Portsmouth Urban Forager - Kingston, Ontario

Garlic mustard is at the perfect stage for eating right now!

If you're a forager in the Kingston and surrounding area, you may wish to join our Facebook social group for local foragers. All members are welcome to organize get-togethers, post about their foraging finds and projects, organize workshops, and share any news or ideas that they wish with each other. This group welcomes any skill level, from beginner to advanced!

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I had a great time teaching a (free) foraging workshop at the Kingston Frontenac Public Library today!

I'm pleased to announce that, after months of painstaking behind the scenes work, I am launching my foraging education business this week, with its inaugural workshop taking place this Saturday afternoon. Check it out on my webpage!

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to deliver free workshops once a month via the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, all the way through November. If you're looking for free workshops, the libary webpage is the place to find them.

www.portsmouthurbanforager.com

CLEAVERS

This edible low-growing leggy plant is covered in thousands of tiny hooks that gently stick to anything it touches. As a food item, this plant is used as a green vegetable. As a medicine, it is considered a full body tonic, helping boost your body’s overall wellbeing.

NUTRITION: The leaves and stem are rich in chlorophyll and vitamin C.

FLAVOUR: Bright green, like wheatgrass

USE: Both the leaves and stem are edible. This plant must be processed (via cooking, juicing, blending or drying) before consuming, because it is covered in little hairs that will irritate your mouth and throat if consumed raw. Some ideas for use include puréeing and freezing into ice cubes for use in green smoothies, drying it to make into a tea, or adding to soups and stews.

ID (KEY FEATURE): Both the leaves and stem are covered in tiny hooked hairs that help the plant stick to almost anything (including your skin)

ID (WHOLE PLANT): This is a low-laying sprawling plant.

ID (STEM): The stem is square

ID (LEAVES): The leaves form in whirls up the stem, with 6-9 leaves per whirl. The leaves are oval, with one narrow end, which attaches to the stem.

ID (FLOWERS): The flowers are tiny and white, with four petals.

CAUTION (DON’T EAT RAW): Do not eat this plant raw. The tiny hairs will irritate your mouth and throat

CAUTION (MEDICINAL USES): This plant has anticoagulant properties (persons managing blood pressure or who have bleeding disorders should consult with a health care provider before using).

VIOLET

In the spring, this pretty little plant gives us nutritious greens and beautiful edible flowers.

Leaves are slightly mucilaginous and high in vitamin C. Harvest before the leaves get tough and the plant goes dormant later in the summer.

ID (Overall): Violets are low-growing basal plants (leaves grow from near-ground level, and spreading in all directions), often forming in clusters along the edges of forests and parks.

ID (Flowers): The flowers can be purple, pink, white, yellow or multicoloured. Each flower has 5 petals, and grows on its own leafless stem.

ID (Leaves): The leaves are toothed and heart-shaped, and grow on short individual stems (the stems can be 1-5ish inches long). The rounded part of the heart shape starts as a curl, and unravels as the leaf matures.

USE (Leaves): The leaves are a mild-flavoured green. They can be consumed raw in salads and sandwiches. They can be used to mellow a strong-flavoured wild salad or pesto (ie: garlic mustard pesto or dandelion salad). The leaves are also good cooked, or dried and made into a vitamin C tea. Consider gathering and blanching for winter storage (free food!).

USE (Flowers): The flowers can be used fresh as a garnish in salads, on cakes, or other pastries. They can be candied for long-term use as a garnish (I tried this once, and it was a LOT of work!). Personally, I think one of the most fun uses of the flowers for kids is to make them into an electric purple jelly (when you make a deep purple tea out of the flowers, and then add lemon juice according to a jelly recipe, the purple turns electric-bright!). The jelly has an uninteresting flavour (more lemony than floral), but it’s a fun project with kids!

WARNING (Yellow Violets): While all violet plants are edible, it is generally recommended not to consume violet plants that have yellow flowers for two reasons:
- Because they can cause loose stools.
- Because a poisonous look alike (“lesser Celandine”) has yellow flowers that don’t look like violet flowers, but the leaves look similar

Yesterday, a neighbor, who is a foraging enthusiast and a magician who creates beautiful and delicious pastries, dropped off some stunning magnolia crème tarts topped with violet flowers. 🩷🥰🩷🥰

WINTERCRESS (aka “Yellow Rocket”)

This edible bitter plant is in the brassica (or mustard) family.

ID: In the spring, the green leaves may appear shiny. Leaves are lobed, with two to six opposite lateral lobes and one large terminal lobe. May have a flower stalk, with small yellow 4-petal flowers. In the spring, the flowers remain closed, like broccoli.

USE: Flavour is sweet-ish, with a very bitter aftertaste (Like a mix between broccoli and arugula) . Very nutritious. Contains 3 times the vitamin C than oranges. Also an excellent source of vitamins A and K

Cooking tips: To calm the bitter, blanch until just tender, then soak overnight in cold water. Serve with strong flavours. Ferment into a kimchi or sauerkraut. If adding raw to a salad, mix with milder greens. Unopened flower stalks can be cooked like rapini

I’ve been busy! I just completed a Master Food Preserver workshop via the Cornell Extension in New York State. This is so that I can teach food preservation skills along with foraging skills.

I’m still exploring how to set up a combined foraging and preservation workshop, so be patient! For now, I’m still “just” teaching foraging.

But, this was a cool workshop! I learned how to teach preservation via freezing, drying, freeze-drying, hot water bath canning, pressure canning, root cellaring, fermentation, and salt preserving. It was a LOT in just 3 days!!!

I look forward to sharing this knowledge!

Coming up at the Kingston Frontenac Public Library: Another season of free monthly foraging workshops (8 in total. One workshop per month, April - November)!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/6J5tmygJeLkpqLKB/?mibextid=WC7FN

Learn how to identify herbs, greens, fruits, seeds, nuts and roots, followed by a hands-on outdoor exploration of forageable plants around the Isabel Turner Branch.

EDIT: The April session presently has a waitlist — see all of the upcoming Foraging for the Seasons dates here! https://calendar.kfpl.ca/events?r=months&n=12&term=foraging

I made my first marshmallows from scratch today! (Mmmm! Fluffy, gooey maple marshmallows!)