With food costs on the rise and concerns about the quality of imported foods making headlines, many people are paying closer attention to where their meals come from.

But many local residents know that if they know where to look, the freshest around won’t cost them anything at all.

For Tahlequah residents Murv Jacob and Debbie Duvall, the areas around Tahlequah abound with fresh food nearly year-round.

“We start out with wild onions at the beginning of the year, around February or March,” said Duvall. “They are good with fresh eggs, a lot of Cherokees will eat it this way. After that, the morel mushrooms show up in the spring.”

Jacob and Duvall seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the variety of foods available each season.

“They’ll [morels] show up after the first thunderstorm after the first 60-degree night,” Jacob said.

According to Duvall, during this part of the summer poke is growing and many berries are starting to ripen.

“When you eat poke, you have to boil it first, drain away that water and boil it again before eating it,” said Jacob. “Poke is poisonous if you eat it raw.”

Duvall noted that in the fall, the nut crop becomes available – everything from pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts, and more.

“We”ll go out by the lake in the fall and pick up 100 pounds of pecans,” said Jacob. “Just when the leaves drop - that’s when the pecans are ready.”

Possibly to the chagrin of local squirrels, even acorns are on the Jacob-Duvall menu.

“White oak acorns are good in the fall,” said Jacob. “Red oak acorns have too many tannins, but with the white oak acorns, you can just peel them with a knife and eat them. They taste really good.”

Another of Jacob’s favorite foods ripens in the fall.

“Persimmons are my favorite,” said Jacob. “They’re not a real popular food around here , but every other animal in the woods loves them.”

Tahlequah resident Pat Moss has an encyclopedic knowledge of the edible plants in Cherokee County (and lots of other places, too). In a brief interview, Moss rattled off a list of 50 plants found growing locally that can be eaten, and noted that there are plenty more.