Please post pictures and tell stories of food that you like to collect and or find and consume on your hiking trips.

Here in New Zealand we find many many things but we can talk about that later, but please tell me what you find.

Thank you

What part of the world do you find that stuff?

What do you do with the Chickory?

The album is global, though at the moment most of the entries are from North America and Europe.

If you've ever eaten radicchio or "belgian endive", you've eaten chicory leaves.

Chicory leaves can be eaten as a salad, sauteed, boiled, etc. The roots are edible too -in fact they're pretty nutritious - and sold throughout the world (ground to a powder) as a coffee substitute. (Zero caffeine but a similar flavor.)

Chicory is very bitter; you can reduce the bitterness by cooking it in a large amount of water, letting it sit in the hot water a while, then draining the water away. (The result is a green mush, but some people like it.)

[Belgian endive is grown in darkness to prevent the leaves turning green, this also makes the leaves less bitter.]

Much of the above also applies to dandelions, which are in the same family and "tribe" (Cichorieae) as chicory.

Oh, I use Dandelions all the time when I find them. They aren't that easy to find around here in New Zealand unfortunately. Anyway yesterday I came across a giant patch of chamomile which is good.

What kind of. Mushrooms do you find in your area Nartreb?

Teaberry - I find it throughout Pennsylvania forests. Chew on the leaves, it tastes like the gum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaultheria_procumbens

I'm not a big fan of mushrooms, but in low-lying areas I often find chicken-of-the-woods, which I'm told tastes like chicken. Generally I don't consider fungus to be worth the effort of bending over to pick, but for the sake of experiment I've tried a few from puffballs to lichen. I haven't bothered with the stuff that even fungus-lovers say you have to pickle first, like most Russula species.

I like to browse berries as I go by - bunchberry, blackberry, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries. I'll also chew on a leaf of Oxalis once in a while - has a refreshing lemony taste, but not what I'd call a meal.

There's also lots of meat and fish around, but catching it tends to distract from hiking.

Freshwater mussels are great boiled up in the billy with a can of diced tomatoes, some garlic powder and dried Italian herbs. Boil 'em until they pop open then use the half shells as spoons.

They're filter feeders (obviously) so make sure the creek water is clean.

Are those things alright are they? Are they the Aussie ones?
We have them in some of the lakes in the Canterbury High Country.

Anyway last weekend I went for a hike on Mt Hutt and found that the snow berries were in season. They are a tasty little treat above the tree line

There are lots of delicious strawberries, thimble berries, and raspberries in the local mountains around here, but the season in which they are ripe is very short.

what ever is in my pockets... in wrappers

Yank-Tank wrote:Are those things alright are they? Are they the Aussie ones?
We have them in some of the lakes in the Canterbury High Country.

They're a bit tougher than salt water mussels and not as tasty on their own. In fact they're pretty bland but if you cook them up as described they're quite tasty. The trick is not to overcook them or they become tough. As soon as they pop open with the heat, that's it.

Any idea which lakes in NZ? I've never seen them in Lakes Wakatipu or Wanaka.

Just had a quick look and found this:

http://www.scene.co.nz/queenstowns-mussel-beach/26557a1.page. So they're in Wakatipu but apparently quite rare.

Prickly pear cactus fruits, the desert is full of them.

Some say they taste like chicken, but they're actually a vitamin-enriched "cross" between tomatoes and Pomegranates ...

Those red things look pretty good. Lake Wakatipu is to deep and rocky for the mussels, they like shallow lakes like lake Heron aand Clearwater. I will give them a try.

I made some home made wine out of prickly pear fruits once. Tasted a bit like dry sherry.