My foraging journey began over a decade ago when I was working to get our new property under control after a few years of neglect by the previous owners. There was this one plant that fought me root and thorn and it was everywhere. I started researching what it was and ways to rid my life of what I had started calling hell's barbed wire. It's very tough, grows high into the tree tops, and some of the root tubers get big as a football and literally need an axe to cut! The plant is known by two names locally, catbriar or greenbriar. Catbriar is supposed to be a species of greenbriar, broad terms encompassing several species of vines. Both are aggressive, climbing vines with both thorns and tendrils. They are native to the southeastern United States.
Boring stuff, but... they are edible. What?! It was like stepping into a new world the next time I walked out of the house. What else out there could I eat? Books, the internet, shows like Alone, and anywhere else I could think of to learn about what's wild and edible became my new hobby. Since that time, I've spent countless hours walking countless miles looking at leaves, flowers, stems, rotting logs, and anything that might be some type of mushroom (there's this one soccer ball way out in the woods that vexed me for a couple of years). I'm not a trained biologist or mycologist but I very much enjoy being out in nature and really like sharing what I have learned over these past few years with other like minded people.
