I'm happily riding the zero-turn mower over the front lawn at our new farm. As long as I can remember, mowing has been a Zen time for me. It's quiet, no kids fussing, no constant digital sounds. I enjoy being able to disappear into the white noise of the mower.
I approach a few scraggly looking tuffs of grass just under the large shade tree near the driveway. Suddenly, I'm being blasted by shells. The sound of hail hitting a metal roof surrounds me. My legs are burning and stinging from the shrapnel. I scream in pain. What the heck is that?!
I stop the mower and look down on the ground. Large husks are everywhere. I didn't notice this before. I gather a few together and realize it's some kind of nut. After researching, I learn this is a Shellbark Hickory Tree. I try to open the nut, but it's not letting loose. After many failed attempts, I place the nut on concrete and took a hammer to it. The nut opens, and the meat is revealed. I wedge out a tiny morsel (and I do mean tiny), then taste a bit of it. My senses are baffled because the nut tastes exactly like banana bread. So. Weird. I researched the best time of year to harvest the nuts, and how to process them.
In September, we gathered them all together and processed 32 pounds of nuts. We listed them online and sold out in 2 weeks. We couldn't believe it. We made a profit off the farm before a single plant was in the ground. This is when foraging on the farm started. We wondered, what other types of trees are here? What other types of naturally growing gifts would our farm give us? Since the first painful discovery, we have foraged in every season something different: blackberries, honeysuckle, dandelions, plantain, violets, red buds, hickory tree bark, wild cherries, chives, passion fruit, hickory nuts, and black walnuts. The list continues to grow as we continue to explore the natural resources on our farm here in middle Tennessee.