Foraging in Spring

The Cottage Law class went swimmingly! Someday in the future I will hopefully be able to put what I learned to good use, which opens up so many exciting possibilities. A few weeks earlier, for our six month anniversary (Yikes, how time flies!), Johnny also signed us up for the foraging class taught by Forage SF. More specifically it was taught by a guy named Kevin, and you can check out his website, Feral Kevin, for more info on the classes he teaches.

That's Kevin, talking about sorrel. When Johnny and I arrived and I saw the other people we were taking the class with, I knew I was going to be that annoying kid at the front of the class that new all the answers. Turns out I was right, as I was the only one in the crowd responding when he asked, "Does anyone know what this is?". Luckily the teacher was excited about this rather than annoyed lol.

 Wild radish flowers. They also come in pink and purple.

 One of my fellow classmates sampling the wild radish flowers. The leaves and green seed pods are also delicious!

 Pine pollen. Apparently one of the most nutritional foods on the planet. Johnny and I snagged some and made a tincture out of it.

Wild spinach! This grows near the coast a lot and is very tasty and naturally salty like celery.

We also learned about the usual suspects: nettle, miner's lettuce, wild fennel and onions, chickweed, lamb's quarters, nasturtium, dock, clover, mallow, and crane's-bill. There's even a variety of hemlock with edible fruit! I knew about a lot of these, but it was great to learn that even more parts of these plants were edible than I had originally thought and to get preparation tips. I'm surprised he didn't mention anything about plantain, but we didn't see any good ones on the hike anyhow. You can see my other foraging exploits here and here.