Guide to Edible Wild Plants in North America | HowToTo.com If you are reading this there is a good chance you already know some edible wild plants. There are a surprising number of North American plants that can be used for food. As you will quickly learn some plant are extremely dangerous and should be avoided. Tips Don’t eat too much of a new food at one time. Red CloverTrifolium pratense All clovers are edible and are high in Vitamins and some parts of the plant are high in protein. Oak AcornsQuercus Acorns are rich in carbohydrates, protein, and fats but contain tannic acid which can make you sick. CattailTypha latifolia This plant is easily identifiable and can be eaten year round. Wild Prickly LettuceLactuca Serriola L. This plant is closely related to the dandelion. Distribution Alpine SweetvetchHedysarum alpinum L. Grizzly bears dig up the roots of the Alpine Sweetvetch and eat them in quantities. WARNING – Most Vetch type plants are poisonous. Flowers Distribution of Alpine Sweetvetch Edible Nuts & Fruit More Edible Wild Plants Burdock Dandylions
50 Essential Wild Edible, Tea, and Medicinal Plants You Need to Know I’ve been often asked in reference to a survival or bug-out situation “which wild edible and medicinal plants should I study and know?”. Unfortunately there is no clearcut answer for this since it’s highly dependent upon where you live. But if I would boil it down to the top 50 essential wild edible, tea, and medicinal plants that occur in most areas of the northern hemisphere this would be the list: Note: I’ve added links to the plants which I’ve covered in detail on this site on how to identify, prepare, and use for food or medicine. 50 Essential Wild-Edible, Tea, and Medicinal Plants Most Common Places to Find these Plants ChicoryCurly DockDaylilyElderberryFireweedJapanese KnotweedMeadowsweetMilkweedMulleinQueen Anne’s LaceYarrow Balsam FirBlue AsterBracken FernOak (acorns)PineWhite BirchWood Sorrel Arrowhead/WapatoBullrushesBur-ReedCattailFalse Solomn’s SealWeeping WillowWild Rice FIELDS, LAWNS and GARDENS Some Helpful Hints on Identifying and Getting Started
Wildcrafting.net: Foraging Database, Edible & Medicinal Plants Traditional Plant Foods Of Canadian Indigenous Peoples, Nutrition, Botany & Uses Almost all major groups of wild plants in Canada have edible members that are reported to have been used by Indigenous People. Exceptions are the Bryophytes (Mosses and Liverworts), which were not eaten—as far as can be determined in the literature. Any literature reports of "moss" being eaten seem actually to refer to lichen species. For major edible species, a brief description of botanical characteristics and occurrence is provided, as well as an outline of harvesting, preparation, and usage. A summary of the language groups of Indigenous Peoples of the provinces and territories of Canada is provided in Appendix 1. Furthermore, although information pertaining to plant foods of a particular indigenous group is often presented as applying to the entire group, the reader should keep in mind that in many cases, it comes from interviews with a limited number of people within that group, and may not be universal. Introduction to Algae Digestibility of Algae Dulse (Palmaria palmata; syn.
Wild Food School - Foraging Data Sheets Edible Weed Datasheets - FREE Foraging for edible weeds is, for some folks, a way of life and a fun challenge. Knowing exactly which edible weed is the correct one to pick can be a bit tricky until you become familiar with the plants throughout their life-cycle. Below are a number of short foraging datasheets specific to particular species of edible weed in PDF format. Click on any of the filenames below to download the file: CHICKWEED.pdf [approx. 207k]DANDELION.pdf [approx. 231k]HOPS.pdf [approx. 126k]NETTLE.pdf [approx. 186k]PLANTAIN.pdf [approx. 186k]SOW-THISTLE.pdf [approx. 120k] See also the range of Wild Food WISDOM Cooking with Weeds eBooks at wildfoodwisdom.co.uk Wild Food School Homepage
Famine Food Homepage by Bob Freedman 50 E. Calle Encanto Tucson, Arizona 85710 ph. 520/977-4607 freedmanbob@yahoo.com The Famine Foods Database: Plants that are not normally considered as crops are consumed in times of famine. This botanical-humanistic subject has had little academic exposure, and provides insight to potential new food sources that ordinarily would not be considered. Notes on the Famine Foods Website by Robert L. Search the Famine Foods Database Plant family index Famine Foods listed by Genus and species List of references
How To Find & Enjoy Wild Foods Lately I’ve been mining the Mother Earth News archive disks for bits of relevant wisdom—which are abundant there. James E. Churchill’s advice on foraging and preparing wild foods from one of the earliest issues, September/October 1970, couldn't be more timely right now. Free food is abundant—and could be growing between the cracks in your sidewalk! Chicory "Anyone who lives in the settled regions of the United States should be close enough to chicory to be able to gather all they want," Churchill wrote. In spring, trim tender chicory leaves before they are as tall as a tea cup. Boil the leaves a second time for five minutes. Blanched chicory leaves can be used for a salad and served with your favorite dressing, or they can be boiled like cabbage. To make braised chicory, thoroughly wash a pint of blanched leaves and put in a sauce pan with a half-inch of water in a saucepan. Chicory leaves are edible all during the growing season. You can also use chicory to make a coffee substitute. Mint
Foraging Guidelines | Wild Edible Foraging for wild food is a great way to experience the natural world and connect with something ancient and primal within ourselves. And in many ways, it can be a more healthy alternative to the assembly line foods we find at the grocery store. Not only is wild food much richer in essential vitamins and minerals, but foraging also provides much needed exercise. It's a combination of hiking and gardening. Proper Identification Before eating any wild plant, make 100% sure it's not poisonous. Learn the few dangerous species in your area before venturing into the wild to forage. Don't rely on common names. Find a mentor. Use all of your senses. Learn habitat. Learn companion plants. Learn to follow wild edible plants through all seasons. Another reason to follow wild edible plants through the seasons is to locate perennial plants that you want to harvest in early spring. Learn which parts of a wild edible plant are safe to use. Conservation Don't over harvest. Safety Avoid toxic areas.
Wild Onions - Punchy, Pungent, Perfect There’s nothing quite like foraging for food that grows naturally without anyone tilling the soil, pouring the water, or breaking his back. Gardening is a wonderful and gratifying activity, but it is a lot of work and worry, unlike the ease of strolling through a beautiful forest picking up pine nuts or harvesting mushrooms. Foraging is an excellent way to supplement your diet with delicious natural foods for free....
Wild Parsnip: It's Like Raiding A Garden, But Better Once one of the most important vegetables in the American diet, the parsnip has fallen increasingly into obscurity over the last hundred years. Home-cooking has been replaced by fast food and pre-packaged meals, while gardening has become more of a curiosity than a norm-and both of these trends have conspired against this sweet root vegetable. Parsnips store extremely well through the winter, which was of paramount importance in the days when produce was grown and stored locally. However, the advances in refrigeration and transportation made over the last century have undermined the parsnip’s popularity by making a greater variety of competing vegetables available in grocery stores. ...
Huckleberries There’s nothing like the taste of fresh huckleberries in the summertime. Lucky for us in the Pacific Northwest, we have three species of huckleberries to choose from: black huckleberry, red huckleberry and evergreen huckleberry. Huckleberries are in the Heath family, which includes other edibles like blueberries, wintergreen, cranberry and salal. Black huckleberry, Vaccinium membranaceum, as its name suggests, produces black berries that are said to be one of the most delicious in the area. Red huckleberry, Vaccinium parvifolium, is also named for the color of its berries. Evergreen huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, is an evergreen shrub which produces dark purplish-black berries. Huckleberries are a great treat in the late summer or early fall, and can be enjoyed in many ways. This summer, take a hike into your local woods to look for these amazing shrubs and to enjoy the taste of their plentiful berries. References: Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Pojar/Mackinnon
Identifying & Harvesting Tree Nuts Tree nuts are tasty, healthy and – if you're willing to forage – can be obtained for free. Here's what you need to know to identify and harvest a variety of nuts: 1. Black Walnuts Nut Description: Black walnuts are housed inside yellowish-green and brown husks (similar in color to pears) that are about two-inches in diameter. They are further housed inside a tough shell that is dark black in color. Harvest Time: September and October Harvest Information: How to Collect and Process Black Walnuts 2. Nut Description: Chestnuts are dark brown in color, smooth in texture, are pointed at one end, and have an oblong spot on the opposite end that is light brown in color. Harvest Time: September through December Harvest Information: How to Harvest and Store ChestnutsMore About Storing Chestnuts 3. Nut Description: English walnuts are housed inside a greenish-black hull. Harvest Time: Late August through October Harvest Information: How to Harvest English Walnuts 4. Harvest Time: November 5.
How to Eat a Pine Tree This post is a follow-up to the The Fantastic Four – 4 Essential Wild Edible Plants that May Just Save Your Life article. In it I demonstrate how to process and eat one of the core four essential survival plants: Pine. When you look at your average pine tree, rarely does one think that it has the ability to sustain you in a survival situation if the need ever arose. It’s sharp needles and gnarly bark give off the impression that it’s a less-than-friendly flora. On the contrary, pine provides some of the most readily available food sources in nature. Pine Nuts All pines contain edible seeds in the late season cones. As someone who lives in the Northeast, species of pine available here do not offer up seeds big enough to warrant the effort required in gathering and processing them. Gathering and Processing Pine Nuts The best time to gather pine nuts is in September and October. Notice the seeds w/in the cones Pine Needle Tea Male Pine Cone Flour Edible Pine Bark You can eat bark? Boiling Frying
Edible Pine Bark Ever eat a tree? Survival Topics will show you how. Where others starve, expert survivors find food; often in plentiful supply from sources few people know about. To survive where others fail you need the drive to observe and learn, the willingness to try new things, and the ability to drop all preconceived food prejudices. In the Survival Topic Survival Foraging on the Move I showed you how easy it can be to draw from nature’s food supply through knowledge of local flora and fauna and careful observation. Simply by keeping yourself open to anything edible that comes your way, you can obtain more food than you can possibly eat. One of the foods I introduced in that article are needles from the Eastern White Pine tree (Pinus Strobus), which are high in the vitamin C you need for optimum health in the wilderness. Consuming pine needles or brewing pine needle tea is a great preventative and cure for scurvy caused by lack of vitamin C in the diet. Finding Trees to Eat Native Americans Ate Bark