central Pennsylvania foraging

freeeeee food (kind of)

When I moved to State College, Pennsylvania the first thing I saw on a walk was these little river grapes, they were tart, a little sweet, and very flavorful. They were about 50% seed and not the easiest to process, but they were fun!!

During the late summer I found a pawpaw tree. Pawpaws are a tropical tasting fruit that originates in the Ohio/Pennsylvania area. The fruit HAS to ripen on the tree and is super delicate once it is ripe so it is very hard to transport and sell in grocery stores.

Moving right along throughout the year, there are so so so many apple trees (and a quince tree and a few pear trees) in the area. Most of my apple foraging was during my second year partially because I had been able to scout the trees and see they were blooming during the spring, but also because that specific fall there was a huuuuge bumper crop of apples. I made hard cider, normal cider, apple butter, ate apples and peanut butter, made apple cider vinegar, apple crisp, and probably others that I do not remember. I wrote a whole post about my apple journey.

Apples kept me busy through the fall, I probably studied in the winter, and then spring returned with lots of flowers. I like to make sodas, syrups, teas, and did also try to make some wines with spring flowers including dandelion, violet, lilac, nettle, pineapple weed. Late spring early fall juneberries appear and they make a nice infusion and I made a coffee cake with them too.

I also dry and use the herbs and flours to infuse oil and make hand salves which were such a hit.

One of the flowers I don’t have great pictures of are elderflowers, but they make a lovely elderflower liqueur that is perfect in lemonade. I also made an elderflower mead, and elderflower syrup that made a great latte. The only elderflower thing that was not good was some elderflower shortbread.

Early summer also marks the proliferation of spruce and pine tips that make an awesome syrup, a great soda, and I did also try to make spruce tip beer that was not good. I made a nochino with young black walnuts which was inspired by forager chef’s posts (as an aside, his recent book, Slow Drinks is so so so good and I want/need a hard copy). Nochino is an Italian walnut liqueur. It is bitter and sweet, and can be spiced as well. It has to age for a long time before it is ready, but it was a fun project. A little later on, elderberries were ready and used to make elderberry syrup that I drink in sodas, tea, and other drinks.

Not foraged from parks and my back yard, but late summer is tomato season and whenever anyone tells me they have too many tomatoes I ask if I can come pick them from their back yard. So foraging in friend gardens—one year I got a huge basket of tomatillos too from my friend Hannah. My favorite way to preserve them is to roast trays of tomatoes with garlic, peppers, oil, and salt. Roasting them decreases the volume by more than half. Then I have jars of roasted tomatoes in the freezer to use either to just spread on bread, eat with pasta, make a salsa by blending with cilantro and lime.

I really like the rhythm of savoring things while they are growing and blooming and preserving some of it to be appreciated later.