Any bargainers out there forage for food in the wild, mushrooms,berries, fishing etc. I think it would be a good way to get some exercise/get in touch with nature while satisfying my bargaining side. Also is growing your own crops good value for money,what about organic food?
Foraging for food/growing your own food?
[Deactivated] on 23/03/2014 - 23:41
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True and with all the stuff they spray around these days it could be a bit risky? Ive been reading up some gardening books and will be trying my hand at some growing this winter.
I walk 10K each morning, and during summer (ie. mango season) my walking friend and I come home with mangoes, lemons, limes, chillies, macadamia nuts and passionfruit. Currently there are lots of avocados around on trees but they aren't ripe yet.
Not sure if it is foraging, but we have a wonderful time with our early morning fruit heists LOL!!
I doubt I would do it by myself, it's more fun with someone else.
I'm trying to grow some of my own veggies now too, I bought two of those Aldi garden beds when they had them late last year, and currently waiting for them to get more in stock. I've found the cheapest (and most effective way - well according to my friend) way of filling them is mushroom compost. Mushroom farms sell it in huge amounts for nearly nothing - the local one to me sells it for $2 for a big slab, but there is one further away that is $1 a slab. I put off buying those garden beds for years because I was worried about how to fill them and that it would cost a fortune and I'd have to get dirt delivered.
Lucky duck on the feast you get on your walk. I get some lemons occasionally, and a few mulberrys past a local tree, but there's generally not that many available.
Does the mushroom compost yeild mushrooms? I heard that those places do something to it so they wont. (Lace with salt?) Don't think that it's really bad, but would be a nice bonus to get some free mushies too!
Yes with the mushroom compost. I was there at the mushroom place once and a couple came with a big trailer that they were filling up with mushroom compost slabs. The man told me that he takes out one slab, leaves it in a shady covered spot, keeps it moist, and it produces are 3 crops of mushrooms. He then puts the slab of mushroom compost in the garden, and gets himself a new one and it lasts for 3 rounds of mushrooms.
I haven't done it myself yet, but it's definitely a way to get free mushrooms.
It takes a lot of looking to find the fruit trees - my friend has been walking the same way for 15 years and had never taken any fruit or really noticed it before. Then last summer a man (we called him "Mango Man" would walk every morning with a big satchel and come back with it full of mangoes. He told my friend one day where his favourite place was, and she told me and we went exploring. That lead to us finding many more spots with mangoes and other fruit trees. Honestly we had never noticed them before and had walked the area for years. It was just Mango Man who brought our attention to this as a practice.
Does the mushroom compost yeild mushrooms?
Yes. We've gotten quite a good haul from spent bags of compost that we've gotten from the farm.
Voiletmay, if you're using STRAIGHT mushroom compost for growing into, you'll find it has very high ph, (like around 8) and some plants will struggle in it.
Goodness, Geewhizz, thanks for that, I had no idea. Looks like I better do some research then.
There is a stand of mulberry trees in the park around the corner from my house.
When they are in season my family will pick a few as we walk by on our evening walk but I have seen people down there filling bags.I do also grow some stuff.
I thought I'd expand my home production by saving some former battery laying hens and having chooks.
Sadly I have been disappointed by their egg production. I know they are past their prime but I still thought they'd do better than they have been.
I think I spend more on chook feed (which I supplement with kitchen scraps) than I get back in eggs.
I do getthe benefit of working the ground I have them in - and I do like that - but I'm not sure keeping a few backyard chooks is worth it economically.What % protein is the mix? When i firt had chooks (bought as young ones) they didn't start laying for a while. After checking back with the place i got them, they said they needed min 18% protein feed to get them started, then could drop it. Not sure if you could try that to give them a kickstart. (Maybe feed them some cheap steak!) Or it may be that they are too old.
I am not sure how often this map is updated but it may assist some of you with your foraging - http://goo.gl/maps/MrJjV
I'm a forager, not so much at the moment as it's almost the end of the season. Would recommend it if you are into preserving. I don't fish btw, but occasionally get them as a trade.
I often pick mushrooms after a big rain while walking the dog and I regularly fish but i'm fairly amateur and for the time you spend/money spent on gear it is arguable that its more time/cost effective to just go to the local monger :P
I spend 10 mins staring aimlessly at the fridge looking for something to eat. Does that count as foraging?
growing , yeah sure.
Foraging, nope. Out of my comfort zone, not to mention the possibility of picking up poisonous berries or mushroom, or getting injured.