Foraging for wild foods is a great family affair, and countries around the world will have their own fruits and vegetable varieties that can be foraged for, here in New Zealand not that many people are into foraging, not only is foraging a great way to place fresh food on the table, it is a great excuse to get the whole family out and about and discover fabulous new places around the country side.
From hedge rows in farmers paddocks to the country roadside, there is an abundance of wild food just waiting to be used, and i think most people do not see that these items as being tasty or edible, at the right time of the year on most roadsides in the rural areas you can find plump and juicy black berries, these tasty guys are armoured with sharp spines up and down the stalk and you need to be very careful, they are great to eat right off the vine or made into jam, wild straw berries and blue berries can also be found.
Watercress can be found in most creeks, these water ways have to run under roads at some stage on their journey to the sea and here you will find the watercress, while not having a particularly nice taste the watercress is edible the only problem with watercress these days is pollution from dairy cows that roam the paddocks along the creek lines.
The Feijoa is a common fruit tree seen through out New Zealand, most of these trees produce an abundance of fruit in the summer, the trees can be found on the side of the road and on public land. Wild herbs like sorrel and fennel can also be found on roadsides out in the rural areas and most people do not even know what wild herbs look like or where to find them.
Foraging is not only for the rural areas, suburban areas have some great foraging places around the city limits and some time in public domains, unfortunately these areas get harvested before anyone even notices that there is fruit on the trees, some cities now have foraging maps showing the location of fruit trees and vegetable patches, personally i think this is a not such a good idea by the local councils as these places get hammerd by the public.
Foraging wild food from the ocean, beaches and harbours around the coastline is a favorite, there are so many delicious sea foods to be gathered from the seaside, the ocean beaches are great for fishing for species like snapper and Kahawai and mussels can be gathered from the rocks, the harbours have resident flounder that inhabit the shallow water and shellfish can be found in the sand bars.
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