I wild forage (harvest)
One of the best field guides I can recommend is the book
Edible Wild Plants, A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman. The book is a wealth of information and has very nice color photos to help you identify the plant as well as ways to use it.
Not sure on the permits as my dad used to gather herbs for sell... ginseng mainly.
Here's an article I wrote years ago and is now posted on my blog:
Foraging For Food - One woman's basic guide to get you started
By: Laura Williams
Below are some of the wild plants that I forage for or have foraged for with my parents when I was younger. I have included the season that I normally go hunting for the plant and a few ways I use that plant. You may have some of the items growing in your yard now but you thought they were just weeds with no purpose other than to annoy you and make your yard look bad. You can do a search on the web to find photos of these items to help you identify them. Also look for a good field guide with color photos at a local bookstore.
SPRING
wild strawberries - good to nibble on and if you can get enough......wonderful to make strawberry jam with.
wild strawberry leaves - wash and dry and you can use them to make tea. Just steep 1/2 cup dried in 1 qt. if boiling water for about 5 minutes
wild onion - you have to be careful though, if what you think is a wild onion and it doesn't have an onion smell......then don't eat it.....it's not a wild onion but a poisonous look alike
wild leeks or as a lot of people may know then by - ramps - these are some strong onions - same thing like the wild onion, if no onion smell, don't eat it. There is actually a ramp festival in Virginia.
wild asparagus - still haven't found any near our new house, will look again in the spring when this grows
plantain - (not the banana look alike) Good in salads, cooked greens, and a few other things
wintercress - most people think this is an old yellow weed that grows in fields. Some old timers call it field cress (my Dad did) but field cress has white blooms. You can wilt the leaves like lettuce and the watercress and you can use it in salads. You can actually eat this in autumn and winter too
dandelion - besides making greens, frying the blossoms, using the roots, I once knew a man that made dandelion wine.
sassafras root - good to boil and make a tea with. I've even seen bottles in the grocery stores of concentrated sassafras tea now. Who would have thought an oldie is now considered a gourmet tea.
orange-flowered jewelweed (looks like an orange bell kinda) - good for poison ivy and athlete's feet (both when using the juice of the plant) or you can even take the green shoots and boil like greens and serve with butter. This is the best link I could find to show you the plant the top picture on the left shows the green plant with the little orange bell on it Where we live on the mountain, I can find these into summer and autumn a little.
morel mushrooms - Love these breaded in cornmeal and fried. YUMMY!!
SUMMER
peppermint - my parents' house has a little creek that runs in front of the property, directly in front of the house a little ways. There is peppermint growing everywhere along that creek bank. You can dry the leaves and make a tea with it like the wild strawberry leaves above.
spearmint - same thing as peppermint you can make tea with it. the first picture on the right is spearmint and if you scroll down you'll see a picture of peppermint
watercress - yummy when you wilt it like lettuce with onion and hot oil with a little vinegar in it.
wintergreen - good to dry and use as a medicinal tea
huckleberries - we have one little bush on our property and they are so good to snack on, not enough to make jam or a pie with here, but good anyway (they are a little darker blue than a blueberry)
Blackberries - snacking or making jams or pies with delicious
red and black raspberries - snacking and making jams, have never made a raspberry pie, but you could make a pie with them
pawpaw - a neighbor near my parents' house has a pawpaw tree in her yard. They are almost too sweet and mushy if too
mulberries - well I used to until the tree that was on my parents' property died. Us kids only used to pick and eat them but I do know you can make jam with them.
chokecherries -found a whole "orchard" of them just down the road - you can make jams with them and pies. Only the pit is poisonous.
AUTUMN
wild grapes - found about 3 vines growing down the road on an old fence row. You can use them for snacking, pies, and jams
I have foraged for acorns before, but never again. Too time consuming picking them up, peeling the shell off, grinding, soaking and rinsing and soaking and rinsing some more to get all the tannin out, drying and they still were nasty to use as flour/meal.
persimmons - wait to pick them after the first good killing frost.....this makes them sweet. You can dry them and powder them and use in place of sugar then or you can eat the persimmon raw. Also you DEFINITELY know when you have gotten a sour one, you'll pucker up and think you're gonna stay that way. Found a nice persimmon tree just past the apple barn here, gonna see if the property owner will let me pick some. (fingers crossed) Where my parents' house is, there used to be a persimmon tree until a house moved on the land and they cut it down.
pecan - right before we moved from our other house, we discovered a pecan tree in the back corner in a bunch of trees. We didn't even know we had a pecan tree. So whenever you get your homestead (or if you already have one) I would suggest you take some time during each season and walk your land to see exactly what you do have. You may get pleasantly surprised.
hickory nuts - most of these fall loose from the hulls and dry on the ground all you need to do is pick up the shelled nuts and bring them in to continue drying. Good to snack on or you can even substitute them for pecans in pecan pie, just be sure to increase the amount of nuts in the recipe to 1-1/2 cups.
black walnuts - When you gather these, put them on your driveway where you vehicle can run over them, let them dry a day or two then use rubber gloves to pick them up and bring them inside to continue drying. You can even use the husks (not the shells) to make walnut stain with (hence why you should wear rubber gloves, they can really stain your hands) (the walnuts you buy in stores are English walnuts)
WINTER
Birch bark - I don't really care for this but I do know my mother used to chew on the bark to get the juice while she was trying to quit smoking. It has a sweet taste to it. I don't much look for this anymore, as my mother was the biggest user of this one.
There are many more edible wild plants that I either don't forage for (yet) or they simply do not grow in my area. If you are interested in foraging for some wild foods, then I would recommend the book
Edible Wild Plants, A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman. The book is a wealth of information and has very nice color photos to help you identify the plant as well as ways to use it.
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This Article may not be used in part or whole without my permission.
Laura Williams
stay-at-home mom and homeschooling parent
