This is the discussion thread for the Picking Fruit issue of my newsletter, Wonder on a Budget. You can sign up here to get the issues, too.
What is your favorite source for fresh produce? Have you made any attempts, successful or otherwise, at growing your own food? What stands out in your mind as the most delicious fruit or vegetable you ever tasted?
I love to forage though I’ve also been known to grow my own raggedy-scattered garden (no straight lines!) of volunteers and greens and whatever strikes my fancy. But foraging! That’s the best. Wild mustard greens in winter and chickweed and a little miners’ lettuce in early spring. I love most the elderberries, though – and always pick some for scones and pancakes and to dry for later medicinal use with wild-found rosehips.
Here in Germany I go for Bärlauch in the spring – it’s a wild garlic and makes a phenomenal salt-preserved (and slightly fermenty) condiment that’s really good on noodles and with fish or in soup. I’ll miss that a lot when I leave, as California (if that’s where I return) has no analog.
Anyway, in like-minded spirit, I hope your coming year is full of bounty :-)
Foraging sounds like fun. We get a fair crop of miners’ lettuce here after spring rains, so I’ve nibbled on that. Not much else that I’ve ever identified as safe to eat. Bärlauch sounds tasty and I know what you mean about missing local things when you move.
Thank you for the well-wishes. I hope your year is likewise full of good things!