 

[Tarheeler]

In NC, we've got all kinds of great stuff.
Grapes, apples, persimmons, plums, all kinds of nuts and berries, different types of mellons, and several types of wild veggies. I try to seed my garden with wild plants I find around the house as much as possible.

 

[Falvlun]

Wow! You have the same fruits we have here in Revoltistan!

Amazing! Do you go picking?

But... I don't think trolls have thimbleberries.

In NC, we've got all kinds of great stuff.
Grapes, apples, persimmons, plums, all kinds of nuts and berries, different types of mellons, and several types of wild veggies. I try to seed my garden with wild plants I find around the house as much as possible.

Don't think I've ever encountered a persimmon, wild or domesticated. I remember picking pecans when I was a young'un in NC. That was a huge treat. What sort o' wild veggies? Leeks and carrots? Great idea to seed with the wild types.

EDIT:
Mellons?!? Like you could seriously be walking through the forest, and look down, and there's a cantalope?

 

[Songbird]

Shameful I don't quite know, other than wild berries. I'm sure we get wild apple trees, cuz Johnny Appleseed went haywire that one time...

And I have three walnut trees in my back yard.

 

[Tarheeler]

I see onions, sweet potatoes, peas, various beans, corn, tomatoes, and several types of squashes fairly regularly. While some are native, I'm sure we've got many that started out as domestic strains and then spread and adapted to the wild.

And then you've got all the edible plants most people don't know about anymore: pawpaw, arrowroot, water chestnuts, prickly pear cacti, wild garlic....

 

[Nerthus]

Where I am now we get wild apples, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, raspberries, black, read and I think white currents too.

 

[Falvlun]

Shameful I don't quite know, other than wild berries. I'm sure we get wild apple trees, cuz Johnny Appleseed went haywire that one time...

And I have three walnut trees in my back yard.

Johnny is my homeboy. On another walk, I discovered an abandoned orchard. If the trees around my house don't produce good enough fruit, I'm gonna head back over there for my applesauce apples.

Do you harvest the walnuts? We had a walnut tree growing up too, but we didn't eat them. I got a cent for every one I picked up and put in lawn waste. I would make 20 bucks a summer for that.

 

[Cybelle Jane]

thats nice. we got orange, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes. hehe

 

[Songbird]

I see onions, sweet potatoes, peas, various beans, corn, tomatoes, and several types of squashes fairly regularly. While some are native, I'm sure we've got many that started out as domestic strains and then spread and adapted to the wild.

And then you've got all the edible plants most people don't know about anymore: pawpaw, arrowroot, water chestnuts, prickly pear cacti, wild garlic....

Wow, Tarheeler. Prickly pear...you must be southern?

Edit: Ha, I see your location in the corner now. Good observation, Birdy.

 

[Songbird]

Johnny is my homeboy. On another walk, I discovered an abandoned orchard. If the trees around my house don't produce good enough fruit, I'm gonna head back over there for my applesauce apples.

Do you harvest the walnuts? We had a walnut tree growing up too, but we didn't eat them. I got a cent for every one I picked up and put in lawn waste. I would make 20 bucks a summer for that.

Falvlun, I'd love to harvest and eat the plethora of walnuts that fall in late summer, but from what I remember when I researched, it's mighty difficult to do. The processing is rather labor-intensive, messy, and requires some technology. I wonder if anyone near me knows how to do that....it seems like such a waste every year to get this free bounty of walnuts and not do anything with it.

 

[Revoltingest]

Falvlun, I'd love to harvest and eat the plethora of walnuts that fall in late summer, but from what I remember when I researched, it's mighty difficult to do. The processing is rather labor-intensive, messy, and requires some technology.

Songbird technology?
What....a beak & a stick?
[youtube]TtmLVP0HvDg[/youtube]
Tool-Making Crows - YouTube

 

[Songbird]

Songbird technology?
What....a beak & a stick?

Makes a bird proud.

Reminds me of the time Aunt Polly tried to get her own cracker by using string to open the cupboard. The string got caught around her foot in a freak accident, and docs couldn't save the foot. Now she keeps repeating this one line over and over...

 

[Tarheeler]

EDIT:
Mellons?!? Like you could seriously be walking through the forest, and look down, and there's a cantalope?

It's not quite like that, lol.

It mainly around old home stead areas and old fallow fields. Every now and then you can find watermelon in odd places. They're just the offspring of cultivated plants that have thrived and spread.

 

[Revoltingest]

Makes a bird proud.
Reminds me of the time Aunt Polly tried to get her own cracker by using string to open the cupboard. The string got caught around her foot in a freak accident, and docs couldn't save the foot. Now she keeps repeating this one line over and over...

A revolting ode to Polly.

Darn walnuts give birds fits of pique.
And they want a faster technique.
They're nobody's fools
so they devise tools...
...& wield a stick in their beak.

 

[Songbird]

A revolting ode to Polly.

Darn walnuts give birds fits of pique.
And they want a faster technique.
They're nobody's fools
so they devise tools...
...& wield a stick in their beak.

Awww, thank you! I'll be sure and pass it on to her.

 

[Revoltingest]

Awww, thank you! I'll be sure and pass it on to her.

I should've used crackers instead of walnuts as the object of desire, but oh well....you get what you pay for.

 

[Falvlun]

It's not quite like that, lol.

It mainly around old home stead areas and old fallow fields. Every now and then you can find watermelon in odd places. They're just the offspring of cultivated plants that have thrived and spread.

Oh, man. that would be the jack-pot! Just walking along, and bam! I'm bringing watermelon home tonight!

Slightly jealous.

Bout everything, besides apples, are done. I found a last handful of blueberries on hike this weekend, and a tenacious blackberry bush on the golf course. Till next summer!