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)
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.
Ramps and wild onions are some of my favorite herbs.
Narrow your search:
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Homemade Teaberry Ice Cream
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Lovage Sauce / Garlic & Herb Aioli
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Staghorn Sumac Lemonade (Overnight Tea)
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Ramp Dip
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Sheep Sorrel (Sour Grass)
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Classic French Sorrel Sauce
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Pineapple Weed (Wild Chamomile)
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Ramp Salt
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Grilled Ramps
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Creamy Wild Garlic Soup
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Italian Mushroom Soup (Zuppa di Funghi)
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Fermented Green Ramp Seeds
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Oxeye Daisy
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Spruce Tip Key Lime Pie
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Ramp Leaf Garum (Vegan Fish Sauce)
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Vignarola: Italian Spring Vegetable Stew
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Cheremsha: Fermented Wild Onion Leaves (Черемша)
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Fermented Ramp Leaf Soy Sauce
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The Original Borscht, with Cow Parsnip
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Sweet-Scented Galium: A Wild Vanilla Substitute
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How to Make Foraged Vanilla Extract
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Golpar (Cow Parsnip Seed)
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Marinated Feta Cheese Recipe with Herbs
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Homemade Porse Snaps
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Spicebush Cream Cheese Frosting
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Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina)
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Ajiaco con Guascas: A Famous Columbian Chicken Soup
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Dried Mushroom Szechuan Chili Crisp
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Green Coriander or Unripe Cilantro Seeds
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Pine Cone-Cider Jam / Varenye
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Fiddlehead Soup with Vegetables and Pesto
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Traditional Potato Gnocchi with Herbs
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Wild Blueberries with Cream
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Highbush Cranberry Vodka
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Prickly Ash Sichuan Sausage
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Pine Pollen and Honey Shortbread Cookies
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Pollen Bread
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Cattail Pollen Pancakes with Conifer Syrup and Berries
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Fish Sauce-Pickled Enoki Mushrooms
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Oven Dried Tomatoes with Bergamot Leaves