Foraging-----Mushrooms & Asparagus

When May shows up and the end of the "starvation time" ends, wildfoods offer a chance to live again. They are slow in coming and the many foragers of the area wait for the first shoots of asparagus and the precious morels. Ya, ya, we can all go up to the grocery and nab, for a pretty penny, some fresh stuff just flown in from Jerry Brown's bankrupt California. But in my pessimistic thoughts I often wondered what it would be like if that "just-in-time" delivery were not to show up. What would there be if the cupboard were bare and last year's "laid by" jars and frozen goodies had disappeared, consumed some weeks ago?



Well, I know we still have plenty in the freezer and there are still a few jars of green beans, not to mention the Buttercup squash that are still hard and fresh even in May. Here it is just about June and we have eaten asparagus almost daily for two weeks and my strength is gaining. There were a few morels around but I have grown intolerant of them as a past over-indulgence now seems to have made my growing belly unhappy with any more than a few. Still I ate a couple this year and did not hallucinate nor die of gastronomical disruption.

All told, the take was meager this spring and if we had to depend on resupplying out nutritional needs with what is found, it would not be a pretty outlook. But today I did notice pigweed coming in and shortly milkweed shoots will show up.

Then again, if I need food I can always pour my great supply of maple syrup on a bale of hay (or lots of other things), much like a farmer can pour molasses over straw to get the stock to eat it, and I too will have sustenance. It is hard to starve in this country. Boy, that asparagus is good.