We went foraging in our forest for wild berries.
The girls have been interested in wildflowers for a while, so we acquired some guidebooks to go exploring and identifying plants.
We have lots of trails in the woods near our house, meandering all through the Pfalzwald. We love the easy walks to look at the flowers and listen to the birds. There’s even a creek that runs through for us to play in and look for newts.
The blackberries are just now flowering and we haven’t seen any blueberries or raspberries.
The wild strawberries or forest berries (Waldbeeren in German!) are just now ripening along the trails.
We got quite a bit of ripe forest berries on our hike!
We brought our harvest back and added sour cherries to our kombucha and snacked on the wild strawberries.
The wild strawberries are super sweet and the kids prefer them to store-bought strawberries because the seeds aren’t so big and they’re so cute and tiny.
We also went on another walk later in the week and harvested sweet cherries to make into sauce.
Safety first! When foraging, you have to be 150% sure of correct identification. Books aren’t the most reliable ways to go foraging. It’s better to have an educated local guide to help differentiate between similar plants. We saw a plant that looked like a bilberry, but I was too nervous to try!
We made Blueberry Buckle for breakfast one morning, but with storebought berries.
Katie loves baking and is quite adept at breakfast cakes!
I really love the little pop of ginger in this blueberry buckle. It freshens the taste of the cake and berries.
Blueberry Buckle
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups flour AP works fine, but we like cake or pastry flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 t ginger ground is fine, but fresh grated adds kick!
- 2 T butter
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 c milk
- 1 small package blueberries fresh or frozen (about 1.5 cups)
Topping
- 1/2 c sugar we used brown sugar for more depth
- 1/3 c flour
- 1/2 t nutmeg
- 2 T butter chilled works better
Love berries. How neat they are so close. We used to go pick them when I was a child. Lots of memories you are making. Thanks for reminding me of mine with my Mom and Dad.
Wow what a great article on berries and the forest. I love your photos. So vibrant.
THANK YOU so much! xo
The hunting looks so fun, and how rewarding to eat what you yourself have picked! I definitely need a guide, though, because I would be afraid of poisoning everyone. Good thing my family doesn’t need to rely on my foraging skills:) (visiting from Brag About It)
How fun and a great lesson and bonding experience! Thank you so much for linking at #overthemoon! I look forward to seeing what you share every week. Please come back for #WonderfulWednesday or #ThursdayFavoriteThings. Don’t forget to comment your link #’s so I can be sure to visit and you get a chance to be featured! Pinned and shared.
Great activity with the kids and a very special treat for all the hard work! Great post! Thank you for sharing with us at Brag About It! Pinning to share.
What a fun idea – I love this! Thanks for linking up today! Xo
Wow, awesome collection of Forest berries! Your recipes sound delishes too! We just picked blackberries this week and made tarts out of them. They were scrumptious!
How fun! My son learned about wild berries at survival camp a couple of years ago. He took us back to where they picked wild raspberries so we could pick. They were amazing! Thank you for sharing this adventure with Thankful Thursdays.
This is excellent for both learning and bonding! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth! :)
Great adventure, both in the forest and in the kitchen :) Thanks for sharing with us at Creatively Crafty #ccbg :)
Your recipe for blueberry buckle sounds interesting. I have never put ginger and nutmeg in mine but use cinnamon in the topping. When I mentioned to my husband I might try this recipe he said he would miss the cinnamon. :) I might try it anyway just making a small one. Thanks for sharing at #LMMLinkup!
I’d add some cinnamon too :)
Wow, looks like you all had lots of fun exploring wild plants and berries. Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersParty . See you again next week
I love that you still use books to identify plants. Most people seem to just use their phone. I am still such a book lover. Thanks for being a part of Let’s Get Real Friday
We believe books come first. They’re still reliable and we have no signal in the woods.
What a great idea to do with your kids!! Love it! and then to go home and bake them…great!! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday Pinned!