Category Archives: Forage

Urban Forage: Elderberries

clusters of black elderberries, with leaves

Elderberries. Photo by Edal Anton Lefterov

There are some elderberry trees on South Jackson, near us! Most of the fruit is out of reach. I thought I was in luck when I found some bunches on the ground. When I tasted one, I thought I’d made a mistake and poisoned myself. Turns out elderberries ARE edible – but they taste a lot better when dried, fermented, or cooked with lots of sugar!

I think I have enough to make some elderberry syrup.  If I had money (and space!) for the equipment, I’d use this recipe from Hank Shaw.

There is a lot of fascinating lore about elderberry trees!

Urban Forage: Beach Strawberries

There is a stretch down in Myrtle Edwards Park that is filled with native Pacific Northwest plants, and among them I found many of these little red “golf balls.” I picked some up and brought them home, and looked them up on the interwebs before popping one in my mouth.  They are delicious!

Then I tried to find an image to include in this post,and none of the”beach strawberry” pictures I found looked like my little red golf balls.   I don’t seem to have poisoned myself – but now I don’t know what I’ve been eating!