Wildcrafting for Beginners: Foraging for Wild Edibles Doesn't Have to

What if you could get free food? Free “medicine”? Believe it or not, you can…with wildcrafting.

Wildcrafting, for those who don’t know, is harvesting edible weeds. Kind of like gardening without gardening, ’cause God planted the food for you. (Since I have a black thumb, I really benefit from that!) So the trick is not in knowing how to grow something, but in knowing what to look for (’cause we don’t want to be harvesting and eating poisonous plants!).

Non-Scary Wildcrafting: Start Simple

This concern over harvesting poisonous plants has a lot of people afraid to try wildcrafting, but it doesn’t have to be scary! The number one rule of wildcrafting/foraging is to never eat something unless you’re 100% certain about what it is. For some plants, that can be pretty tricky. But with some plants, it’s very easy.

The key to wildcrafting for beginners without panicking that you’re going to poison yourself is to start by collecting only easy-to-identify plants. Wildcrafting doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing! Just start small. If you only gather one plant, that’s a start. And as you get more comfortable, you’ll feel better about branching out.

So that’s my #1 advice: start with plants that are easy to identify, and that don’t have poisonous lookalikes.

Foraging Favorite: Plantain

Plantain is my favorite plant to start with, because it’s ubiquitous (even in suburban or urban areas), so most people have it around, its appearance is very distinctive, there are no toxic lookalikes, and it’s pretty useful for herbal first aid.

(This is not the plantain that looks like a banana; it’s a leafy green.)

I have a whole post about plantain here, so you can learn more about what to look for and why.

As wild edibles go, plantain is kind of lame. People don’t really eat it much. But it’s great for scrapes, scratches, and stings.

Another Distinctive Choice: Mullein

Another distinctive wild herb I’ve written about before is mullein. Like plantain, it isn’t great for eating. But it’s a useful medicinal herb, especially well known for earaches (often in combination with garlic).

Need to See Wildcrafting in Action?

Maybe you’re a visual learner and you need to see wildcrafting in action.

Thanks to Ultimate Bundles, I discovered Sergei Boutenko. This brief video clip shows him in action, identifying wild edibles in the field:

(He also has a book, although I haven’t read it.)

Don’t be intimidated by wildcrafting, or find it scary; just work your way in a little at time. You can gather one or two plants you’re very comfortable identifying, without having to worry about accidentally mixing something up. When you get more comfortable, you can do more.

How to Harvest – Basic Principles

Although there may be occasional exceptions, there are some basic principles for when and how to harvest plants.

Respect the environment. Don’t harvest plants that are endangered (only a few commonly-edible plants fall into this category, and any source you’re using to determine what’s safe to harvest will probably mention this). And don’t take all of something, in most cases; leave some plants to repopulate the area. Of course if you want to wipe out the dandelions in your yard, feel free. 😉

Be smart about the area you harvest from. Don’t pick and eat plants that have been sprayed. Don’t pick too close to the highway (because of fuel/exhaust runoff). Don’t harvest where your dog poops. You get the idea. Pretty common-sense stuff as long as you’re paying attention.

But with all that said, when do you harvest? It largely depends on what part of the plant you’re picking.

Leaves for eating should usually be picked early in the season, before the plant flowers. After that, they tend to get bitter.
Flowers should be harvested when they’re in full bloom, and before they start to “fade” for the season.
Seeds should, of course, be harvested when the plant has gone to seed.
And roots should be dug up in the fall. (You might need to mark the spot during the summer so you’ll know where to find them later.)

What to Do with the Harvest

For me, the bigger issue is knowing what to do with the plants once I harvest them, so now that I have some idea of what grows around here, I can have a list ready and be able to make use of my harvest whether it’s large or small — without scrambling.

I mentioned a few weeds, with some of their uses, here. And of course I’ve talked about plantain and mullein before. Here are some other options. (I have not tried all these personally.)

Dandelion

dandelion fritters
dandelion wine
baby dandelion greens in salad (Note: dandelion greens are very bitter, so unless they’re very new/young, you might not want to eat them.)
dandelion root coffee-like beverage
dandelion jelly

Nettles

Chickweed

Lamb’s Quarter

lamb’s quarter recipes

Plantain

sautéed like standard supermarket greens
substituted for kale in kale chip recipes
eaten raw in salad
added to smoothies

Honeysuckle

The edible variety of honeysuckle is the common white Japanese honeysuckle.

(Personally, I think honeysuckle has a mild enough flavor that it’s not worth the trouble to make recipes with it.)

Cleavers

eat raw in salad (I see this recommendation frequently, but I personally think this would be gross. Cleavers cling like velcro when they’re raw, and that’s not a texture I want in my mouth.)
toss a bit in with rice or soup when cooking
cleavers herbal vinegar

Pine

Most pines are edible, but a few are not. Remember the first rule of foraging before you consume anything!

pine needle tea
pine needle shortbread cookies (Fun for Christmas!)
pine cone jam
pasta with pine pollen sauce

(You would be amazed at how many results you’ll find if you look up pine recipes or pine needle recipes!)

If you want to get really ambitious, you can tap a maple tree, and make your own maple syrup. If you’re less adventurous, you can pick readily recognizable foods like blackberries and blueberries. (Careful, though, to be sure the berries really are what you think they are!)

Disclaimer: this is provided for educational purposes, and you forage/wildcraft at your own risk. Please use common sense!

TITUS 2 HOMEMAKER