I have foraged watercress from Malibu Creek, and there is also wild anise growing there, but I have not picked it. I put the watercress in my pond in Venice, along with some tadpoles that we caught in the creek, and those turned into tree frogs, which were extremely loud. The neighbor thought we had gotten a dog.

I find it much more convenient to just plant what I want to harvest, and that has included nasturtiums, which I can also find in the wild.

I used to have a weedy garden that produced lettuces, cherry tomatoes, chives, parsley, cilantro, arugula, lemongrass, etc that all reseeded themselves, when I lived in Venice, but since then, I've tried to keep things more under control and in pots. We do have a large rosemary bush, but mint and oregano have not done as well. I used to have lots of tarragon in Venice, and I got rid of it because I can't stand the taste of it. I also do not like sorrel, and so I only planted that once. I've picked dandelion greens for salads also.

I wish I could forage for morel mushrooms!

I posted similar maybe a year ago. I tend to lean on the side of caution. We tap our maples every year. I think it is 40 gallons makes a quart?...we have a dozen taps and can get at least twenty gallons in 24 hours as long as the night temps are below freeing at night and the day-time are well above...50ºF +.

We tapped our birch but it was nasty bitter.

This year i cooked down 20 gallons but not fully to syrup. Maple water. In juice jars in the freezer. I'll add rhubarb juice and ginger and lemon when the rhubarb explodes. 2 gallons half cooked down maple in the barn fridge. (maple needs refrigeration)

Seems to be a big thing to bottle maple water like coconut water the past few years.

I don't think of garden foraging the same as wild foraging.

But i did just harvest a dozen garlic spring bulbs. I planted way too close together in a panic last fall. (in a rain storm)

Amazing Young spring bulbs like spring onions.

Lots of spring flowers...forsythia, meh. Rose hips in the fall. Wild thyme and chives.

I took a weekend mushroom foraging seminar with an english friend 25 years ago. One day in-house, then a hike next day. (We shared a mountain summer house together). He did white paper overnight, yada yada. Cooked mushrooms with eggs one morning and got so sick...shaking for hours. Freaked me out. Refused to go to the hospital.

A talented young actor on a hike died from foraging. Too far away from medical help.

If safe foraging has an actual flavor addition to a meal i might bite. But some/most are just a floral/green/vegetal visual. Not much flavor.

The usual blackberries growing wild along the side of the road. When I was young we would pick blueberries that grew wild on our 40 acres. I am too scared to pick mushrooms.

Me too on the like coriander, not so much cilantro. I confess, I don't use it enough to bother toasting and grinding it. The jar of seeds sits forlorn. The pre-powdered is sufficiently pungent for my purposes. Unlike cilantro, coriander is a mild flavor, so maybe it's getting drowned out in your dishes? It sounds like you're following recipes. American recipes are notoriously parsimonious with spices. If you can't taste it, add more!

A foolproof cake is the weight method. Weigh 2 eggs. Take the same weight butter, sugar and SR flour. No need to sift flour these days.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and flour. Then, whatever you like. Chopped apples, vanilla....... SOmetimes I make some caramel, put that on the bottom of the tin lined with baking parchment, add the apples to that then the cake mix. You can't go wrong.

If you add an egg, you're getting more into buckle territory.

If you like your berries sweetened, use a biscuit-type shortcake. If you don't sugar the berries, use a sponge or other cake-like base.

We usually pan fry it, rough chopped, with garlic & olive oil. We’ve also made rolls, like dolmas or stuffed cabbage, using the leaves, & we’ll use the stalks in soups etc.

Smiles,

Sooz

Aleppo pepper is just great with greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil.

Well, I understand about giving him a shopping list, but he said how bout one of those spiralized hams for Easter? I thought Hey what the heck! One less thing to worry about cooking! He's learned his lesson!

Cold gray rainy spring day here in Maine. Thinking about split pea soup. Especially if you have a bone for flavoring. I have to be in the mood for split pea soup which either I love or not so much.

A cursory look online says a spinosad product might help….

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/search/?q=Insecticide&search-button=&lang=en_US

Interesting that people are recommending specific pesticides to control allium borers (leaf miners), and quoting respectable sources. As I noted a few days ago, it has also been claimed that no residential pesticides are available that will work. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/allium-leaf-miner. So I guess there is some disagreement in the community. Though it is true that spinosad, for example, is banned in several states and some countries. Permethrin is also mentioned here, but that is not approved for residential use.

daninthedirt, that was also my understanding. An exceedlingly difficult pest to deal with.

Perhaps if I were younger I'd try some of the suggestions. But at nearly 80, I can't take on more garden set ups than I've already got. So, probably gilroy garlic from now on.

Black and whites (New York style) served in foil hats. ;)

Henny Penny sheet pan chicken (like chunky pot pie filling)

Slushies (neither frozen nor liquid like neither day nor night—possible also too meta, but I liked the carrot!).

Thin sliced cucumber ”goggles” (we had a 3/4 eclipse decades ago and my father gave me his welding helmet so I could look at the sun).

Everything bagels with green cheese (way too meta to explain).

Skewers with huge, small and medium melon balls = syzygy

Sugar or shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate.

I had a entrepreneurial fantasy of making dozens of original Maine Whoopie Pies (the right texture, no airy cakey stuff), packaging them in cellophane (they would be ice cold, frozen) and selling them for lotsa money to pay for my Total gas.

Most store bought whoopie pies are horrible with the chocolate part too much like box cake mix and the filling all fluffy sugary weird.