Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mithridates]

I suspect Dr. Buck might be the only one that knows the answer to this...
I'm looking for the names of plants one can eat in Korea, ones that are often seen on the road. Korean or English names would be fine; I want to know the names so that I can bring up the pictures and hopefully identify them myself.
I've actually got a book on plants in Korea but it's huuuuuuuge and has no index so there's really no way to look up plants except going
one
by
one
through all of them and that's no fun...

[Dr. Buck]

I know of a few that I can identify in the field. The most common one is mugwort and its a ditchweed that grows everywhere. The Korean name is "sook," and if you dry the stuff out and burn it, it might remind you of a different kind of weed . . .

I've come across wild strawberries and raspberries--they are pretty common, and another time I found a mulberry tree and my wife and I picked a bunch for ice cream later.

There's both poisonous and edible mushrooms out there but you have to be careful if you know what I mean.

There's some different trees that produce various fruits and nuts--down where I live you can't walk five feet without stepping on a spiky chestnut.

Mithridates--use your Korean speaking skills and approach one of the old grandmas that you sometimes see out on the mountainside. They are out there hunched over and gathering various herbs and such and they could show you first hand how to identify the plant, the Korean name, along with where to find it.

Check out "wildcrafting." Google it. Same kind of stuff.

I'm a bit divided on the subject. Being able to identify and have a knowledge of edible plants is satisfying to know, along with their harvest, it's rewarding to eat some healthy greens that you picked yourself.

However there is the matter of over-harvesting such as the case with wild ginseng in Korea. It's near extinct because everyone hunted it down. It's related to the cultural mindset of han-yak traditional medicine: the voodoo snake-oil holistic garbage that has led to the extinction of many plants and animals in Asia.

[Jensen]

Something to keep in mind is that there are cases of Korean immigrants in the US, some of them old harmonis with a lot of experience, getting poisoned by wild greens, mushrooms, etc.. Apparently there are a number of plants and shrooms that look the same as what's in Korea, but the US variants happen to be deadly. My wife likes to pick wild greens, which is kind of cool...miner's lettuce, dandelion greens, whatever, but it's kinda scare because she'll try anything, she insists she can tell if something's "bad" by tasting it.

[Mashimaro]

You can eat any plant if you smother it in chilli paste!

[mithridates]

Thanks...I thought you would know. Ever heard of a guy named Blaine Andrussek? He used to come to our high school every once in a while, give speeches on herbs and aromatherapy and the like; he spent a winter up in northern Saskatchewan living off the land and gained ten pounds while he was at it, but he's amazing when it comes to those things.
I remember hiking once in a place with a lot of wild strawberries. They looked similar but had pretty much no taste and my friend told me that I would get a sore stomach if I ate too many.
That approaching the grandmas idea is quite a good one too.

[captain kirk]

A month ago I saw cars offside country highways and their drivers off kneeling at embankments foraging with paring knives and plastic bags. Later, at the farmers market in town I bought a kilo of the plant for two thousand won. The head Korean teacher at work said it's like sage, and used in soup.
Another Spring thing is the budding of a certain tree. Which looks succelent like 'fiddleheads', the rolled up 'about to unfold' bits of ferns. They are like 'crowns', these budding severed tree bits.
I've seen what looks like the 'young-guy' fungus growing wild in the forest. It is reddish brown and grows on deadwood. 'Looks like'. Don't know for sure.

[Corporal]

[Jensen]

[Gollum]

Our high school is at the edge of town and mystudents are always picking outside in the grass between classes -- often eating the stuff they pick. Was told whatever they are picking is some kind of edible plant. Probably that, "sook" stuff someone mentioned.

[Jensen]

[Jensen]

Took awhile but I found one of the shroom cases I remembered. Complete article at: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/dhabolt/dad/mushroom/puffball/puffball4/poisonous.html

[masuro]