Historically, I’ve stuck to edible berries and other easily-identifiable fruits & vegetables in the field… I’m leery about eating mushrooms in the field, due to the possibility of ingesting “Death Caps!” I recall reading about folks who collected what they thought was Psilocybin in the field, but the mushrooms turned out to be “Death Caps” and the collectors died ugly deaths. Not the way I want to go… and there are plenty of other toxic plants in the field, so a reliable field guide is a good start for those interested in foraging.
As a youngster living outside Athens, Greece, from 1968-1973, I would roam the rural neighborhood with my brothers & friends, and we’d frequently explore old farmhouses with orchards… the farmhouses were abandoned, the men killed during and after WWII, their families relocated, so the orchards were untended. Many of the trees were loaded with fruit, and we’d pick that fruit directly from the branches… the best fruit you could ever taste, and good for you as well, just bursting with enzymes! Foraging at its most simple, but I can remember those orchards like it all happened yesterday!
