Foraging and Homemade Miso

My dad makes homemade miso. When I was a kid, I think he made miso once or twice, but since moving abroad with the family, he has made miso pretty regularly for a few years now. I have been asking and asking him to write me a post on miso making, but that hasn't happened yet. I am trying to get it to share with you though!

The other day my dad brought over a bottle of miso for me- a liter and a half of solid miso. I was really excited about that. He then instructed me to make it into soup with onions, carrots, and foraged greens.


I haven't foraged in a while.
More than a month.
But my dad said I should forage greens, and then keeps on asking me if I made the soup with foraged greens yet.
We've had yucky weather lately, and between that and all the work around the house lately, the kids and I have been cooped up far too long, and I haven't been out in nature with them, let alone foraging. I've really missed that, as have my kids. I still have a lot of work to do in the house, and can't just "take a day off" putting the place together, but I decided that it was needed, as long as it was a short trip.

Today, the weather was far from ideal, but around lunch time the sky was cleared up enough that, despite the crispness, I decided to venture out with the kids, on dad's "orders" and see what we could find to forage.

We moved to the other side of the neighborhood, so the wild plants available near here are a little different than what is available near my old home. I can't forage right outside my front door as I was able to in the middle of the winter in my old house, but a one minute walk away there is a path that leads up a mountain, and the mountainside is covered with wild plants. Many inedible ones, but quite a few edible and tasty ones.

First we just scouted out the plants, no picking. We saw fennel, mallow, wild mustard, sow thistle, rosemary, prickly pear cactus, shepherd's purse and volunteer tomato plants. I was hoping that we'd be able to find even more variety, but not yet. Maybe soon things will start popping up because of all the heavy rains we got, but we'll see.

In the end, I chose to forage just mallow, sow thistle, and a spicy type of wild mustard that I don't generally find in my community, only in the nearby city, that I enjoy more than the more commonly found local variety.
The volunteer tomatoes are still green, but I picked them as an experiment, to see if they will ripen in my house, especially as I don't see them ripening outdoors in this weather.

It was nice to finally once again go outside foraging. The kids and I enjoyed it. The crisp air, nature, picking the food we'll be eating for supper. Definitely worth it.

Forage anything lately? Or is now the off season for your local foraging?
What is your favorite way to eat miso?