makes a magnificent marmalade, but the rest of the plant is poisonous. While the cap of the scotch bonnet mushroom is delicious cooked, the stem is too fibrous to eat.
Timing the harvest is also critical: Siberian elm samaras (small, flat “wings” with a seed inside) are delicious when the winged portion is green – handfuls of them can be stripped off the tree and eaten on the spot. They are moist and nutty. When the winged portion turns brown, however, they become dry and papery. The length of time they are at their peak is only one week. You can find out when that occurs by making frequent observations beginning before the tree leafs out in the spring.
Preparing
Knowing how to prepare your wild plant helps you get the most from your experience. Acorns offer an excellent example: Most acorns have an abundant supply of tannin that must be leached out to render the acorn meal useful for breads and not unpleasantly bitter. After all, the best part of a successful forage is the enjoyment of eating what you have found!
The Scout’s Guide is packed with insights and recommendations gleaned from a lifetime of foraging and my 50-plus years as a wild food educator. May you find this book to be exactly what I intended it to be: a useful field guide to the great adventure of foraging.
Mike Krebill
Plants
In this section, you will find my chosen 33 edible wild plants, their characteristics and uses. Information will be under the following headings:
Range
Habitat
Positive ID checklist
The edible parts of the plant and how to prepare them
A caution note when there’s an important observation to share, or a warning about a similar-looking but toxic plant
When to harvest each plant and how to do so sustainably
How to preserve your harvest
Most of the plants found in this guide are widely distributed in the U.S. and in Canada’s lower provinces. For convenience in looking up information, they are alphabetized by their common name.
Amaranth, Green
RANGE:
Introduced and widespread throughout the United States and Canada
HABITAT:
Wherever soil is tilled or disturbed and moisture is adequate, green amaranth will be among the first and most persistent of weeds.
POSITIVE ID:
• Green amaranth’s smooth-edged, oval leaves seem soft, hairy and flaccid. A flaccid leaf is one that appears slightly wilted, like it needs water.
• Also known as “redroot,” its taproot usually has a pink or reddish color to it.
• Seedheads at the top of the plant and in several of the leaf axils beneath it have several fingerlike clusters, or spikes, containing hundreds of seeds hidden inside.
• The ripe seeds are tiny and black, and have a flattened circular disc shape.
• There are no thorns on this plant.
At the preferred size for harvesting the leaves for cooked greens, this green amaranth was one of dozens that grew as weeds in community garden plots in Ann Arbor, MI. Note the distinctive red root, helpful in identification, and why the plant is also known as “redroot.”
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The young leaves are edible raw or cooked. The seeds are an ingredient in wild food trail bites (award-winning recipe on page 162). Snip off several of the greenish brown seedheads into a paper grocery sack. Roll the sack tightly closed and shake it to free the seeds. As some of the seed coverings will be mixed in, it will be necessary to winnow the tiny black seeds to remove the chaff.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Early summer for greens; late summer to early fall for seeds
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting young leaves and dozens of seedheads will have little impact on this prolific plant.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Drop leaves in boiling water for three minutes, then plunge into ice water. Drain and freeze. Use within 11 months. Keep hulled seeds frozen for up to one year.
When the plant grows larger, the seedhead begins to develop. The leaves become coarser and more fibrous. The stalk becomes tough and woody as the plant gets taller and taller. This is a stage not worth harvesting.
The mature plant has an enormous seedhead with finger-like branches and thousands of tiny, shiny black seeds. These seeds can be collected when the seedheads begin turning brown.
Asparagus
RANGE:
A garden and farm escapee in the lower 48 states and Canada’s southern provinces that became “wild” thanks to birds eating its berries and pooping the seeds
HABITAT:
Near farm gardens or fields where asparagus was raised. Wild asparagus bushes may be spotted as you drive along a road. Watch for them on the road bank below overhead wires and along fence lines where birds perch.
POSITIVE ID:
• Young shoots (spears) are identical to the asparagus spears you might add to your grocery cart in a store. They have triangular, papery bud covers where branches will emerge.
• The open, airy bush that develops from the spear has a woody central stem with thin, wiry branches. Being green, the stem, its branches and the fine, needle-like leaves can capture the energy of sunlight.
• The bush turns golden yellow in autumn.
• The female bush produces 1/4″ diameter round red berries which are toxic.
