Foraging CAN Save You Money!

Grocery bills have skyrocketed over the last 5 years, so much so that consumers are looking for more ways to save money. Coupons used to be the norm.

Unfortunately, coupons have gotten more sparse or they are for items that are overly processed or something we would never use. I remember just within the last 15 years, coupon circulars were HUGE! Plus they had long expiration dates, up to a year in some case. I used to be able to save 50% or more on my groceries by using coupons. Heck if we go back 20 years, the Tightwad Gazette was like the go-to-book for saving money. There was a challenge I did several years back and we talked about frugal ways to save money on the old blog HERE. Check it out!!

Now with new technology, most coupons are on apps and do not always match what is on sale at the store or worse, you forget to "clip" it in the app when you sign in at the grocery store! For now, my best recommendation when shopping at the store is to only shop the sale items. Buy one get one free are the norms so buy 3x the amount if you need to which will keep you stocked until the next sale. BUT only buy what you use or need or like not because it is cheap. If you shop this way, you kind of beat the system and can stock your pantry for the least amount.

STRETCH that dollar

Even though I am a forager, I still must shop at the store. I mean those that say they get ALL of their food from the wild are few and far in between. If you are Rob Greenfield, then you are golden, most of us not so much. Follow his year of foraged food. Quite amazing!

My hubby would freak if I told him there would be no more chips, Lindor truffles (he is addicted to them, sigh...), store bought grape jelly, ham and cheese, pepperoni etc.. Personally, I believe I could do a year of homegrown, foraged or sourced local food.

What about you? Could you do this? Even for a week?

However, you can and will save money by adding in a daily or weekly forage. The key to doing this correctly or should I say efficiently is to forage in season and gather enough to last throughout the year.

For example, when chickweed, henbit and other wild greens are abundant, harvest a gallon or so. You can use some of it fresh in salads and on sandwiches. The rest can be made into sauces, pestos, compound butters, frozen or dried and ground into seasonings, even freeze dried and stored for off season.

My favorite preservation method for tasty wild greens is making pesto. They are versatile for topping or filling egg dishes, mixed with warm pasta and topped with cheese or nuts or used in making a quick and savory salad dressing. Wild pestos freeze well too!! This way, I have them for a pop up walk or a class as a yummy treat.

Nuts and seeds are one of my top staples for the freezer. Nuts, especially, are highly nutritious with carbs, protein, fats and fiber. Acorns can be leached, dried and ground, stored in the freezer for use in baked goods. All nuts can go rancid with a high fat content so freezer storage is best.

Hickory nuts can be stored in the shell for several months or shelled and frozen. I love to add these to my oatmeal or in breads or muffins. Shagbark hickory bark can be roasted and boiled in a sugar water to create an amazing syrup that rivals maple syrup for a fraction of the cost. This syrup can be waterbath canned too!! Of course if you live in Vermont or somewhere that has an abundance of trees for tapping maple syrup, then you are lucky!

Pecans come out the same time as hickories, they are in the same family, but they are so much easier to shell. You can have enough shelled pecans for the year if you have the trees nearby or ask friends. I have been given several bags of pecans that I need to shell. So lucky.

As for seeds, I collect seeds from edible plants that are still left in the garden: mustards, lambsquarters, dock, plantain, nettle, cleavers, smartweed etc.

Don't forget those tasty fruits of summer and early fall. It is so satisfying to open my freezer in January and still have quarts of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and autumn olive berries. This year I traded for crab apples and kousa dogwood fruits. A side note on fruit. When your grocery store has an incredible sale on berries like .99 a pint, get as many as you possibly can afford. Go directly home and freeze them. The best way to freeze any kind of berries is to lay them out on a sheet pan in the freezer until frozen and then dump them in ziploc bags. This way, the berries will not stick to each other. There is nothing worse then going to the store because you needed strawberries for a recipe and find out they are like $6/quart - yikes!

Mushrooms are an important food I put up each year. Wild mushrooms are so versitile, easy to dehydrate, freeze dry or cook and freeze. Some mushrooms such as chanterelles do not dehydrate well unless you will be grinding them to add to a seasoning blend. They become rubbery when rehydrated, not pleasant at all. The best way to preserve these little golden gems is to do a quick cook in a little butter for just 5 minutes until they wilt, then freeze.

With any wild mushroom, if you are dehydrating them, they are not "cooked" so grinding them and using them on top of cooked food is not recommended. There are a few mushroom species exceptions. If you dehydrate at a higher temp, they will be fine but if drying at 110-120o, you will need to cook them even in a spice blend. Add the spice blend to your dish part way through the cooking process to ensure the mushrooms are done. **If anyone has any comments on this or revelations, please let me know.

I do hope this has shed some light on foraging to save money on your grocery budget.

I would love to hear from you on ways you save money!!

Until next time,

Anne-Marie