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Loading...11 Precautions and Tips for Safe Foraging
- Cait Johnson
- April 18, 2008
- 6:00 am
- 159 comments
Edible wild food to forage for in the spring include cattail stalks, dandelion, chickweed, chives, nettles, wild lettuce, violet leaves, redbud flowers, mustard and rose family flowers, violets, strawberry, and gooseberries. It is a great time to dig burdock, dandelion, and wild parsnip roots.
There is a veritable feast out there! Herbalists believe that foods available seasonally provide nourishment appropriate to the body’s needs at the different times of year.
Experts recommend you introduce yourself to two or three new wild plants to eat a season, so as not to become overwhelmed. Start now!. The most important thing of all is to forage safely, both for your health and the environment. These guidelines will help:
This is a condensed version of a list by Deborah Lee reprinted in The Green Kitchen Handbook. A few good guidebooks for identifying plants are a must!
1. Know what you are picking. (Many edible plants have a poisonous look-alike.)
2. Be extremely careful when collecting mushrooms.
3. Know what part to pick.
4. If wild animals can eat the plant, it doesn’t mean it is safe for humans.
5. Avoid plants near industrialized farming or any area where commercial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides may have been used.
6. Avoid foraging near main roads due to herbicide use by road crews.
7. Don’t over harvest any one plant or area.
8. Take only what you need.
9. Clean and sort through the plants in the woods.
10. Don’t overeat foraged plants as they can be strong medicinally.
Read more: Community, Eating for Health, Life, Nature & Wildlife
Cait Johnson
Cait Johnson, MFA, is the author of six books, including Earth, Water, Fire, and Air: Essential Ways of Connecting to Spirit, Witch in the Kitchen, Celebrating the Great Mother and Tarot Games. She has been a counselor for more than 20 years, and teaches workshops on seasonal elemental approaches to self-healing, conscious eating, and soul-nurturing creativity.
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The Green Kitchen Handbook
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159 comments
+ add your ownThere is nothing like harvesting your own herbs, fruits and vegetables.
Thanks
An awful lot of food can be grown in even tiny garden. If you have a yard, consider converting any large mown areas you don't actually use to perennial food plants--berries are pricy in the store but easy to grow and full of nutrients.
And you save the labor and carbon footprint of mowing!
interesting- thanks
Thank you
In stead of eating I replanted a lot of berries last summer and now this summer they are coming up in my back yard:) Mmmmm yummy!!!
There's nothing like fresh berries foraged on a forest walk.
Great tips thanks
Thanks
Most of these are just common sense...
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