This post provides an updated list of wild and/or widely available plants and fungi which can give you access to free nutrient dense food and medicine each spring
So much good information so thankyou Gavin…..one thing I would love to add is recomending that you not only consult a guidebook but a person!!! As an experienced forager I can tell you that most of are wholly underutilized and love nothing more than folks reaching out to be shown whats what in there local…..so yes if you want to learn, gather 3-4 friends and $20 a piece thereabouts to offer your local know it all and let them show you what to do. Nothing beats it.
I agree wholeheartedly, and those that live in areas where people have retained or cultivated place based foraging experience should most certainly seek them out (and offer to compensate them for their time).
Sadly, what I found after moving to the far south of Ontario is that as the natural Carolinian forest ecosystems have been decimated and replaced by endless monocrop fields, strip malls, hydroponic greenhouses, suburbs, Walmarts, endless roads with artificial ditches that are annually scraped and glyphosate sprayed that replace streams and rivers and parking lots over the last century, the knowledge of local flora has also diminished to an extreme degree. People raised here in this highly “civilized” landscape have had their perception of wild food plants distorted by propaganda and now most suffer from an extreme form of multi-generational amnesia, plant blindness and ecological illiteracy.
Despite being more familiar with wild edible plants and fungi from the PNW (where I was raised) there is of course some overlap and I quickly sought to familiarize myself with those plants unique to this Carolinian forest region of Canada. Once I became confident in identifying several , cooking with them and preserving I began harvesting extra to share with co-workers and new friends here. I was saddened to find that most people of here have been indoctrinated into a belief system that looks down on wild foraged food as “primitive” and “dirty” while looking upon processed monoculture foods as “elevated”, “refined” and “proper”. The brainwashing runs deep, there are many here that have lived in this region their whole lives and as adults have never eaten wild foods native to the region, and nor have they even visited the last few tiny sections of old growth Carolinian forest that still exist here (99.98% in Essex county where we live has been clearcut and replaced with monocrops and cement) and they have no interest in either. They describe forests as “wasted space”, “untamed bush” and “unkept” and turn their nose up at wild foraged foods.
Sadly, even those with blood indigenous to this land have been so effectively assimilated into the ecologically illiterate imperialist monocrop thinking by the residential schools and subsequent generations of capitalist/ government propaganda that most of them also think in this unnatural way (eating macdonalds and Walmart food and turning up their nose and looking suspiciously at a pawpaw fruit I foraged and offer them as a gift).
I have met a small handful of locally born people here that know of a handful of wild edible plants and tree nuts/fruit but they are a tiny minority and have not sought to hone that skill or knowledge base beyond just harvesting ramps and maybe elderberries. I personally would not recommend paying them for that kind of limited awareness.
Despite not being from here, I would love to do foraging / plant identification walks (and several people have asked if I would and offered to pay me) but as I am attempting to transition from working a 9-5 to being a full time author and eventually open a learning space (while trying to compete with a tidal wave of A.I. Slop books and publications selling their plethora of machine generated foraging and gardening “books” and articles to an increasingly undiscerning population) I have to dedicate every moment I have to writing books and working my behind off at a day job saving up to self-publish those books (so I do not have time to do foraging/ plant identification guiding at this time).
All of that is to say that while there is a particularly extreme degree of botanical illiteracy and wilderness xenophobia (nature-phobia) here in the extremely ecologically degraded region of southern Ontario, I doubt that this situation is unique (given global trends) and so there may be instances where finding locally knowledgeable, passionate and trustworthy guides for foraging is not a viable option.
I do appreciate the suggestion though and would agree with you that hands on in person learning is preferable to books (atleast for me it is).
What a lovely, generous resource! These photos have me craving spring :) I remember during the first year of the pandemic having a well-stocked pantry but craving fresh greens. Luckily, my backyard was filled with wild mustard - one of the first greens of the season. We had many a meal of beans and greens with those wild plants, and the dandelion and chickweed and lambsquarters when they emerged. Gifts of the land when we needed them most!
That is beautiful the way you accepted the abundant gifts of nature to nourish yourself and your loved ones with wild greens.
I love to cultivate the cousin of lambs-quarter (heirloom Amaranth) for the greens as well as the seed. I have been able to naturalize her to one of our raised beds now and she self seeds without my assistance.
Have you ever tried cooking with Hopi Red Amaranth?
I have an abundance of Hopi Red Dye Amaranth seed from our harvest and I am willing to trade :)
(I also send those seeds, along with several other heirloom varieties to any paid subscribers interested in giving them a place to set down roots and with each copy of my book purchased)
Did you see my recipe for Carrot Cake post?
It is one of the fun ways I like to incorporate the seeds in baking recipe (popped like popcorn first and mixed in with the batter for nutty flavor, potent nutritious and a lovely visual effect).
They make fantastic banana bread too.
They are also great pan fried and then added to soups (giving the broth a lovely color and rich flavor).
I also just like eating them popped by the handful.
Beautiful photos and info. Can hardly wait for spring. I’m in Toledo, Ohio on the Michigan line. I took a photo of a tree which is starting to bud in the yard.
Oh WOW...just looking at the pictures is sooooo inspiring! Thx. Im getting so excited for spring!
This is incredible information with fabulous photos - Gavin, thank you very much for all of this
So much good information so thankyou Gavin…..one thing I would love to add is recomending that you not only consult a guidebook but a person!!! As an experienced forager I can tell you that most of are wholly underutilized and love nothing more than folks reaching out to be shown whats what in there local…..so yes if you want to learn, gather 3-4 friends and $20 a piece thereabouts to offer your local know it all and let them show you what to do. Nothing beats it.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Natasha.
I agree wholeheartedly, and those that live in areas where people have retained or cultivated place based foraging experience should most certainly seek them out (and offer to compensate them for their time).
Sadly, what I found after moving to the far south of Ontario is that as the natural Carolinian forest ecosystems have been decimated and replaced by endless monocrop fields, strip malls, hydroponic greenhouses, suburbs, Walmarts, endless roads with artificial ditches that are annually scraped and glyphosate sprayed that replace streams and rivers and parking lots over the last century, the knowledge of local flora has also diminished to an extreme degree. People raised here in this highly “civilized” landscape have had their perception of wild food plants distorted by propaganda and now most suffer from an extreme form of multi-generational amnesia, plant blindness and ecological illiteracy.
Despite being more familiar with wild edible plants and fungi from the PNW (where I was raised) there is of course some overlap and I quickly sought to familiarize myself with those plants unique to this Carolinian forest region of Canada. Once I became confident in identifying several , cooking with them and preserving I began harvesting extra to share with co-workers and new friends here. I was saddened to find that most people of here have been indoctrinated into a belief system that looks down on wild foraged food as “primitive” and “dirty” while looking upon processed monoculture foods as “elevated”, “refined” and “proper”. The brainwashing runs deep, there are many here that have lived in this region their whole lives and as adults have never eaten wild foods native to the region, and nor have they even visited the last few tiny sections of old growth Carolinian forest that still exist here (99.98% in Essex county where we live has been clearcut and replaced with monocrops and cement) and they have no interest in either. They describe forests as “wasted space”, “untamed bush” and “unkept” and turn their nose up at wild foraged foods.
Sadly, even those with blood indigenous to this land have been so effectively assimilated into the ecologically illiterate imperialist monocrop thinking by the residential schools and subsequent generations of capitalist/ government propaganda that most of them also think in this unnatural way (eating macdonalds and Walmart food and turning up their nose and looking suspiciously at a pawpaw fruit I foraged and offer them as a gift).
I have met a small handful of locally born people here that know of a handful of wild edible plants and tree nuts/fruit but they are a tiny minority and have not sought to hone that skill or knowledge base beyond just harvesting ramps and maybe elderberries. I personally would not recommend paying them for that kind of limited awareness.
Despite not being from here, I would love to do foraging / plant identification walks (and several people have asked if I would and offered to pay me) but as I am attempting to transition from working a 9-5 to being a full time author and eventually open a learning space (while trying to compete with a tidal wave of A.I. Slop books and publications selling their plethora of machine generated foraging and gardening “books” and articles to an increasingly undiscerning population) I have to dedicate every moment I have to writing books and working my behind off at a day job saving up to self-publish those books (so I do not have time to do foraging/ plant identification guiding at this time).
All of that is to say that while there is a particularly extreme degree of botanical illiteracy and wilderness xenophobia (nature-phobia) here in the extremely ecologically degraded region of southern Ontario, I doubt that this situation is unique (given global trends) and so there may be instances where finding locally knowledgeable, passionate and trustworthy guides for foraging is not a viable option.
I do appreciate the suggestion though and would agree with you that hands on in person learning is preferable to books (atleast for me it is).
What a lovely, generous resource! These photos have me craving spring :) I remember during the first year of the pandemic having a well-stocked pantry but craving fresh greens. Luckily, my backyard was filled with wild mustard - one of the first greens of the season. We had many a meal of beans and greens with those wild plants, and the dandelion and chickweed and lambsquarters when they emerged. Gifts of the land when we needed them most!
So glad you enjoyed it Juniper. :)
That is beautiful the way you accepted the abundant gifts of nature to nourish yourself and your loved ones with wild greens.
I love to cultivate the cousin of lambs-quarter (heirloom Amaranth) for the greens as well as the seed. I have been able to naturalize her to one of our raised beds now and she self seeds without my assistance.
Have you ever tried cooking with Hopi Red Amaranth?
No! but I've been wanting to grow some as both a food and dye plant :)
I have an abundance of Hopi Red Dye Amaranth seed from our harvest and I am willing to trade :)
(I also send those seeds, along with several other heirloom varieties to any paid subscribers interested in giving them a place to set down roots and with each copy of my book purchased)
Did you see my recipe for Carrot Cake post?
It is one of the fun ways I like to incorporate the seeds in baking recipe (popped like popcorn first and mixed in with the batter for nutty flavor, potent nutritious and a lovely visual effect).
They make fantastic banana bread too.
They are also great pan fried and then added to soups (giving the broth a lovely color and rich flavor).
I also just like eating them popped by the handful.
Inspiring! Thank you.
Great article, thanks for all the info...
I'm not sure how I ended up here, but I'm ok with that...🌳🌾🌿
Beautiful photos and info. Can hardly wait for spring. I’m in Toledo, Ohio on the Michigan line. I took a photo of a tree which is starting to bud in the yard.