If you have a boggy, shaded area nearby, see if there are any fiddlehead ferns growing there. Harvest the curly young tips and flash fry them with a light seasoned batter. Awesome. And basically free other than the effort to get them.
In a few weeks, I'll be eating baby squash blossems stuffed with a squirrel forcemeat, and flash fried, served on a bed of polenta, reduced sauce, with local fresh greens on the side.
I'm eating it because I'm poor, and baby squash with blossoms come out of the garden, squirrels come out of the trees, and cornmeal and squirrel stock is cheap. Local greens are free, and they are crazy good this year.
In an upscale restaurant, something like that (the squirrel would have to be renamed) would run $29/plate.
I may be poor, but I find a way to eat well.
/johnny