How To Find Edible Wild Plants

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Edible plants are found everywhere in nature. In addition to having the advantage of being food free, these shrubs allow you to become self-sufficient. If you want to learn how to survive on what you find or prepare for the next camping trip, in this article we will tell you where to start.

Steps

Step 1. Identify the places where you can find the best quality food

If you live in a humid region, most of the wild foods will be located in the direction of the sun, while if you live in a dry region, near streams and lakes.

Get a guide to local plants. Try to memorize the first 20-25

Step 2. If you have a garden, start there

Any place that is regularly cleaned is filled with plants such as dandelion, centocchio, plantain, wild onion, violet, oxalide, lamium amplexicaule, clove tree, white nettle and the common grespino.

• Start with weed - it's edible. Anything smaller than 6 inches is easy to chew and digest. The flavor varies from sweet to bitter or it can be somewhere in between. Grass larger than 6 inches can be chewed to drink the liquid and then spat out or put into a wheatgrass squeezer to make a healthy juice.

  

Step 3. Visit other areas that are cleaned regularly

Try on the roadside (read the Warnings section), in fields, parks and so on. Here's what to look for:

• Dandelion (taraxacum officinale): the unripe central part is excellent raw, while the whole plant can be steamed. The best section is represented by the flowers because they do not contain the sap, which is very bitter. This food is sweet and filling and can be found in abundant quantities.

  

• Centocchio (medium stellaria): the whole plant can be eaten raw and has a sweet taste. If you want to avoid the stem, cut off the top section.

  

• Oxalide (oxalis spp): the whole plant can be served raw and has a slightly acidic and refreshing taste. The flowers of the city variant are yellow, while the varieties grown in the wild have pink flowers. This plant is extremely common not only in home gardens and clean areas, but also in nature. It should not be consumed in large quantities as it contains relatively high levels of oxalic acid, which can be toxic.

  

• Lamium amplexicaule: Another great plant when eaten raw. It tastes like mint and is sweet. Cut off the top to avoid the stem. This plant forms huge carpets of flowers, and the centocchio grows beneath it.

  

• False purple nettle (lamium purpureum): eaten like lamium amplexicaule. It too spreads out widely on the lawns, especially in spring.

  

• Plantain (plantago lanceolata): the unripe leaves in the center are good raw and are characterized by a slightly salty flavor.

  

• Sonchus spp: Unripe leaves are good and can be eaten like dandelions, but try to avoid the sap. The flowers are yellow and the preparation is identical to that of the dandelion. Unlike the latter, however, the sonchus app has a vertical stem and a more thorny appearance.

  

• Wild onion (allium spp): very common in mown areas, it is excellent when eaten raw. Collect it in bunches and use it like chives.

  

• Watercress (cardamine spp): this is one of the many wild plants of the cruciferous family common in urban environments. Unripe leaves are delicious when eaten raw. When the plant has grown, it can be steamed.

  

• Berries: Look for them in the bushes. Elaeagnaceae are frequently planted in cities for decorative purposes, but are also found in nature. The stems, leaves and blackberries are speckled with silver. Red blackberries are excellent when fully ripe.

  

  • Look for berries on trees, even in winter, when you find cherry laurel. Like most wild berries, these too are characterized by the long ripening process, and they are not totally so if the fruit does not begin to soften and dry out.

    

• Check out ornamental trees - their fruits, such as cherries, wild apples, and plums, are edible. Small but tasty.

  

Step 4. Look for walnuts under the trees, which can be broken with a stone

The fresh ones are moist, filling, easily digestible and very tasty. Acorns abound under round-leaved oaks and can be eaten right away. Some acorns fallen from white oaks do not contain tannin.

Step 5. Look for fruit trees on the side of the road and near waterways

Fruit needs sun to ripen, so you won't find it in the woods, but on the edge of productive, fertilized, illuminated and humid environments. You will be able to try persimmons, wild apples, mulberries, the fruits of the coral tree and the cherry tree, etc.

Step 6. Look for plants that grow in wetlands, where you will find cattail, bulrush and cress

Cattail thrives near lakes and inlets. You can pick up bags full of them. The sprouts are delicious when eaten raw and the pollen tastes similar to that of cake flour in early summer. Furthermore, this substance is very nutritious.

Step 7. Taste non-poisonous flower petals, which often have a pleasant, sugary flavor and are rich in antioxidants

Among the best, the beautiful by day, the viola and the honeysuckle. Rhododendron calendulaceum contains a lot of nectar and has a taste similar to that of orange juice.

• The base of the flowers can taste between strong and bitter. It is best to eat the petals and avoid the green parts.

• Check out the thorny brambles. The rose, especially the multiflora rose, the blackberry, the raspberry and the sarsaparilla (it is not very tasty but it is still edible) are good examples.

  

Step 8. Look at the vines to learn how to distinguish grapes, which can be wild

The latter has edible leaves and tendrils and fruits. The leaves can be steeped in apple cider vinegar and used to cook dolmas. Vitis rotundifolia is characterized by stronger leaves, which can be left to ferment in a glass jar for a week. The vines are also ideal for creating sturdy baskets.

Step 9. Find deciduous leaves from trees such as lime, sassafras and oxydendrum arboreum, which are great when eaten raw

Beech leaves are edible when they are two to four weeks old - you can use them to make salads. The lime leaves are large enough to be used for making tortillas.

Step 10. Focus on conifers in spring

The shoots on the tips of the branches are excellent raw and have a pleasant sour taste. Male cones are also edible (some are very sweet) and the pollen is extremely nutritious. Many pine species also offer nuts in late summer and early fall.

Advice

• Beware of mushrooms: it takes years to gain experience. It begins with knowing the pleurotus, the hypomyces lactifluorum, the garitula, the morchella, the boletus edulis and the calvatia gigantea. But keep in mind that mushrooms can cause problems on several fronts. Many of them, such as pleurotus and hypomyces lactifluorum, are difficult to digest even after a long cooking.
• Try plants on an empty stomach and a clean palate. If you've just eaten a burger with fries, the dandelion will seem flavorless.
• Ignore the pesticide scaremongering. Fruits and vegetables bought at the supermarket are less pure than those found in nature. The only areas where you should pay attention are raised gardens undergoing a mulching process, where you deliberately try not to grow wild plants. A plant that has recently been sprayed with a spray tastes terrible. If it has been exposed to chemicals but it has rained, the water will have eliminated the product, which will have ended up on the roots, so you can eat it all but this last part.

Warnings

• Avoid plants growing in areas that may have been subject to toxic waste dumping.
• If you live in a very busy urban area, avoid plants that grow near the road and any plants that have black residues (it could be solidified smog!).
• Avoid the carrot family if you are a novice. Species such as hemlock can be lethal. Gathering plants such as wild carrots is not worth it because you risk confusing them with their dangerous counterparts, unless you are an expert.