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Looking around on the way home from work I noticed that the apple trees were pretty much done, between the light freezes and the deer munching on the bottom half of the trees, it’s one food source that has “dried up”.
But then there’s the pair of deer that I disturbed in the front yard snacking on my crabapple tree. Very easily one could have been hanging in my garage by 0430.
All the cat tails down at the river and ice ponds, the mushrooms over at the state park, fish in the ponds and the reservoir, even all of the ring neck doves that are here most of the year.
What do you have available around you?
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I live in the city and there’s a huge historic cemetery nearby. I was walking through it the other day and realized that there are quite a few fruit trees in there, including mulberry, apple, and cherry. I haven’t explored the whole area yet (we recently moved) so I’ll be on the lookout for other goodies come spring.
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If we hunted there are plenty of critters around – deer, dove, turkey, squirrel, duck, geese. The list goes on. We also have the lake which is kept stocked by the corp. While we are vegans I’d be the first to admit nothing would be off limits if It meant survival.
Fortunately for the time being we also have wild persimmons, black walnuts, pecans, pawpaws, muscadine and blackberries.
Most of our area is heavily forested.
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Still have some wild onions in the yard right now, we just had our first serious frost this morning here so they’ll not survive much longer. I have black walnut trees on the edge of the property that still have some walnuts on and beneath, apparently the squirrels got lazy this year. The roses are producing rose hips and there is still plenty of sunchoke and poke salad to be had out back, too. I live in Oak Ridge, so I there are plenty of oak trees around for acorns. I was out near the lake and found a decent patch of wood sorrel. The fields across from where I work have lots of thistle and sumac.
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The acorn crop hereabouts failed miserably this year. As a consequence people are seeing more black bears who are coming out of the hardwood forests looking for a meal. I’ve seen five over the past three weeks. We have quite a few wild pear trees and a lot of the fallen fruit rots on the ground usually. Not this year. Bears have cleaned them up! Squirrels have been all over the black walnuts, too. The peaches are long gone as are the paw-paws. Still persimmons around, but not much else.
I put out a couple of snares late yesterday for squirrel. First time I’ve tried the snares. Better to learn it now than really needing them later and not having perfected it.
Other than the animals around picking would be slim this time of year here. I simply do not know a lot about any wild edibles. Something else I should learn about.
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Oh, me…. I’m so stupid! Read right over the word “urban” and it didn’t register. I’m not urban by any means.
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I’m not urban either but I think we have far less rabbits, squirrels, etc than in urban areas. Cuz we have coyotes. We have more tunnel-dwellers – pocket gopher, voles, mice, pack rats and the worse kind of rats. I’d rather count on rabbit and squirrel. 🙁 Doubt we could get a hold of the pair of muskrats in pond. No trout streams nearby….and fish laugh at my approach. {really, but DH is better}
Some urban areas…esp. small towns are being overrun with deer populations. We see lots in our small towns ’round here – they know where they are safe, except crossing the streets/highways. Can’t hunt them now but that urban deer population will disappear quick in a post-stuff-hits-fan.
We’re also too high for much plantlife that is edible. Hard-won gooseberry/currants. [NASTY thorns] Some cattails got started down the road in a small pond.
And remember folks, there are usually birds. Pigeons in urban areas. Sometimes lots of them. Doves were mentioned. We don’t have either of those. Eagles, hawks, magpies, small black birds [and I hear one must have “four and twenty” of those to make a pie…… 😉
OldMtWoman
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Caught one bushy tail in my snare. I at least now have confidence my method works. Skinned him right up. Need one or two more for a meal.
We get a lot of doves. Been thinking about fabricating a wire cage with an entrance they can go in but not back out. I’ve got a picture in my head of what would work. Just have to gather up the materials and start building.
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The stores are required to dispose of the expired and “damaged” stuff, thank you FDA.
Gifting it early is a corporate decision and then someone wants it written off for taxes .
Its really a mess. For a period of time I was gifting @30+ gallons of milk a week to a local food bank. They could accept it as it hadn’t expired yet, and they threw it in the freezer to make it last longer.
Had we tried to get permission, it would have been denied because an extra day to possibly sell it was more important than letting it be useful. We cheated.
Talk with your local grocery department manager, they might give the soon to be bad stuff you at a reduced price, or free depending.
One of the biggest issues with giving it away, is that it has to go away. And when people don’t come to get the stuff right away, it tends to cause some issues.
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