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Every day we step outside, we’re surrounded by an abundance of plants. Trees, bushes, vines, flowers, herbaceous plants, and more fill our woodlands, grow in fields, and pop up through cracks in the pavement. While we may take note of these plants, most do not give them a second thought. Even though many people see plants as part of the background, the reality is much more complex. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and create oxygen through their normal life processes. Their root systems keep the soil in place preventing erosion caused by wind and rain. They provide food, shelter, and health-enhancing effects for countless species. While humans passively benefit from the creation of oxygen and the binding of soil, we don’t think much about a wild plant’s capacity to feed us and enhance our health — unless you’re in the practice of foraging.
Garlic mustard, the plant that started my foraging journey.
What is Foraging?
In the context of this article, foraging is the act of gathering wild plants and fungi as a food source. While this may sound like a simple concept, the reality of foraging is far more complex. Foraging isn’t something that most people can pick up and do, as it requires knowledge and skill to do it safely and effectively — and yes, there’s even plenty to forage in urban environments.
Being a successful forager requires some baseline knowledge in a few different scientific disciplines:
- Botany: The science of plants. Developing a basic understanding botany allows us to identify plants and when a plant is healthy or diseased. It can also help us understand the growth cycle of plants to know when they can be found or the best time to collect.
- Ecology: The science of understanding how organisms interact with the environment. Understanding the ecosystem and different environmental factors that influence plants. This helps us plan where to forage plants, because we understand what grows in an area, understand where the best areas are to harvest plants, and what areas we should avoid because of environmental or human-produced hazards.
- Human Biology: The science of the human body and function. Understanding how different nutrients, compounds, and minerals found in plants impact our body gives us an understanding of the nutritional value of wild plants so we can gather what we need.
- Toxicology: The science of the adverse effects chemical, physical, and biological agents on our bodies. Not all plants are edible; some plants can harm or kill us, and some edible plants are only edible in limited quantities, as they contain compounds that can harm us in large amounts.
While this seems like a lot, it’s only the tip of the iceberg, as more advanced concepts in foraging such as herbalism — commonly known as plant medicine — requires knowledge in basic chemistry and medical science. Despite the complexity, foraging has numerous benefits, making it a priority for anyone who takes preparedness and self-reliance seriously.
Prunella Vulgaris, commonly called Heal-All, has been used for centuries to treat wounds due to its antiseptic qualities.
How Can Foraging Benefit Us?
The benefits of foraging are tremendous for people who are interested in emergency survival or generally living a self-reliant lifestyle. Let’s look at some of them:
- Free Food: Being able to forage wild plants and fungi can provide free food for you and your loved ones.
- Access to Food During Supply Shortages: Are farms experiencing crop die off? Are produce prices sky high? Has the food delivery infrastructure collapsed? For all these reasons and more, foraging can provide supplemental food to sustain you and your loved ones during difficult times.
- Wilderness Survival: While we do our best to be prepared, anyone who spends time in the great outdoors may face a survival situation. Knowing what plants to gather and eat can help maintain our health until help arrives. It is important to note that foraging will not sustain you over an extended period in the wilderness. Plants lack large amounts of calories; you’ll need to supplement with hunting and/or fishing.
- Nutrition: Many people think the produce we get from the grocery stores and farms is the most nutritious. In reality, these plants have become staples because they’re easy to grow and transport. Many wild plants are far more nutritious when compared to farm-grown plants.
- First-Aid: Many plants, like Self-Heal, have antiseptic qualities that can help prevent the growth of microorganisms. This can help treat wounds and speed healing in the absence of commercial first-aid products.
- Medicine: While many people dismiss plant medicine, many modern medications are derived from plants. Aspirin was derived from willow bark, which has long been used as a pain reliever and many plants are currently being studied for their ability to combat cancer. These are just two examples, but plant medicine is a robust practice that humanity has used for thousands of years and is now coming to the forefront or modern medicine.
- General Wellness: If you go down the supplement aisle in the pharmacy, you will see a number of plant-based supplements including berry extracts, red clover, ginger, echinacea, and many more. Many plants used in these supplements are commonly found all over the world and can be harvested while foraging.
- Connection: Many people seek a connection to the natural world or the practices of their ancestors. Foraging provides a way to achieve both. Through research over time, learning about foraging will provide a deeper understanding of the natural world around us and the rich history of foraging practices across all human cultures.
With all these benefits, it’s hard to deny the importance of foraging for self-reliant living and emergency preparedness. Despite the benefits, the broad nature of the topic can be intimidating for the newcomer, and many are scared off or don’t know where to start. So, let’s dispel those fears and talk about how you can get started.
Willow bark contains salicylic acid, a natural pain reliever. A similar compound was eventually adapted into aspirin.
Learning to ID Plants and Fungi
You don’t need to be a scientist to get started, all you need is the desire to learn, time to practice, some basic gear, and a whole lot of patience. I will only be able to cover the basics in this article, but I will also provide ideas and resources should you want to take your foraging skills to the next level.
The Golden Rule of Identification
Before you harvest and eat anything, you must first be able to positively identify the plant. Never eat a plant or fungi you have not positively identified with 100-percent confidence. I spent an entire year learning to identify plants and fungi before I put a wild plant in my mouth.
Factors in Positive Plant ID
When identifying a plant, we want to look at several parts of the plant. Leaves, stem, and roots are generally always present. Becoming familiar with a plant’s leaf shape, texture, edges, and distribution is vital. Stems can be smooth, hairy, or woody. Color on both stems and leaves make all the difference in identifying a plant. Sometimes a root shape or type can be the only way you’ll be able to positively ID a plant. Later in the season, flowers and fruit can also be used to positively identify a plant.
The environment is also a major factor in plant identification. Some plants only grow in certain regions, and others will only grow in certain conditions. If you think you have identified a plant, but the growing conditions are wrong, you may be looking at a look-alike.
Toxic Plants and Look-Alikes
Beyond just learning how to identify what you can eat, you should be able to identify what you can’t eat. While most seasoned outdoor enthusiasts can ID harmful plants like poison ivy or poison oak, some toxic plants, at first glance, look like edible plants. The example I always show my students to demonstrate toxic look-alikes is Queen Anne’s lace and water hemlock.
Queen Anne’s lace is a type of wild carrot that’s edible and nutritious. Water hemlock is a highly toxic look-alike that I hear is also delicious, with a side of being deadly! While at quick glance they look similar, a detailed look at their flowers, leaves, and growing environment will quickly tell these two plants apart.
While said to be tasty, the destroying angel mushroom contains amatoxins that cause severe damage to the kidneys and liver. Cases of poising from this mushroom have a 50-percent mortality rate.
Mushrooms and Fungus
Fungi can be more challenging, and I always recommend people start with plants and take their time with fungi. Many plants can make us sick, but few can end our life. Fungi is a different story, with mushroom varieties having names like death cap, destroying angel, and deadly dapperling, it should be evident that extreme caution needs to be taken when foraging any fungi.
Where to Start
The Field Guide
The very first thing a prospective forager needs is a good field guide. This book is a resource that you can use at home to learn how to identify edible plants, where to find them, what part of the plants are edible, and the best times to harvest those plants. Your field guide should always come with you when foraging for quick reference.
I recommend Mark “Merrywether” Vorderbruggen’s Foraging Field Guide. Vorderbruggen is a passionate and experienced forager who owns Foraging Texas, where he provides in-person foraging instruction and a robust website filled with resources. This guide covers commonly found edible plants across the United States, excellent pictures and identification guidance. As a bonus, the book includes some ways to prepare your foraged finds into delicious meals.
Notebook
Taking notes in the field is an important part of foraging. You may not always be able to positively identify a plant in the field, take a picture on your phone of the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit of the plant. Make notes as to the plant’s location and where it’s growing. Does it grow in wet soil or near a river? Does it grow in the sun or shade? What plants that you can identify are growing near it. All this provides valuable clues as to what that plant may be. When you return from the field you can use this information to research what your subject plant may be.
Take a Class
The fastest way to initially learn how to positively ID plants is to take an in-person class with an experienced foraging professional. If you don’t have local in-person classes and traveling isn’t an option, reputable online classes are available through organizations like The Herbal Academy.
What About Plant and Mushroom ID Apps?
These apps may seem convenient, but they’re notorious for misidentifying plants. While these can function as a preliminary identification tool or a cross-reference, I wouldn’t bet my health or safety on their accuracy.
It may be tempting to grab nutrient-dense dandelions off the lawn, but we must beware of potentially toxic fertilizers and pesticides the plant may have been exposed to.
Harvesting Tips
Once we have reached the point where we are comfortable identifying plants, we can begin harvesting edible plants. Keep in mind just because we have positively identified a plant doesn’t mean we should harvest it. Let’s look at a few reasons why.
Environmental Toxicity
Plants can absorb toxins from their environment. This is why we should avoid harvesting plants from areas that may have higher toxicity levels. For example, heavily trafficked roadsides aren’t ideal foraging locations, as plants absorb toxins from exhaust of passing vehicles. The same can be said for plants on lawns and other manicured garden spaces.
Dandelion is one of the most nutritionally dense plants we can eat, and it packs several medical uses as well. While it may be tempting to snatch some off the lawn, we must consider pesticides used on the lawn. These do not just exist on the outside of the plant but may have been absorbed through the root system.
Legal Reasons
Many state parks and forests prohibit foraging, as do some national parks. Privately owned preserves will also prohibit foraging. Violating these rules can often come with a hefty fine. While it may seem like a victimless crime, these prohibitions usually exist to protect threatened and endangered species or to protect food and habitat of organisms within the confines of the park or preserve.
Remember, we’re not the only ones who can benefit from these plants. While we can’t harvest in these areas, they still make a great place to practice our identification skills.
Having a well-rounded foraging kit can make gathering plants and fungi safer and more efficient.
Foraging Tools
Once we’ve identified a good place to forage, we’re going to need some equipment to get the job done. Let’s go over what I keep in my foraging kit.
Cutting Tools
Harvesting plants requires cutting tools, this allows us to minimize the damage done to a plant if only harvesting a portion, ensuring the resource is there for later use.
- Knives by Nuge Sheepsfoot Chickpea: The Sheepsfoot Chickpea is a compact knife that allows easy access to harder-to-reach places in dense plants. The sheepsfoot blade shape also allows for some limited digging around shallow roots.
- Pruning Shears: A quality pair of pruning shears allow for the cutting of thick stems and small branches.
- Silky Pocket Boy Folding Saw: While rare, I occasionally find myself needing to cut thicker branches; having a compact saw on hand is a big help.
Once you have harvested your forager’s bounty, you’ll need to store it somewhere. These compact storage options allow for lightweight carry when not in use, but provide ample space for your harvest.
Storage
- PNWBushcraft Foraging Pouch: This compact fold-up hip pouch is a perfect place to store foraged finds. It can keep them close at hand, so if I am foraging something like berries for a long hike, I can easily snack on them on the move.
- Wazoo Foraging Bandanet: The Bandanet provides a lot of space to carry your foraged finds. It also has some great quick reference info and can be placed over your head to protect your face from biting bugs.
- Tuff Possum Gear Shackleton EDC Satchel: This Satchel is the right size to store my compact foraging kit and other wilderness essentials while on the go.
The detailed full-color pictures and helpful information found in Vorderbruggen’s field guide can help you ID plants from all over the United States.
Knowledge and Reference
- Field Guide: Essential quick reference and resource for identifying unknown plants.
- Notebook and Pen: Take notes, log locations, and observations.
Protection and Comfort
- Badger Claw Outfitters Leather Gloves: A good pair of leather gloves can protect your hands from thorns and poison ivy.
- PNWBushcraft Ground Cloth: Foraging can be a wet and dirty business — a ground cloth can provide a clean and dry place to work.
Other Helpful Additions
While I like to keep my kit lean, the addition of a few items can enhance your personal foraging activities.
- Basket: Baskets are great for transporting larger hauls of delicate plants.
- Trowel: Some things need a little more of a digging tool.
While skunk cabbage is technically edible, it contains calcium oxalate, which can have a burning sensation in your mouth. In large amounts it’ll cause gastric upset and can lead to the development of kidney stones.
Beyond the Basics
Congratulations, you’ve made it through about 1 percent of your foraging journey! However, there are many ways to take your foraging practice further. Taking in-person classes, especially in different regions will help you enhance your knowledge base. Courses in any of the scientific fields can provide a far deeper understanding of plants and how they interact with our body.
You can also study programs in plant-based first aid and medicine. Believe me, you’ll never live long enough to learn it all, but with a little practice, you will find identifying different plants comes easier and you may surprise yourself how much information you will retain.
Recommended Resources to Enhance Foraging Knowledge
Foraging Texas > foragingtexas.com
Nicole Apelian > nicoleapelian.com
The Herbal Academy > theherbalacademy.com
Alexis Nikole Nelson > youtube.com/c/BlackForager
Liz Neves > gatheringground.nyc
Shane Alden > thewilddryad.com
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Editor's Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.