Berries and a Couple of Nuts in the Park

Now that last week's heat has broken and the clouds have returned, we've resumed our forest walks (I hesitate to call them "hikes" because we don't go camping during them yet, and we just wear ordinary clothes like any other day, no "hiking equipment" required) and wild-food foraging.

Yesterday we explored Seward Park, which has old-growth forest and lots of hiking trails. The main trail was too crowded for us--meaning we were seeing people and dogs about every five minutes--so we went on the back trails.

I had brought a bag for blackberries (there are tons of feral blackberry bushes everywhere!) but I forgot to pack the field guide to edible plants, so we kind of ended up guessing about the berries we found.

For our first non-blackberry find, Joseph spotted these berries growing on a grapelike vine. He tasted one and said it tasted sort of like a grape. We collected a sample of that one to bring home and identify. That turned out to be currants!

Then we found something that looked a lot like a blueberry, but not quite and on the wrong kind of tree. I was pretty sure they looked like something I used to eat as a kid while blueberry hunting, so I tasted one, and the berry was sweet and pleasant. However, it was not what I used to eat! It was actually a salal berry. They can be used in pies.

Toward the trail's end, Joseph saw some fuzzy things hanging in a bush and asked me if I knew what they were. Guess what? I did! They were hazelnuts, just like the kind my dad gathers by the coffeecanful! The hazelnuts are still scarce (they ripen later on in the fall) but it sure is good to know where they grow.

We walked a total of 4.5 miles, which is less far than a walk in the woods normally takes us.