Every year millions of people give up their cozy beds, televisions, and electricity to go camping. This draw to nature rewards these people with it's peaceful serenity. A time to relax and get away from it all. There are a far fewer number of people who have reached another, even more fulfilling appreciation of nature, it's vast abundance of wild vegetables, fruits, meats, whole grains and oats, herbs, flowers, even home made beer brews,wines, and teas.

It seems modern man for the most part has become detached from the gathering of food role and traded it for a stroll through the local supermarket or a quick stop at the drive-thru.

If our population would incorporate wild produce into just 20% of our vegetables consumed, we'd make a huge impact on the energy used to bring our foods to us. By learning to identify edible plants that grow near us, we can take all the effort out of foraging, save money, and have a relaxing walk through forests, fields, meadows and along streambanks.

Every time we walk or drive practically anywhere we are surrounded by a plentiful abundance of delicious vegetables, meats, herbs, teas and even medicines. On the side of the road, in vacant lots, along streams, pretty much anywhere other than a concrete parking garage there are edible wild plants and edible herbs growing.

This is the oldest knowledge mankind has ever known, but is disapearing at a compounding rate, generation by generation. With the convenience of industrialized farms, nature plays less and less of a role in many aspects of modern society. It seems that someday the only natural ecosystems we will have will be confined to sporatic "parks", and the only treatments for simple illnesses will come in the form of a pill.

Less than 100 years ago our main source of food was grown at nearby farms, or by individuals themselves in a home garden, and played a much bigger part in local economies. Plants were harvested and great effort was put into canning, making jams, preserves, and preparing wines, ale, even making maple syrup. Today, we get food from different continents which are shipped here in large containers on huge ships. Although this allows us to buy ripe strawberries in December from Chile, we grow more and more out of touch with nature, and tradition.

It's not just the root plants we're after, but the plants leaves to the edible flower, we can eat a large number of wild species available to us regardless of where we live. Herb uses and applications vary and have many benefits, we can extract oil and make flower decoctions to make topical creams and wild teas. We can extract tea from bark on trees, flower leaves and the seeds plants have to offer.

There is a plant that likely grows in your own yard, or nearby that is anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-aids, immune stimulant, high in protein and contains a whole host of minerals, vitamins, and is used as medicine by pharmaceutical companies. The declaration of independence was written with ink from this plant, the plants name is pokeweed. Or check out our plants page for a list of all the plants that you can go out and find on your own, close to home.