Edible wild greens start popping up in early spring and are plentiful and easy to forage. They're nutritious, delicious, and free!
Discover the best books on Northeast foraging! Explore a curated list of my favorite resources for identifying and preparing wild edibles and medicinal plants in the Northeastern part of the US. Enhance your foraging adventures with these invaluable guides.
It’s easy to become captivated by wild food and medicine. There’s a vitality to wild plants that is unsurpassed, and a nutrient load that is astonishing. We’ve handpicked our most trusted foraging blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts to share with you.
Edible pine needles make very tasty cookies, drinks, and syrups! Get all of the foraged pine needle recipes you need here.
It’s easy to become captivated by wild food and medicine. There’s a vitality to wild plants that is unsurpassed, and a nutrient load that is astonishing. We’ve handpicked our most trusted foraging blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts to share with you.
Dandelion seeds are edible! Every part of the dandelion plant is edible, and the seeds are no exception. Believe it or not, it's easy to harvest the seeds and separate them from the fluff, and
Food educator Mike Krebill talks about his new guide to foraging—and how wild edibles can fuel conservation
Our ancestors had to learn foraging the hard way. Through trial and the occasional fatal error, we sorted edible from the harmful.
Two free edible and medicinal weeds workshops coming up. One thanks to the Green Living Centre, bookings here , and the other thanks to Ku Ring Gai Council, bookings here . Join us!
Wild foraging for food and herbs is an incredibly fulfilling practice, however as a beginner forager, the whole process can feel overwhelming at times. From the endless wall of green plants to fungi that all seem to look similar to how to best harvest, preserve, and use what you've found, it can be difficult to
Perfect for the beginning forager, miner's lettuce is a delicious, juicy and sweet wild green. Learn how and when to find this shade-loving green! (This post was contributed by Melissa Keyser.) The very first wild
If you plan to bring kids along on any wild foraging adventures don't miss these best foraging books for kids!
A professionally-vetted list of the best foraging books on wild foods and herbs, written by experts in the field.
Spring is a great time for foraging! Learn what to forage in spring with this list of 20 edible and medicinal plants and fungi. Spring foraging is fun!
Rose hips are the delicious edible fruits of roses, wild and cultivated. They're easy to identify and well worth the effort! My daughter absolutely loves roses of all kinds, especially fragrant wild roses that we
Most of us can’t grow our own coffee, but we can easily find this wild coffee substitute! Here's how to make it cleavers coffee.
Years ago I learned that plums grow wild parts of the United States just like apples, but I'd never run across any until this year. The trees were small and scrubby, but they were absolutely
Queen Anne's lace is a pretty flower also known as wild carrot. It's edible and medicinal with distinct identifying factors and many uses.
Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is a common edible weed that’s incredibly common in lawns, fields and woodland edges. It’s not only tasty, but incredibly useful. Ground Ivy is a common lawn weed all around the
Wild nuts aren't just for the squirrels, they're an abundant and nutrient-dense wild food that's just waiting for the harvest. Keep an eye out for these delicious wild protein sources and pack them away for winter
Are you intrigued by the idea of gathering abundant wild edibles and weedy medicinal plants? We’ve stocked up all the resources you need to begin your foraging adventures safely and wisely. Tools, field guides, harvesting ethics, and a primer on sustainable wildcrafting are all requisite. Browse our resources library to start foraging on the right foot!
This listing is for an 8.5x11 and a A4 sized DIGITAL print of a little series of useful plants for foraging. I have taken great care to draw and watercolor the specimens accurately, but these illustrations are NOT intended to be enough to safely identify ANY wild plants. Please consult good field guides or local experts before using any wild plants! I have included a print with some of our favorite foraging tools for inspiration, but feel free to put together your own unique foraging kit with whatever you might have on hand! I did this little series in hopes of sparking children's interest in learning about the plant life around them, and I tried to choose plants that were fairly common around the world. This digital download includes: ~ An 8.5" x 11" PDF file of the Useful Plants & Foraging Tools prints ~ A ZIP file containing the 8.5" x 11" sized PNG files of the Useful Plants & Foraging Tools prints ~ An A4 sized PDF file of the Useful Plants & Foraging Tools prints ~ A ZIP file containing the A4 sized PNG files of the Useful Plants & Foraging Tools prints ~ A PDF file with un-zipping tips ★ These files can be printed at home, your local print shop or with your favorite online printer such as Vista Print, Staples, Shutterfly, Amazon Prints, Overnight Prints, Snapfish, etc. ★★★ For gift and personal use only. NOT FOR RESALE. Please feel free to purchase once and print out multiple copies for homeschool or nature study groups. Purchase does NOT transfer copyright. ★★★ I do my best to portray colors accurately, however, different monitors will vary in how they display colors. ★ If you are not familiar with ZIP files, scroll to the end of this description for easy instructions. ★ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER AND GET 10% OFF: https://twigandmoth.myflodesk.com/newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UN-Zipping Tips: 1. Download and save the files to your computer (in the folder you would like them to live in), as you would any other type of file. 2. For Windows 7 - 10, right click on the file and select "Extract Here". 3. For Windows XP and Vista, double click the file to open a new window. Then click "Extract all Files" to open the “Extraction Wizard”. Click “Next” and select a destination for your unzipped folder. Now click “Finish”. 4. On a Mac, simply double click on the zip file to begin the extraction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ***Please print for personal and gift use only. Purchase does not transfer copyright. For more information, please read our Terms of Use here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwigandMoth/policy ***
Discover the best books on Northeast foraging! Explore a curated list of my favorite resources for identifying and preparing wild edibles and medicinal plants in the Northeastern part of the US. Enhance your foraging adventures with these invaluable guides.
Foraging wild foods growing all around you is a great way to bring a marginal resource into your household. Learn how with our free foraging guide.
Every fall the hedgerows are filled with color in my neighborhood. Thimbleberries and wild plums dot the roadside, and the clusters of bright red highbush cranberry are visible from a distance. I've seen those bushes every
It’s easy to become captivated by wild food and medicine. There’s a vitality to wild plants that is unsurpassed, and a nutrient load that is astonishing. We’ve handpicked our most trusted foraging blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts to share with you.
A friend of mine spends her summer weekend trying to wipe knotweed off the face of the earth. She comes back from trips exhausted, having used everything (including fire) to try to eradicate a patch
This beginner's guide to foraging resources such as books, websites, courses, and tools will help to get you started on your wildcrafting journey.
In Preserving Wild Foods, chef Matthew Weingarten and collaborator Raquel Pelzel celebrate wild and seasonal foods of the coastline, pasture, garden, forest, and wetland — and the preservation techniques that can make these treasures available year-round.
OK, let's identify and talk about the tisanes, starting from the top row, upper left corner. Most are infusions, and a few are decoctions. Infusions are made by steeping dried or fresh herbs in warm or boiled water to extract chemical compounds or flavors. Decoctions are actively boiled or simmered for a short period of time to extract flavors and chemical compounds from tougher plant parts like bark, roots, rhizomes, or stems. First we have linden bracts, collected from linden trees (Tilia cordata or Tilia americana), often planted in parking lots as ornamentals. The tree grows in a pleasing shape and has lovely, fragrant blooms on the early summer that are attached to a lighter colored bract, which is a modified leaf. Once fertilized by bees and insects, the flower will develop into a small, fuzzy nutlet that persists on the tree for the rest of the year. Robert showed us linden flowers, as they are commonly collected in Hungary and the nectar of the flowers makes a very floral honey. We collect the bracts and dry them in loosely packed in large paper bags, shaking them every day to move them around, and opening the bags every few days to let a beetle or two fly away! The tisane is steeped in boiled water for 15 minutes, and lightly sweetened with honey to make a soothing and delicious drink, which both Robert and Gillian drink. Next are yarrow leaves (Achillea millefolium). We use the leaves of common white-flowered yarrow, which grows prolifically along trails and in abandoned fields. We pick the fresh leaves to crush and use on minor scrapes and cuts, as fresh yarrow encourages clotting of blood. The leaves are dried in a dark place, and steeped in hot water for 15 minutes to make a slightly astringent tisane that can be useful in reducing mild fevers or as a digestive tonic. Pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea) is a wild cousin of chamomile, with an added bonus of a pineapple scent! The flower cones look very similar to chamomile, but without the white petals. It is considered mildly invasive in North America, but this diminutive weed grows in places many other plants won't bother with, like compacted gravel drives, along trails and roadsides, and in general poor soil. We find large areas of it in the driveway at our local CSA farm and collect it with the farmer's permission. An infusion of dried pineapple weed is sweet all by itself, and good for gastrointestinal upset and gas. We collect mostly the flower cones by gently picking them off the plant, but the leaves are also fragrant and can be added to a tisane. Many varieties of perennial mints (Mentha species) grow wild, and we love to stumble upon a patch while out in the woods or exploring abandoned fields. Sometimes we find a spearmint or a cat mint, but they all make fine, fragrant tisanes. Aside from the agreeable flavor, a mint tisane is good for nausea, indigestion, gas, mild fever, and headaches. Sometimes we make a very strong infusion and add it to Gillian's bath water for a relaxing soak (and a good-smelling kid!). We dry the mint tips and leaves in a brown paper bag in a dark place, shaking it around every day. We know of several mint patches, but will not bring any home to transplant, as mint can be a voracious spreader, taking over large swaths of a garden or completely filling a planter. We don't collect too many elderflower heads (Sambucus nigra), because then we wouldn't get to come back to gather the berries later in the season! The fresh flowers are very fragrant, and can be plucked off the stems and added to pancakes or crepes. The infusion of dried flowers can be drunk hot for fever and mucous producing conditions of the upper respiratory tract like hay fever. You can use the cooled infusion as a gargle for mouth ulcers and sore throats as well. We hang the flower umbels of elderberry to dry, then store then in sealed glass jars. Red clovers (Trifolium pratense) are a kid's favorite to eat, picking each tube-shaped flower off the flower head to taste the nectar inside. We collect the flowers before they turn brown and wilt, drying them in a paper bag. The infusion is brewed for about 15 minutes, and has a sweet taste. Red clover contains isoflavones, which are water-soluble chemicals that act like estrogens. Most benefits of red clover are realized through tinctures, so we just drink the tisane because it tastes nice. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a drink that many folks in the Appalachian areas of North America recognize and adore. It grows prolifically in southern New England as well, as we collect the roots and inner bark to dry, before simmering into a strong decoction. There have been over-hyped cancer warnings associated with the consumption of sassafras tea or decoction, but the government studies were flawed due to a need to ban safrole, a manufacturing component of the drug MDMA. A strong decoction of sassafras root can be used to make natural root beer. Sassafras is very fragrant in an almost spicy way, and we all really love the taste of a lightly sweetened, chilled sassafras drink in the summer. The Mythical, Medicinal, Magic Chaga (Inonotus obliquus)!! Chaga is the sterile conk of a fungus that attacks birch trees; we find it on white, yellow, and black birches in our area rather often. There are many medicinal claims being made about chaga on the internet right now, talking about anti-cancer properties to life-extension, but I'm not sure if I believe every claim being made about chaga. I can tell you a decoction of chaga tastes really good, especially if sweetened with maple syrup and mixed with coconut milk into a chilled frappe drink. Overall, the flavor of a plain chaga decoction is similar to black tea. We simmer 3 Tbsp. ground chaga in one gallon of water for about 45 minutes, and reuse the grounds to make two or three more batches of decoction to drink before discarding the used grounds. In the spring, we tap a few maple or birch trees and use the fresh sap to simmer the chaga, reducing the sap slightly to make a naturally sweetened drink. An infusion of nettles (Urtica dioica) in the winter is an iron boost for me, as I tend to suffer from chronic anemia. We gather the top 4-6 inches of nettles in mid-spring, long before they flower, by using gloves and scissors to avoid the sting. Once dried in the dehydrator on a low setting, nettles lose their sting and can be handled without protection, and stored in large glass containers. The flavor of a nettle infusion is pleasantly green and grassy, and can be drunk without sweetener. The 15 minute nettle infusion in boiled water is also good for stimulating circulation, relieving rheumatism, and relieving eczema. When the nettles are fresh and tender, we eat bucket loads of them, and they freeze well to use all year. Finally we have some dried beach rosehips (Rosa rugosa), a common invasive along the coasts of New England. The hips of all roses are edible, but the beach roses produce very large, meaty hips that are relatively easy to collect in large quantities. Once the seed-like achenes are removed from the halved hips, along with the irritating inner hairs, we dry the flesh of the hips in the dehydrator. A 20 minute decoction of the hips produces a sweet, fruity drink that is helpful for chronic diarrhea and stomach weakness. Rosehips also make a wonderful tart jelly filled with vitamin C, and the petals of beach roses are exceptionally fragrant and useful in syrups.
Winter foraging may seem difficult, but there are actually quite a few things that you may find. Learn about what to forage in winter!
A forager’s library often encompasses field guides and cookbooks, but rarely do the two categories overlap, and certainly not in such a beautiful volume as Foraging & Feasting. Written by Dina Falconi with illustrations by Wendy Hollender, this book marries art and science, nature and cooking, and it’s a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to learn how to identify, harvest, and prepare the wild foods that grow all around us.
It’s easy to become captivated by wild food and medicine. There’s a vitality to wild plants that is unsurpassed, and a nutrient load that is astonishing. We’ve handpicked our most trusted foraging blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts to share with you.
Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum sp.) are delicious, easy-to-identify mushrooms perfect for beginning foragers. This article was written by Timo Mendez, a freelance writer and amateur mycologist who has foraged wild mushrooms worldwide. Sweet Tooth, Hedgies, Belly
These 18 Best Foraging Blogs are a great resource, whether edible wild plants are food, medicine, or a curiosity for you. Blog authors are scientists, naturalists, chefs, homesteaders, and herbalis…
This post includes affliate links, read here how these work. My little picky eater happily munches blackthorn berries from the hedgerows. She won't touch a banana. Or an orange. But hand picked sourer-than-lemon sloes she
Discover the abundance of rich, natural resources of the Ozark Mountains in Falcon Guides Foraging the Ozarks, your guide to find, identify and eat the area's wild herbs, berries and nuts.
Make this refreshing nettle iced tea with foraged stinging nettles!
We herbalists have a unique take on the commonest of herbs: instead of dismissing them as mundane or maddening, we choose to embrace wily botanicals.
How to use foraging to teach kids five subjects including science, math, and literature, plus a free foraging for kids printable!
If you want to start learning how to forage wild plants for food or medicine but don’t know where to start, I’ve got you covered. This post is full of my favorite resources and advice for learning.
