Food: Harvesting Plants

A section in Chapter 3 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

When you are out in nature—especially in the summer, there is typically an abundance of plant life all around you. And much of it is not only edible, it is more nutritious than your candy bar or even your whole-grain, sugar-free, high-fiber breakfast bar! Learn to identify the edible plants in your area—or at least a few of them, so you can take advantage of healthy greens for a snack, to supplement your camp meals, or in case of emergency.

Inedible Plants

First, a warning. In addition to the many wild plants that are edible and tasty, some are quite poisonous. Learn to avoid these categorical plants, which cannot be eaten.

General Warning Signs

• Avoid plants that smell like almonds, which may have cyanide.
• Avoid plants with leaves in clusters of three (like poison ivy).
• Avoid plants with seeds inside a pod.
• Avoid plants with dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsley-like foliage.
• Avoid if it smells particularly strong or unpleasant.
• Avoid grain heads that are black, pink, or purple.
• Do not eat mushrooms—it’s never worth the risk.
• Do not eat plants with sap that is milky or discolored.
• Do not eat plants that have shiny leaves.
• Do not eat plants that have thorns.
• Do not eat plants that have yellow or white berries.
• Do not eat plants that taste bitter or soapy.
• Do not eat umbrella-shaped flowers.

Plant Edibility Testing

Plant Parts

To better understand what plants are edible, first understand that different parts of a plant have different components that affect their edibility as well as their taste. So even though one part may be delicious, another part of the same plant may be highly poisonous. This is not only true of wild plants but those found in your grocery store as well. Remember these distinct plant parts.

• Roots
• Stems
• Leaves
• Buds (if available)
• Flowers (if available)

CAUTION: Only use this edibility test on plants that you are already reasonably confident are edible. Do NOT just pick any random plant and start testing; some plants are so poisonous that consuming even a small quantity could make you violently ill or even cause death. Please be careful.

General Observations

• See previous list, above, describing plants to avoid.
• Remove any worms or insects before testing for edibility.
• Avoid if you see many worms or parasites on the plant, as it is likely dead and rotting.

Prepare for Testing

• Test only one part of the plant at a time.
• Ideally, fast for several hours before testing anything.
• Do not eat anything else while testing.
• Be consistent in food preparation, like cooking time & method.

Sensitivity Testing

• Skin Test: Test the plant part on sensitive skin areas, like rubbing it inside elbow or wrist for a few minutes. Wait several hours; if you have no negative reaction, continue to the next step. (Bad signs include burning, itching, bumps, welts, or redness.)
• Prepare: Since some toxic plants become edible after cooked or boiled, consider preparing the plant part as you typically would for eating. For example, boiling leaves like spinach.
• Lips Test: Rub the plant part across your moist lips. If no negative reaction, no bitter or soapy taste, and no burning sensation, continue to the next step.
• Gums Test: Place a very small piece of the plant part in your mouth between your lower lip and gum for several minutes (do not swallow). If no burning or tingling, continue to the next step.
• Tongue Test: Place the same very small piece of the plant part in your mouth and hold it on your tongue for another 15 minutes (do not swallow any). If you do not experience anything unpleasant, continue to the next step. (It may not taste great, but taste alone does not indicate edibility.)
• Chew Test: After holding the plant part on your tongue for 15 minutes, chew it thoroughly and wait another 15 minutes without swallowing. If nothing negative—no burning, no numbness, no tingling, then continue to the next step.
• Swallow Test: Now that you’ve had this soggy mess in your mouth for half an hour, go ahead a swallow it and wait for several hours. Give you stomach time to communicate with you about any sort of negative reactions. If you feel nauseous, try to vomit and drink plenty of water. If you feel fine, continue to the next step. While you wait, you could read a good book—like this one!
• Eating Test: Collect and eat a single serving (a small handful) of the exact same part of the plant that you tested… and wait for several hours to give your body time to react. Also, avoid eating anything else while you are waiting. During this time, you could go fishing, hunting, or gather firewood.
• Enjoy: If all is well at this point, then this part of this plant should be fine to eat. Remember that other parts of the same plant will still need the same sensitivity testing.

Edible Plants

Become very familiar with edible plants before eating them.

• Receive first-hand training from an experienced person
• Watch online videos that make plant identification easy
• Read books that are very detailed in plant descriptions

Berries, Fruits, & Nuts

• Wild Berries: Blackberries, black caps, blueberries, chokeberries, cloudberries, cranberries, dewberries, elderberries, gooseberries, huckleberries, mulberries, muscadine, raspberries, serviceberries (juneberries), wild cherries, wild strawberries, and wild grapes. These are just the basics; there are dozens more in your region.

Avoid all white or yellow berries.

• Feral Fruit Trees: Apple, apricot, cherry, citrus, crabapple, paw paw, peach, pear, plum

Avoid trees with small clusters of berry-sized fruit

• Tree Nuts: Acorns, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, walnuts

Greens

Consider reviewing Pinterest edible plants images or a YouTube video like 36 Wild Edibles to review plants that you already recognize. This may include common plants like Dandelion, Raspberry, Mint, Plantain, Garlic Mustard, Chickweed, Boneset, Trilliums, Violets, Black Eyed Susan, Wild Carrot (Queen Anne’s Lace), Clover, Yarrow, Jewelweed, and more.

The following plants are usually easy to find and easy to identify.

• Cattails: Found near marshy ponds, cattails are almost entirely edible. Roots can be cooked like potatoes. Stems and leaves can also be eaten raw or cooked. See section Tools: Cattails > Food for more information.
• Chickweed: Found in most Easter U.S. woodlands, chickweed is both nutritious and tasty. Learn to identify chickweed online. Look for clusters of smooth leaves and make sure there are no red spots on the leaf underside (indicating a poisonous look-alike plant).
• Clover: Flowers and leaves of clover can be eaten raw or boiled.
• Dandelion: The yellow flower and green leaves of dandelion are often used in gourmet salads. The roots are also quite nutritious. Leaves may be boiled or eaten raw. The roots are best roasted or boiled.
• Fiddlehead Ferns: Remove the brown scales and cook as you would cook green beans.
• Lamb’s Quarters: Eat both the leaves and seeds of Lamb’s Quarters or “Wild Spinach,” raw or cooked (preferred). For identification, look for waxy, white crystals that can be rubbed off of the broad leaves and ribbed stem. Plants can be several feet tall and each branch node may have a purple mark.
• Lilac: Enjoy the sweet lemon flavor when blooming in the spring.
• Plantain: The round, green leaves of plantain are great raw or cooked, much like spinach. The younger, smaller, lighter colored leaves are more tender and tasty. The seeds can be dried and ground for a flour substitute in pancakes and breads or to thicken soups. The thick veins in this plain can also be used like cording to tie things together.
• Thistle: Skip the spiky parts with the purple flowers, and go for the thistle stems, chopped and cooked.
• Trillium: Enjoy eating the leaves of trillium, raw or cooked.
• Other Wild Edibles that you may already recognize include: amaranth, acorns, bull thistle, chives, curly dock, elder flower, field mustard, fireweed, hibiscus, mallow, pine cone seeds, pigweed, pine needles, sheep sorrel, stinging nettles, sunflower, watercress, wild asparagus, wild mustard, wild onions, wild violets, and wood sorrel.

See More Online: Wild Edibles Identification – YouTube Videos

Get a good edible plants book at Amazon.com

Foraged Teas

Steep these plants in hot water for a delightful hot tea drink in the wild. While the leaves are usually steeped, you may also use flowers, roots, berries, or combinations for optimal taste or medicinal value. Many of these teas will taste better with a bit of sweetener.

Be 100% certain of plant identification before using for tea!

• Acorn and Oak Bark *: high tannic acid
• Birch Sap *: nutritious
• Birch Twigs (Black or Yellow Birch): wintergreen flavor
  > Small handful of cut twigs, steep 20 to 30 minutes, sweeten
• Blackberry Leaf *: high in vitamin C, high tannic acid
• Blueberry Leaf: nutritious
  > Bake leaves at 400 for 30 min, grind to powder, steep 3 minutes
• Chamomile (all varieties) *: immune system booster
• Cleavers (goosegrass, stickywilly, catchweed): springtime
• Cowslip Flowers *: steep 10 minutes
• Dandelion *: flower, leaf, or root
• Elderberry & Elderflower *: use flowers or fruits only
• Lavender Flowers *: rub on skin for a bug repellent
• Lemon Balm *: many medicinal properties
• Mallow *: nutritious
• Milk Thistle *: flower, leaf, or root
• Mint *: nutritious, decongestant
• Mullein (Verbascum thapsus ) *: immune system booster
• Nettle (Stinging Nettle): roast over flame to remove needles
  > Use gloves to avoid being stung by needles
• Pinapple Weed (like Chamomile): tasty
• Pine, Spruce, or Conifer Needle *: high vitamin C
  > Use green needles, trim off brown ends, steep 5 to 10 minutes
• Plantain *: nutritious
• Raspberry Leaf: nutritious
• Red Clover: avoid if pregnant
  > Gather a handful of red/pink blossoms, steep 10 minutes
• Rose: fragrant
• Rosehip *: immune system booster
• Sassafras Roots: avoid if pregnant
  > Wash, cut, dry, peel bark, boil 20 minutes, add sweetener
• Spicebush: use dried twigs with berries in winter
• Wild Ginger: use root
• Willow Bark *: somewhat like Aspirin
• Yarrow: delicious

* These flagged teas have medicinal purposes also