Foraging
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What is Foraging?
What is Foraging?
As a noun, forage definition means food for animals (or us) especially when taken by browsing or grazing.
As a verb, forage definition means: to strip of provisions: collect forage from or to secure by foraging.
Now that’s the dictionary version. A more relaxed foraging meaning would be the act of gathering food, wild or cultivated.
Foraging is the gathering of wild foods. This can be done in forests, fields, disturbed areas, rural locations, in or around water.
You must also master how to both prepare and preserve the wild edibles to not only make extended use of your free food supply, but also make sure the foraged food does not make you sick… or kill you.
Be Careful
How would you know what to eat in the forest? What is safe or poisonous? Will the food you find give you nourishment or a stomachache?
You'd be surprised what you can eat out there. The wilderness is full of edible plants and sustenance for the survivalist who knows where to look. That said..
First thing's first: Don't eat anything unless you know what it is, especially plants. If you can't identify it, or there is ANY question, don't eat it. ALWAYS CHECK WITH AN ADULT. You should not only have a book to identify editable vegetation, but also take survival courses with experts who know the area before you start foraging for food in the wild.
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT JUST GO OUT AND EAT RANDOM PLANTS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. IT IS NOT OKAY. NOT. OKAY. THIS SHOULD NOT NEED TO BE SAID, SINCE YOU ARE ALL SMART AND RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUALS BUT SERIOUSLY... DO NOT DO IT. READ THAT AGAIN. DO NOT DO IT.
Rules to live by
The Seven Rules for Foraging for Wild Foods
Know Your Ecosystem. ...
Know Your Target Wild Foods. ...
Know the Lookalikes Before Foraging. ...
Leave Some Wild Foods for the Wild. ...
Prepare Your Wild Foods Correctly. ...
Target Invasive Species if You Can.
In Our Story
Sam begins to wander the property looking for plants to eat. He tries a flower, which is apparently not so good. Remembering advice from a book that stated humans can safely eat what animals eat (and specifically pointed out that raccoons have tastes similar to humans)
Sam spends most of his time, as hunter gatherers invariably do, finding food for subsistence. His menu is remarkably varied – dogtooth violet bulb and dandelion greens salad, fresh water mussels, hickory nuts, crow eggs, baked cattail roots, turtles, trout, mushrooms, venison jerky, sassafras and pennyroyal tea, wild strawberries, and May apples.
Sam begins to take note of the things that can be helpful to him by marking an 'x' on that spot on a rough sketch he has done of the land. He comes across hickory trees that he plans to use for nuts and salt making. He also discovers apple and walnut trees. Luckily, he also locates a useful stream and a marshy land with cattails and arrow-leaf.
Sam falls and discovers a patch of dogtooth violets, the bulbs of which he remembers are edible. He eats them and they taste a little like lima beans, he says. In the meadow, he finds dandelions, which he also harvests the greens and roots of for more food.
More
While you cannot garner as much protein from foraged plants, herbs, berries, “weeds” or roots, you can consume more than enough protein and other vital nutrients to survive another day.
You do not have to be bugging out in the woods or lost in the wilderness to exercise your foraging skills. But if you are in that situation... knowing what you're doing is important.
Top Wild Edible Plants
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of plants common in all regions around the country that can be foraged for food.
Cattails
These plants grow across the United States and in most regions of North America. Cattails boast high percentages of Vitamin C, phosphorus, and potassium.
The pollen that is collected from cattail plants can be used to make flour. It often was during World War II when soldiers were faced with a lack of food.
Cattails have a mild starchy flavor due to their high manganese count, which is actually a bit higher than that found in potatoes. The bottom white stalk, young tips, rootlets, and primary root spurs are all edible.
You can grill, bake or boil the root until it's tender. Once cooked, eating a cattail root is similar to eating the leaves of an artichoke – strip the starch away from the fibers with your teeth. The buds attached to the rhizomes are also edible!
Berries
This native raspberry produces delicious fruit and can be found growing if a wide variety of conditions from shady moist areas to sunny slopes. It can be used to stabilize slopes due to its spreading root system or used to fill up a shady spot where other plants find it hard to grow like under big trees. For best fruit production plant in moist sun. They can be found in shady moist sites and low lying areas to sunny dry hillsides and embankments.
These wild berries grow along the edge of the woods in full sun to partial shady areas. Five-point flowers on blackberry bushes will grow dainty and beautiful white blooms in the early spring.
Berries do not start to appear on the bushes until June. The wild fruit will be ready for picking from July through the early days of September.
Wineberries are a wild food worth gathering and they are easily identified-most likely only to be confused with red or black raspberries and blackberries-all of which are safe to eat. They are considered an invasive species but the fruit is some of the most delicious to be found in the wild.
Lowbush Blueberry are our wild native blueberries often found in the wild in northern climates. These smaller berries are sweet, with a more intense blueberry flavor. They'll make the perfect addition to pancakes, smoothies, pies and more - and they're excellent for snacking fresh off the bush, too!
Purslane
This wild plant is far too often forsaken as a useless weed. Purslane is a prime source of omega-3 fatty acids, and can easily be used as a lettuce substitute in salads and other recipes.
Purslane is not difficult to find in rural, suburban, or urban environments. It often pops up between cracks in concrete, vacant lots, and in neglected parts of any yard.
It can be eaten raw or cooked, and has a great taste and texture either way. Purslane leaves, stems, and flowers are all edible. There is one dangerous poisonous look alike – spurges.
Wild Onions/Ramps
Wild onions are chock full of nutrients and taste delicious. If you can find a patch of wild onions you can easily and quickly pick dozens of bunches and tuck them away in your bugout bag to eat while you hike on.
Ramps are a species of wild onion (Allium tricoccum) native to the woodlands of North America. They look like scallions but have broad leaves and a purplish stem. Ramps are among the first plants to appear in the spring. There are many ways to enjoy ramps: raw, sautéed, roasted, grilled, and pickled too.
Ramps, ramsons or wild leeks, are one of the earliest wild edibles to emerge, and, for some, they're the holy grail of wild edibles.
Dandelions
Dandelion is one of the most common plants you can find in the wild and it's really easy to identify. All parts of the plant are edible and it's very nutritious indeed. Spring is the best time of the year to go foraging dandelion.
Dandelion is a small herbaceous plant. A rosette base produces a single flowering stalk with a single yellow flower that eventually turns into a “seed clock”. Leaves are dark green and deeply lobed, with the appearance of pointy teeth. The root of the dandelion is a long thick taproot.
Nutritionally, dandelions are a powerhouse plant. Low in water content but rich in protein, sugar, their leafy greens are at the top of the list of valued edible weeds. They rank higher than lettuce in protein, carbohydrates, calcium, and iron, and much higher in nearly all vitamins and minerals.* The plant is packed with nutrients and raw leaves are rich in vitamin A and C plus a considerable amount of calcium, fibre, manganese, iron, potassium and protein.
Dandelion produces an important source of nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinating insects when few other plants are in flower. It provides food for grazing mammals too.
To harvest take a stout sharp knife and plunge it straight down next to the young green leaves until you reach the plant’s crown. Cut across, slicing the crown from the root, but leaving the top growth intact to facilitate cleaning. Shake out each bunch as you cut it to loosen the dirt and debris, then pull of the outside damaged or yellow leaves. Swish the bunch through several buckets of cold water until no dirt is apparent in the water, then bring the bunches indoors to finish preparing them for use. Once you know where to hunt for the best greens it should not take more than 10 or 15 minutes to dig and clean them.
Plantain
Please see Plantains bit on the Protein-type Sustenance page.
More and more and more
This is a pretty extensive topic really. There are lots of plants and things to research and explore and learn about all of them. Also each season in our area brings new and different available options. Here is a link to some other good edible plants of the Northeast that are edible and forgeable to start you off if you are interested in doing more research.
https://www.farmersalmanac.com/20-common-wild-edible-plants-24920
Again.. Be sure to check with an adult to confirm identification before eating anything foraged.
Vitamin C
A winter diet can be tough and even though Sam still eats well and has plenty of food, In Chapter 19, he begins to feel tired and stiff and even has a bloody nose. Thinking he may be missing some type of vitamin, he thinks of the fact that he has had nothing green for months. Perhaps that is the problem? Suddenly he finds himself craving liver and eats a ton of it! Later he learns that liver is full of vitamin C, as are green plants. He learns another important lesson about survival: always listen to your body!
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