Farm and forage report

A list (in progress) of edible things growing on our property:

• Black walnut
• Mulberry
• Brambleberry (aka wild blackberry)
• American persimmon
• Pawpaw (planted, but native)
• Elderberry
• Passionflower

NB - this list doesn’t include things that are said to be edible in the ‘probably ok’ category, like hackberry and the wild grapes that are all over the place, nor does it include small, herb-y things such as dandelion greens, purslane, wild garlic, woodsorrel, and the like. I don’t do wild mushrooms, though I harbor a fantasy of discovering morels. None yet, alas.

I’ve harvested exactly one (1) walnut, and it was a tremendous amount of work for a barely edible bit of nutmeat. The passionflower vines produce edible fruit (“maypops”), which are pretty tasty, but not really in quantity. The most bang for our foraging effort has been with the brambleberries, which tend to yield well and are just now starting to ripen.

The mulberry trees can apparently switch sexes, so some may bear fruit and others not, and the situation tends to be fluid over time. The large ones in our wooded area are showing fruit, but it’s all way too high to reach. The persimmons also looked like they were blooming, but any fruit will likewise be out of reach, which is a bummer.

I’ve made elderflower syrup before, and am hoping that the 5 bushes I planted from cuttings will give us enough fruit this go-round to try for a cordial.

For everything else, both pear trees are fruiting well but have some sort of blacktip thing going on, which I’m hoping only affects the leaves. The apples are usually hit-or-miss; this year looks like a miss. The muscadine is going completely crazy, so I’m looking forward to doing something with grapes later this summer. Fig is still sending up new growth, and I’m hoping it fruits as well as it did last year. Our climate here is such that figs will die right to the ground over winter but then re-emerge like gangbusters over the summer. The container tomatoes continue apace, and the habanero is moving like mad - lots of new growth and blooms showing up.