# Foraging



## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

This year we restarted our egg laying flock, our son moved back in recently for a year, and we did not have the time to do anything about growing some food. I feel more ashamed because the place we are renting is on almost 9 acres...

So I decided that I would do the best I could to forage. Oregon has lots of wild berries, foods and such, as well as abandoned fruit trees everywhere you turn. Now our oldest moved out of our immediate area to the Willamette Valley (about 50 miles south of us). Willamette Valley is known for growing Hazelnuts (aka: Filberts), and when September hits, and they are ready I am out there gathering all I can since they grow on the roadsides in overabundance there.

So...we have new neighbors. They bought the house next to us where there are two rows of about 20 overgrown blueberry bushes in each, that I have slobbered over past three years. I never went to ask the last owners, they were not friendly to us, and we felt we not dare ask. So, after introducing myself to them while they were working on their place, I was offered "help yourself to them, I won't have time to deal with them this year"...I did and I am unbelievably grateful to them for that offer. I started picking around 4th of July and am just finishing up the last batch to ripen on the bushes. I think I have harvested about 8-9 gallon size bags into my freezer, each one is about 5 pounds, this is not including the two 5# bags I gave away to my oldest daughter (for the grandkids) and for another family member.

There are numerous apple trees that are loaded on roadsides nearby, and of course Oregon's infamous wild blackberries (they are EVERYWHERE here, invasive Himalayan Blackberries). I plan to harvest as much unwanted berries and fruit to make up for my lack of time to plant a garden. 

I am also hoping to barter some items I have, or some of the abundant blueberries in my freezer, for other produce locally. Also making some rounds to local wood working shops for their end cuts they will sell (a friend of ours told us about one shop that sells about a cords worth for $25), of course this is small stuff just to get a fire going with. We do not yet have a chainsaw (the husband is freaked out about handling one) and will need some actual cut logs, you just cannot have good heat without a log to keep going after the smaller stuff has started it, so we'll still have to get those too, working on that.

I am waiting for some of the local gardeners with large gardens to sell their excess corn like they did last year (one guy had a sign up "Corn, 4 ears for $1). I hope to grab a lot and freeze them. Last but far from least is going up to Hood River to get some fantastic cull apples (can be gotten from the orchard for about .50 cents a pound). This is sort of cheating the foraging method, but the price is close and they will be super fresh.

I realized how viable a way this is to stock up, and is good practice for times ahead.

Speaking of times ahead...has anyone else been feeling the pinch worse than ever? I feel like we just cannot keep up although the income has not gone down. I am a huge penny pincher, so we have not bought a lot of meat lately, except chicken, beef has just gone crazy in price (27% fat hamburger $3.99 a pound!!!!!).


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Foraging is were you find it, it doesn't have to be in a remote place. It can be an abandoned orchard, an open field, or the dumpster behind Aldies. If it's useful to you ,who cares where it came from ?


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## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

HoppeEL4,


Speaking of times ahead...has anyone else been feeling the pinch worse than ever? I feel like we just cannot keep up although the income has not gone down. I am a huge penny pincher, so we have not bought a lot of meat lately, except chicken, beef has just gone crazy in price (27% fat hamburger $3.99 a pound!!!!!).

Little humor for yea, "You what the cheapist meat there is....Deer Balls.....It's under a Buck...


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Funny! But no thanks. My friends dad used to eat such things....that and pickled watermelon rinds....Some things I just cannot imagine. As for the dumpsters, people here in the Portland area do it all the time and apparently behind the higher end stores they find the most stuff, all bagged carefully so they are not tainted. I have to think the people working in the bakery and produce departments know the divers will come for it so they purposely bag it so it is ok to take?...My nephew got into this, I guess is still living the austere hobo lifestyle, not something I am fond of, I believe in working and supporting yourself, but he will do the urban foraging, and will work when he needs money.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Your food prejudices will cause your death. I don't mean to be a prick or harsh but I do want you alive. If you cant eat a dented can of soup or cut the mold off of a moldy loaf of bread, then you are going to starve to death. Get out of your comfort zone and eat some roasted grasshoppers, crickets, or ants. Go to your local stream, pond or river and eat what you can catch or gather. Make it your mission to catch or gather what you are going to eat, or you don't eat at all, that goes for dumpster diving and other foraging.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Food prejudices MAY cause some one to die, cultural beliefs can be very ingrained. Personally I have eaten what could be described as "dumpster" food though was never actually in a dumpster. I would eat a lot of stuff to avoid starvation but hopefully we prepare so that it never comes to that. I do however enjoy eating a lot of stuff that many people find gross like liver, heart, and apparently milk

As to the price of meat, specifically the beef I can't say that we are sad about that Chickens, layers especially are awesome, almost everyone can raise a few and have some basic protein and animal fats. However if that 9 acres was fenced and you were allowed, a couple goats or some weaner pigs would be right at home and give you a substantial amount of meat for the year.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I know the pigs would be a good quick supply of meat, they grow fast and put on a lot of muscle weight, but...we're not allowed to have "larger" livestock. Currently, we were just annexed into the city limits, truthfully this means we're not supposed to have more than three chickens, but hopefully since it is still undeveloped no one will fuss with that detail, I am not sure they would bypass the larger livestock. As for dumpster diving, I would if the place was like the stores my nephew goes to at night. Some are not as careful and things could get tainted, getting sick is not survival. I think there is plenty to eat here locally, as in foraging (plenty of small wildlife, salmon in the rivers, etc..).


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

HoppeEL4,cowboyhermit,
I am with you.
The last place to forage is the trash can, it is the easiest, & someone can watch then take your food.
Most helpless people will try that easy picking.
I will plant my BOL with trees & berry bushes, if they want it best bring a gun.
A big gun at that.


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