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6 Favorite Wild-Grown Foods of Fall

It’s autumn. It’s heavy sweatshirt weather. It’s the season for football and pumpkin-spiced everything. And, it’s time to pick pumpkins and harvest the last of the tender crops from your vegetable garden. But, did you know that beyond the pumpkins and the squash, fall marks the time of year for gathering and preparing tasty fare from wild places? Sure does. The landscape that surrounds us in Nebraska is actually more lush with wild edible material during autumn than you would …

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Sowbelly with Coffee – Special Names for a Special Place

The scenery alone is worth a trip to this spot in the Pine Ridge. Don’t forget the fishing rod, though. Story and photos by Justin Haag Without knowing better, the name might lead some to assume Sowbelly Creek is a stream of manure oozing from a pig farm. Far from it. The clear, babbling brook between rugged sandstone buttes in Sioux County represents the best attributes of northwestern Nebraska’s Pine Ridge. If it were not located in one of the …

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Nebraska’s Varied and Vibrant Colors of October

Booo! … It’s the month when Halloween festivities and candy are aplenty. It’s the month when combines dot the rural landscape for the crop harvest. It is the month when the smell of wood smoke from fireplaces and backyard fire pits permeates the air. And, it’s the month when leaves turn color here in the Cornhusker State. Eastern cottonwood tree leaves beginning to turn their pretty yellow color along the Platte River near Gretna, NE. Photo by Greg Wagner/Nebraska Game …

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Nuts!?

Nature’s fantastic color show is emerging in the west and north. To me, that means the forest floor will soon be saturated with autumn leaf matter as well as something else — nuts! Freshly fallen black walnuts on the forest floor along a creek bottom in southeastern Nebraska woodlands. Photo by Greg Wagner/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. One of the reasons to take a long walk in the woods during autumn is to gather some delicious, nutritious, wild or homegrown …

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3 Fall Mushrooms to Harvest

Double, double toil and trouble … It’s the Halloween season and a witch’s brew is not complete without a moist, edible fall mushroom or two, right? Just kidding. But, guess what? We have an array of fall fungi in Nebraska perfect for your dinner plate. The greatest variety of mushrooms is usually found from about mid September through mid November, depending on weather and conditions. I realize it has been dry in places around the state, but any welcome rains …

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Venture Outdoors for an Autumn Adventure in Nebraska

The calendar indicates that it is not fall yet. The meteorological fall has begun though. And I believe that after Labor Day, the fall season starts. What do you think? For me, unquestionably, fall in Nebraska is one of the best times of the year to spend outdoors. Truth be known, it is my favorite season! The days are definitely getting shorter, the air is getting a bit crisper, the crop harvest will soon start, and before long the leaves …

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Foraging for Wild Fruits and Berries in Nebraska

I always get rather impatient this time of year. Is it because of the weather being so hot, humid and hazy? No. Is it that the hunting seasons are just around the bend? No. Then, why? Well, I am a gatherer, a prairie wanderer, and I am anxiously waiting to harvest elderberries during these dog days of summer. However, it’s not quite time yet. Here I am checking out wild elderberries for ripeness on a Saunders County, NE farm in …

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Nebraska Birding Bowl Results

By Olivia DaRugna, Watchable Wildlife Biologist The first Nebraska Birding Bowl took place May 1-31 during Nebraska Bird Month. The successful event saw 144 teams participating in one of four categories: Fledgling Flock, Backyard Birders, Dabbling Birders or Competitive Birders. Together, 270 participants (192 adults and 78 youth) contributed over 2,900 eBird checklists, and more than 287 species were observed during Nebraska Bird Month. Teams birded all over the state during May, visiting almost every location on the Nebraska Birding …

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Going river tubing? Here’s what you need to know

Ahhh … Leisurely floating on one of Nebraska’s many scenic rivers or streams in an inflated inner tube is a cool, refreshing, relaxing, way to enjoy a hot summer day with family and friends, isn’t it? A small group of tubers take a rest break on their float trip amid the beautiful scenery of the Calamus River near Burwell in the Nebraska Sandhills. Photo courtesy of NEBRASKAland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Oh, yeah! Tubing on a Nebraska river or …

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Mulberries!

Maybe it’s just the kid in me, but I love to pick and eat mulberries! Your blogger enjoys eating ripe mulberries right off of the tree! Photo by Katie Stacey/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Growing up on the rural western edge of Gretna, NE, my buddies and I would always bug the area neighbors and farmers for permission to pick and eat ripe mulberries along their woodland edges and fencelines this time of year. It marked the start of summer …

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