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    Wild Herbs and Spices

    About

    Foraging wild herbs and spices is one of the easiest ways to incorporate things you've harvested into every day cooking. I separate my herbs and spices into two categories: aromatic herbs, and wild onions. There's also wild plants that are in between an herb and a vegetable, like sheep sorrel.

    There's many more wild herbs you can gather from natural habitats than the few I describe on this site. Having a good field guide for your region is helpful, but many foraging books overlook wildcrafter herbs in favor of wild foods that are more calorie dense. I'm trying to change that, but it takes time.

    If you have suggestions for something I'm missing, leave a comment on a post or send me an email-I love hearing from you. All the plants I describe can be found in North America.

    Aromatic Herbs

    These are plants that can be used where you would conventional herbs and spices.

    • Wild Caraway
    • Wild Angelica
    • Wild Szechuan Peppercorns (Prickly Ash)
    •  Meadowsweet Flowers
    • Pinneapple Weed 
    • Golpar (Cow Parsnip Seed)
    • Sweetfern
    • "Wild Vanilla" (Galium triflorum)
    wild angelica flowers

    Angelica.

    Ramps and Wild Onions 

    Ramps and wild onions I consider herbs too, so you'll find recipes for them mixed in here. Click the link above to go to the page dedicated to them.

    a field of wild leeks in the spring

    Ramps and wild onions are some of my favorite herbs.

     

    Narrow your search:

    Angelica
    Bee Balm
    Cow Parsnip and Golpar
    Prickly Ash
    Ramps or Wild Leeks
    Spruce Tips
    Sweet Fern
    • Bronze Fennel
    • Yellow and White Sweet Clover
    • Homemade Ramp Cream Cheese
    • Crow garlic, onion grass, or field garlic (Allium vineale) on a cutting board next to a knife.
      Crow Garlic / Onion Grass / Allium Vineale
    • Missi Roti: Indian Chickpea Flour Flatbread
    • Homemade Teaberry Ice Cream
    • Lovage Sauce / Garlic & Herb Aioli
    • Staghorn Sumac Lemonade (Overnight Tea)
    • Ramp Dip
    • Sheep Sorrel (Sour Grass)
    • A pan of sorrel sauce next to wild sorrel.
      Classic French Sorrel Sauce
    • Pineapple Weed (Wild Chamomile)
    • a bowl of green ramp salt next to fresh ramp leaves on a wooden board.
      Ramp Salt
    • Wild leeks or ramps being cooked over a wood fire grill.
      Grilled Ramps
    • A top down image of a ceramic bowl filled with green soup surrounded by wild garlic leaves.
      Creamy Wild Garlic Soup
    • A bowl of mushroom soup with pasta and parmesan cheese
      Italian Mushroom Soup (Zuppa di Funghi)
    • Fermented unripe ramp seeds
      Fermented Green Ramp Seeds
    • Ox eye daisy flowers (Leucanthemum vulgare)
      Oxeye Daisy
    • a slice of spruce tip key lime pie on a plate
      Spruce Tip Key Lime Pie
    • Ramp leaf garum in a white dish showing it's caramel color
      Ramp Leaf Garum (Vegan Fish Sauce)
    • Midwesetern Vignarola 2017
      Vignarola: Italian Spring Vegetable Stew
    • Fermented ramp leaves (Черемша) in a wooden ladle
      Cheremsha: Fermented Wild Onion Leaves (Черемша)
    • Fermented ramp leaf soy sauce recipe
      Fermented Ramp Leaf Soy Sauce
    • Cow Parsnip Green Borscht with chopped egg and dill
      The Original Borscht, with Cow Parsnip
    • Galium triflorum, a subtitute for sweet woodruff, tonka bean and vanilla
      Sweet-Scented Galium: A Wild Vanilla Substitute
    • Foraged Vanilla Extract Made from Galium Triflorum or Sweet Woodruff
      How to Make Foraged Vanilla Extract
    • Cow parsnip seed or golpar ground on a spoon
      Golpar (Cow Parsnip Seed)
    • marinated feta cheese with herbs on a plate
      Marinated Feta Cheese Recipe with Herbs
    • a glass of liquor next to porse plant and a bottle
      Homemade Porse Snaps
    • foraged Spicebush cream cheese frosting
      Spicebush Cream Cheese Frosting
    • Sweetfern or Comptonia peregrina leaves and seeds
      Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina)
    • Ajiaco with turkey and guascas or dried galinsoga
      Ajiaco con Guascas: A Famous Columbian Chicken Soup
    • Homemade dried wild mushroom chili crisp
      Dried Mushroom Szechuan Chili Crisp
    • Green coriander, unripe coriander or cilantro seed
      Green Coriander or Unripe Cilantro Seeds
    • young pine cones in syrup in a jar drizzling off a spoon.
      Pine Cone-Cider Jam / Varenye
    • vegetable soup with fiddlehead ferns in a bowl
      Fiddlehead Soup with Vegetables and Pesto
    • Wild herb gnocchi recipe
      Traditional Potato Gnocchi with Herbs
    • wild blueberries with cream
      Wild Blueberries with Cream
    • Highbush cranberry vodka schnapps with sweetfern
      Highbush Cranberry Vodka
    • Wild prickly ash or Szechuan peppercorn sausage recipe
      Prickly Ash Sichuan Sausage

    Posts pagination

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    Chef Alan Bergo

    HI, I'm Alan: James Beard Award-winning Chef, Author, Show Host and Forager. I've been writing about cooking wild food here for over a decade. Let me show you why foraging is the most delicious thing you'll ever do.

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