Learned an important lesson - Do your research!!

[Pakanohida]

Last year while reading "Edible Food Forests" Volume 1 & 2, I learned I should eventually get a book on what native, trees, shrubs, etc are on the property before I kill something useful.

With that, in mere days my wife spotted very alrge huckleberry bushes, I learned to spot "Port Orford Cedar," an important tree to many companies that is dying out due to disease. However, I still got trees I have no clue about, and it remained green through the winter. I suspected it could be something called, "Myrtlewood"

Myrtlewood is important in America, and especially this county due to some rather odd history such as it used to be made into American coins for legal tender, and STILL IS. I never would of realized the importance of this tree if I hadn't gone and researched native plants of the area.

It has taken me a while to realize the importance of researching my own area & combining it with my permaculture. The amount of native berries I have found are staggering, not to mention things like mushrooms and other edible plants like salt bush & crab apple.

Finally yesterday I had it confirmed by a lumberjack that subcontracts for BLM that I do indeed have not just a couple Myrtlewood, but rather a nice grove, and this now once again changes my overall design of my property. These trees are too valuable to just ignore. Just look at these amazing wood tones!

I digress, the point of this was to illustrate how important it is to not just go by lists we find about Permaculture trees, shrubs and other plants... ..but how important it is to also research what is local, you might find out you have something amazing.

To date we found:

2 seperate crab trees
5 Huckleberry shrubs of various ages
Port Orford Cedars
Myrtlewood
Various Mushrooms
Alders
Salal
Elderberry
Cloudberry
Wild roses

[eco4560]

Be careful with your field mushrooms mate. There are a few dead Aussies this week because of incorrectly identified species. ABC News

[S.O.P]

Not a heap of edible Australian natives around in our area but we do have some nice hardwood timber.



Great save and observations Pak.

[Pakanohida]

Be careful with your field mushrooms mate. There are a few dead Aussies this week because of incorrectly identified species. ABC News

My county has a community college where someone taught mushroom id; The teacher sadly passed away from eating poisonous mushrooms.

Believe me I barely even touch them! It's more tracking what is growing and how the soil is reacting kind of thing.

[sweetpea]

Such nice trees you have, Pakanohida. Sounds exciting to be discovering all that stuff. I have come to so admire and love large mature trees. I found wild garlic here while I was mowing. Small, but interesting. I also found a bush with beautiful elaborate peach colored flowers that developed into small black berries that the birds ate. I tried one and it was so bitter I thought I had probably eaten poison, and I kept waiting for my throat to close down while I spent about the next 15 minutes spitting.

[annette]

Apparently that guy that died was the chef and a wild food forager. really have to know what you're doing.