First forest foraging this year

Yesterday was my day off. As the weather is very nice, and spring came to Bykle much sooner than anyone would expect, I decided that among with @diegocelma, we will make the first foraging trip to the local forests. It's just March, which in subarctic climate should mean the same what means January in London or NY (for those of you from the Southern hemisphere, imagine July in Ushuaia), but surprisingly the sun is heating so much that there was no snow since a couple of days nowhere around my house.

We could collect the birch juice, as it's about time, or even birch benches to grind them into flour, but we recently moved in, so we don't have necessary tools to do it without the harm for the tree (juice especially). Instead, we decided to go down to the valley with the river, looking for more humid ecosystems with wild garlic. The chances to get garlic so early in the year were like the chances of Canada agreeing to become another US state, but it was a nice excuse to leave home and make some small trekking.

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_{Closer to river, more snow. Lowest parts of the valley are more often in shadow, ergo snow remains here for a bit longer}

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As expected, the lower parts of the forest, not so exposed into sun, were still covered in a snow, which means there was no chance to find wild garlic anytime soon. We checked the river in a few longitudes, always with the same result.

It didn't crush our motivation that much. I was determined to come back home with something. Around 1-2 kilometers away from the place we were checking the river, there is a lovely waterfall, so I suggested we will go there, keeping the eyes opened to find some other forest treasures. I wasn't sure what it could be though. It's too early for the mushrooms, or the fruits, not to mention flowers. I guess there was a chance to find edible moss for the soup, but that's not something what I am enthusiastic about.

And then we found it. In a least expected moment, not knowing what we are looking for, we noticed bushes with the small, half dried, black fruits on it. I came closer and identified plant as the wild crowberry. Sure! The crowberry fruits, even though fresh in June/July, can survive the winter under the snow and are still edible when the first snow melts. I completely forgot about it while planning the trip.

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_{Left: birch bench can be grinded into flour, but it's difficult to do it when you don't have anything to grind besides your teeth...
Right: Some of the mosses are edible, but identifying the least appetizing plant in the forest stopped when I noticed bush of crowberry (in the upper left corner of the moss photo)
Below: collected crowberries}

It wasn't that appetizing. Looked more like a dehydrated skin of a hundred years old, but I still collected a bunch of it. Why? It's an early spring - perfect timing to plant a new bushes. Even if I won't eat the berries, I can use their seeds. Then, in a couple of months, I will plant some of those bushes in the garden, others in the wild forest, in a spot that most people won't look for it. Wild crowberry is beautiful, but it is giving fruits from the third year after planting (maybe a few in a second year, but rarely), so it's definitely a long term plan to get any profit from today's actions, but hey - most of the things in nature require patience. Kitchen into the wild is in the exact opposite of the spectrum than fast food.

The day was not only about foraging, or getting to know the terrain, which, still, is hiding a lot of unknown spots. It was also about entertainment, listening the water and sounds of the first birds, observing elks, climbing rocks, touching trees et cetera.

I will leave you with some pictures:

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