As summer approaches, we are busy tending our gardens to produce food to enjoy and share. Do you know there's another low (no!) maintenance garden you have access to year round? Many people have picked blackberries that grow wild around trails and creeks in the summer. Why not consider foraging for other delights?
Hank Shaw's Hunt, Gather, Cook and Connie Green's The Wild Table are both great titles that show different foodstuffs you can gather and they include tasty recipes to try. Green's book also includes a table showing the month(s) you can forage for specific items.
Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples by Nancy Turner is an illuminating guide to some of the food traditionally eaten by the local First Nations people.
If you are hardier, the backcountry may yield morels. Margaret McKenny's The New Savory Wild Mushroom is a useful identification guide.
Even if you find fungi closer to home, always speak to an expert to ensure your haul is safe.
We can protect our harvest from spoilage with many different tech-niques. The library has guides on canning, dehydrating, salting, pickling, and even freezing.
The Home Freezing Handbook describes more than 200 items that may be safely frozen.
If you're an avid knitter or weaver and wish to dye your own wool or fabric, consider a peek at Nature's Colours: A Guide to Western Canadian Dye Plants. It gives a list of many plants and the colours they produce, as well as the processes involved.
If you want any of these titles or others on homesteading techniques, visit the New Westminster Public Library and we'll be happy to share our wealth of resources.
New Westminster Public Library
