In one of my favorite chapters in the book, Thorne relives a summer during college in which he lived off of $100, getting most of his food by fishing and collecting wild food items.  He would pick dandelion greens in his yard for salad, dig for clams on the shore or pick wild berries until he couldn’t carry any more.

That got my adventurous side thinking, what kinds of food could I find in our area, free for the taking? 

The first thing that came to mind was mushrooms.  Sure, mushrooms are all over Northeaster Ohio, at least 2000 varieties!  They are delicious, easy to cook and you could save a great deal of money by collecting some of the premium mushroom species.  But then there is the whole, you could die from eating one and no one really knows for sure which ones are poisonous and which ones aren’t.

Ok, something other than mushrooms.

Then I remembered someone else who had walked this road before myself.  A few years ago while fishing I saw some folks walking around with buckets near the edge of the woods.  After they left I wandered over to see if I could figure out what they were doing.  That was the day I first tasted wild blackberries. 

It was back to that spot where I went a few days ago.  After picking for only maybe fifteen minutes, I had a small bag of berries that I couldn’t wait to eat.  You can see my haul in the picture above.  Although small from relatively rainless summer, the berries are still super sweet and delicious. 

I was considering making a couple jars of jam from these guys, but I can’t keep my hands off of them.  They’ve been in my house for less than 24 hours and they are almost all gone.  I guess I’ll just have to go get more, if the deer haven’t gotten the rest of them.

Foraging Food in Northeastern Ohio

• Pick Your Own Strawberries in Northeastern Ohio
• Cheddars – Cleveland, Ohio
• Pancetta Wrapped Mushrooms Recipe
• Blackberry Jam
• Buy a Side of Beef in Ohio