Wild parsnip is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood plants in the world. In North America, the plant is seen as a scourge and a terrifying weed that can only be killed by Round-Up or other herbicides. Get ready for some forager myth-busting, because I’m going to show you the truth: the plant some people…
Leafy Greens | Basic Profiles
Sweet-Scented Galium: A Wild Vanilla Substitute
For most of my career working with wild food I’ve ignored cleavers (Galiums) with one or two exceptions. Galium triflorum or sweet-scented bed straw is the exception, and I now harvest the plant each year for commercial projects and personal use. I struggle to think of a wild herb with as much potential as both…
The Forager’s Guide to Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
About a decade ago now, I was walking through a park looking for mushrooms, not finding much. I knew a plant or two, but mostly everything that wasn’t a mushroom seemed to be part of an undecipherable wall of green. I remember coming across a giant, handsome colony of plants, with beautiful toothed leaves and…
Foraging and Cooking Solomon’s Seal Shoots
Solomon’s Seal shoots (Polyganatum biflorum and Maianthemum racemosum covered here) have to be one of the most under-appreciated wild vegetables out there. If you like fiddleheads, asparagus, or just tasty green vegetables in general, you owe it to yourself to find this plant if it grows near you and give it a try. I read…
Foraging and Cooking Goldenrod Shoots
For a lot of people, Goldenrod probably conjures up images of brilliant yellow blooms in the middle of summer. I like seeing goldenrod flowers too (for their color-not culinary purposes as the flowers are tough, with the exception of the well-known goldenrod tea) but the shoots and young growing tips are actually a vegetable that…
Foraging and Cooking Dandelion Hearts or Crowns
About 7 years ago while I was playing disc golf, I came across an elderly women digging up dandelions near the parking lot of the course. I’ve always been fascinated by traditional recipes and preparations, so, of course I had to walk up and ask what she was harvesting, and how she was going to…
Foraging and Cooking Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
There are lots of spring ephemerals I love, but, Virginia Bluebells might just be the prettiest of them all. As you’re probably gathering, you can eat them too, and, they’re delicious! They’re one of the very first ephemerals to come up in the spring, and one of the most beautiful harbingers of the green landscape…
The Forager’s Guide to Cut-Leaf Toothwort
Cutleaf toothwort is a beautiful, edible spring plant forager’s should know. There’s a number of toothworts, but for this post I’m only referring to Cardamine concantenata (formerly Cardamine dentata), since that’s the only on to have experience eating. Like some other edibles that enjoy the same habitat (hardwood forests with rich soil, often growing near…
