Forager’s Report – 5.18.15

Pick Now

Pick Really Soon (Next Week or Two)

Seaweeds – sea lettuce ( Ulva lactuca) & bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus)

Goose-tongue (Plantago maritima)

Lovage (Ligusticum scoticum)

Amazingly Juneau has had almost two weeks of sunshine, and at the moment, it doesn’t look like anything is going to change for at least another week. It’s making everyone in town a little crazy, but in the best possible way.

The devil’s club bud picking is mostly over around town except in the coldest parts of Juneau, and the same goes for fiddleheads and fireweed shoots. I’ve got a devil’s club tincture brewing and will report on it soon.

But the spruce tips are banging! Get out there and grab some quick, because with all this sun they’ll be too big in no time! I loved my spruce-tip marmalade last year and this year I’m thinking about trying a shrub (hopefully a post soon to come).

As the nettles plant grows larger, pick off only the top five inches of the plant, the newest growth. You’ll be able to pick nettles for at least another week or two.

The beach greens are coming in and almost the full plant can be picked right now. You’ll be able to pick beach greens for most of the summer following the same method as nettles, by picking just the top parts of the plant. However once they start to flower, picking time is over. Last year’s beach green kimchi was fun (although a little spicy) and since this Alaskan plant is traditionally fermented, I’m thinking of trying a kraut this summer.

Elderflowers are one of those foraged goods that it seems like everyone down south goes ga-ga for and which I’ve never really tried doing anything with. I actually wasn’t really aware that we had elderflowers in Juneau. But on our mother’s day walk, my mom pointed out that they were about to flower and suddenly I’m seeing elderflower in bloom EVERYWHERE around town. I’ve got a ton in my backyard! So I’ll be trying an elderflower liquor (think St. Germain and French 75s) and maybe a couple of other experiments. The one thing to watch out for is that you don’t want to accidentally pick hemlock (poisonous) instead of your elderflower. While the flower clumps look similar, the leaf patterns are very different, so by looking carefully, this is a pretty easy mistake to avoid.

Shout Outs

This last weekend I attended the Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) workshop at Echo Ranch here in Juneau. BOW is a national program dedicated to providing a space for woman to learn and develop outdoor skills. I’ve been wanting to attend the Juneau BOW workshop for about five years and it just hasn’t worked out. This year was my year and with non-stop amazing sun, every person who attended was flying high. I can’t say enough good things about this program. The instructors are all volunteers who are passionate about their subjects, the women who attend are eager and excited to learn, and every class is a demonstration of generous knowledge transfer and intense curiosity.

I took deer field dressing, fly-fishing, deer hunting skills, and spin casting. As someone who was coming into the workshop with an intermediate amount of knowledge, I was a little nervous that I would have trouble connecting with the material. Instead I came out of the workshop with new tips and tricks and a huge boost in confidence.

Having only ever field dressed one deer, I really wanted to get my hands on a couple more animals under guidance. BOW is put on by the Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in partnership with the Outdoor Heritage Foundation of Alaska. ADF&G collects roadkill deer and harvests a few animals every year for this workshop, so between six women we broke down two full animals. Our instructor was incredibly knowledgeable and generous. I went into the class wanting to know how to quarter a deer in the field so I can manage an animal on my own and I came out feeling like I could easily handle this task AND that I could go into the field with someone with less experience than myself and confidently take the lead.

I’ve been sort of lurking on the edges of fly-fishing for a long time and not only did I have a ton of fun playing around with a fly-rod again, I landed my first fish! An adorable little Dolly Varden! I’m crazy excited to use the fish report that Alaska Fly Fishing Goods puts out. I also wound up with a couple of huge girl crushes on our fly-fishing instructors as well as several new women in town to go out into the field with.

I’m currently trying to figure out if I can possibly start fly-fishing on my lunch break…

ADF&G has begun a series called Beyond BOW and another program called Alaskans Afield, which is open to men, women, and children. With all sorts of new courses and offerings on the horizon, I’m pretty excited to keep taking courses here and there.

Next weekend we’re off to Gustavus where I’m hoping to catch the tail-end of their morel season. Hope folks are getting out there and collecting yummies in the sun. Let me know if there’s something you’re picking that I didn’t mention and I’ll be sure to add it!

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