Childhood Memories: On Being the Family "Foraging Scout"

One of the few activities my entire extended family always seemed able to "get together" on was foraging in fields and forests for wild edibles... berries, mushrooms and more.

Chanterelle mushrooms

Of course, the adults were mostly older, so there was a limit to how far they were willing to walk... many of the places we went to tended to be park-and-walk several miles to get to where you needed to be.

Somehow, I often ended up being the designated "foraging scout" whole would be sent out — usually riding my bicycle — to check "the usual spots" to determine whether the berries were ripe (or even PRESENT, in cases where a flock of starlings might have decimated them) or there were any significant mushrooms visible for picking.

Where I suppose many kids might have felt put upon to be given such a task at age 8-10, I didn't really mind too much.

I loved the silence of the forests, and loved riding my bike to these different spots, which I could reach so much faster than when we would all walk there, as a group.

At the end of an outing

I'd pick some things on my solitary trips out there... but it was mostly my job to cover a lot of territory "just looking."

I would actually be quite excited about these excursions because it meant that a family outing was imminent, and those were always fun.

In retrospect, I'm not sure whether I was given these assignments as "something to do to get the boy out of the house," or genuinely to use my spotting powers. I was quite good at it, after all.

Even as an adult — many years later — I still have a very keen ability to find things in the forest. I just seem able to "sense" where to look, and where would be mostly a waste of time.

Regular edible field mushrooms

Our outings would sometimes yield pretty large quantities of food, so there was also al lot of work involved after we'd get home, with cleaning and storing away for winter, whatever we didn't eat fresh, right away.

This would be particularly true during wild raspberry and blackberry season, when it was not that unusual for an afternoon's outing to to get us 25-30 lbs (11-13kg) of berries.

The following day would typically be dedicated to making jam as well as freezing the whole berries for later.

In many ways, I'm grateful I was taught these skills from a young age... especially in this day and age where food has become so expensive that supplementing from outside sources is very welcome!

Wild blackberries

Having a good understanding of the seasons and right weather conditions for food you can find in the wild is also very useful. To this day, I still like to head out to gather food from the wild... I am older and slower now, but that doesn't reduce the joy of finding "a really good spot!"

As I write these words, the first substantial rain in almost three months is falling — and will be for the next three days — which means that all the wild mushrooms will soom start shooting up from the parched land. And blackberry season is also right around the corner!

I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!

How about YOU? Do you ever forage for food in the wild? Do you enjoy such an activity? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2025.08.15 00:23 PDT
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