Many of the plants growing around your area have the potential of being turned into a tasty meal and they have been used by our ancestors as a reliable food source. Foraging is a way of reconnecting with nature and re-discover the great outdoors while developing a new perspective on looking at plants. Being able to forage shouldn’t be a forgotten skill as someday we will have to forage in order to survive.
Reasons why you should forage:
- Wild plants have not been genetically modified and are packed with vitamins and minerals
- It doesn’t cost you anything, the food is free and yours for the taking
- Foraging increases your knowledge about the plant world, which can prove decisive in a survival situation
- Foraging provides outdoor exercise and keeps your mind busy
- The food you forage is free or pesticides, herbicides and it promotes health and well being
- You will discover flavors found nowhere else
During summer, the days are long and the heat can sometimes be unbearable. It is recommended to go forage early morning or late afternoon to avoid the heat and to beat the birds to the berries.
Also, during summer peaks, most of the berries ripen so that you can get a sweet and juicy treat, but you will also get an extra dose of sugar for a boost of energy.
You should add the following plant on your forage list:
Heat Loving Berries
Blueberries and huckleberries look very similar. True blueberries bear terminal clusters of fruits that turn blue or sometimes black when ripe, with many seeds in the center. True huckleberries have flowers in the leaf axils and fruits with ten large seeds and resinous glands on the underside of the leaves.
Blueberries can be grouped into two kinds, the highbush and the low bush. Both are shrubs and are common in the eastern United States. The highbush blueberry can grow up to fifteen feet tall while the lowbush blueberries are no more than three feet high. These forest delight should be on your forage list.
These woody, evergreen plants bloom in the spring with white or pink flowers, followed by green berries that look like apples. The berries turn red when they are ripe and can be used for jams, jellies or cobblers.
How to spot when blueberries are not safe to eat?
When you forage for edible blueberries, you have to look for the star at the top of the berry where the five sepals join together. In general, this indicates if the blueberries are edible. If the star is missing it can be one of the poisonous types and it’s best to leave it be.
Ground Cherries
Brambleberries
he other species bloom in mid-spring and can be found in open, sunny areas. The flowers can be either pink or white and the fruits can be red or black when ripe, depending on the species. The fruit of the rose is a hip and ripens in the fall. This is a food that hiking enthusiasts like o forage with every occasion they get.
Wild Plums and Cherries
The plums have fruits that are drupes with a large stone in the center and their color varies from deep red to yellow or orange when ripe. They can be picked easily when ripe as they will not cling to the branches. Make sure to add them on your forage list as they are delicious.
Mayapples
Compared to apple flowers, mayapples have six to nine white petals for each flower. The fruits are ripening when they smell like lemon. If mayapples are on your forage list, the scent is your best choice of finding these fruits, since the leaves change color and other plants grow around them when the fruits are ripe. The fruit is like a large berry and it contains many seeds. It can be eaten raw or turned into jelly or juice.
Elderberries
They bear large clusters of small white or cream-colored flowers in late spring; these are followed by clusters of small black, blue-black, or red berries. The berries can be removed by rubbing the stems gently between your fingers.
Fresh berries have a strong flavor that can be mellowed somewhat with drying. You should forage elderberries since you can make jelly, syrup, pies, or wine from them.
Cattails
Pull the top leaves back to reveal the greenish flower spikes, two of them, male and female. The male is at the top and the female is on the bottom. The immature flower spikes are edible, although the male is tenderer.
As the flower buds mature, the male flower begins to turn yellow. When you tap the spike and see the pollen being dispersed, you know it is ready to collect. Put a plastic bag around the spike and strip the pollen from the stalk. The pollen can then be added to cornmeal or flour for bread. Don’t forage cattails if it has turned brown, it’s past its peak. Eventually, the male flowers dry up and drop off, leaving only the female spike.
Milkweeds
A pod-like fruit follows the flower. Flower buds, flowers, and the young pods are all edible if you boil them two times, for two minutes.
They can be cooked as vegetables and make a great side dish.
Yucca
You can often find a moth inside the flowers, the pollinator of the plant. When about a foot tall you can pick and eat the yucca flower stalks. They look like asparagus during this stage and the taste varies from one stalk to the other.
The flowers can be eaten too if you remove the reproductive parts from the center, which are known to have a bitter taste. You can eat them raw or cook them as you wish. Make sure you know all these details when you forage for yucca.
Groundnuts
The bean Tree
It is best to forage them when they are still in greenish-pin phase and between one or two inches in length. During this period they are the most tender, with a tart flavor. They can be cooked as a vegetable.
Wild Beans
In the eastern part of the US, we have the Strophostyles genus with fruits that grow in small clusters while in the southwest we can find the tepary bean. The pods can be cooked like green beans when they are very young.
Grass grazing
You can make tea from these leaves or they can be dried and powdered. Barnyard grass, crabgrass, foxtail grass, and orchard grass are some of the grasses whose leaf blades can be used.
Some plants look like grasses but instead are sedges, rushes, or cattails, especially in wetlands. Chewing on the stems of these plants should be done with caution, especially if uncertain of the water quality. Sedges can often be identified by their triangular stem, while the rushes have round stems without jointed leaves. Cattail leaves are flat.
Purslane
These can be trimmed and the plant will continue to grow and sprawl out in different directions. The trimmings can be added raw to salads and soups or eaten as a cooked green. Small, yellow flowers appear in mid-summer followed by black seeds. Leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds are all edible.
Mints
Mints can be recognized by their square stems, opposite leaves, and flowers with five petals that form an upper and lower lip. Most members are aromatic.
Horse Balm and Bee Balm
Bee balm has bright red, tubular flowers and grows in moist soil along streams. Horse balm occurs over most of the United States and southern Canada. The fresh or dried leaves can be used to make tea.
Skullcap
Its name comes from its folk use for treating rabies. As a tea, it helps relieve nervous conditions including insomnia and anxiety. This is one of the main reasons why people forage for it.
Wintergreen
The leaves contain compounds that add a wintergreen flavor to tea. When you forage, look for the little black, resinous dots under the leaves for positive identification.
Red Clover
If you decided to forage for wild edibles make sure you can correctly identify the plants that are safe to eat and that you have the right forage gear.
Stay safe and God Bless!
Other Survival and Preparedness Resources:
The LOST WAYS (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
US Water Revolution ( A DIY Project to Generate Clean Water Anywhere)
Bullet Proof Home (Learn how to Safeguard your Home)
Blackout USA (Video about EMP survival and preparedness guide)