Wild edibles and an introduction.

G

goatariba

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Apr 18, 2008
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Hi All, been a long time canadian lurker and reader on here. Born and raised in the eastern canadian bush (northern ontario and the quebec laurentians) but find myself currently stuck in the city.
I have rarely been in the bush in the last ten years without my trio. usually fiskars hatchet, vic farmer, and any one of my 30 or so FB (all users probably half are customs from guys around BF), plus maybe a necker for good measure, some good gin, and a tarp set-up. some family troubles have brought me to southern ontario and so here i am trying to figure things out here as i go.
My real question aside from a short intro is this. what if any concerns should i have as far as wild edibles are concerned in and around a medium sized city? how far should one go before these concerns are gone? i have no trouble finding wild leeks, raspberries and things of that ilk but i need to know what to look for as far as any kind of contamination? is any raspberry a good one? or should i be mindful of the area it's from, and if so, how so?
thank you in advance for your help in this. wild edibles have always been a big part of my life. but i've been avoiding them here.
Russell aka the goat.
 
Welcome to the forums, it sounds like you will fit in just fine around here:thumbup:

As far as wild edibles go. I tend to leave the ones around major road sides, parking area, etc. alone, for fear of contamination.

If I have positively id'd it as being edible, but I have never had it before, I eat a small portion first. This way if I have any reactions to it it won't be as bad.......

Please post pics of your excursions and wild edible gathering. We love pics and imo, we don't have enough wild edible threads around here.:thumbup:
 
thank you for the quick reply. i am ofcourse no expert but i have a solid base of wild edibles that i have used my entire life basically. this city thing is getting me itchy though haha. i have some friends around here with large acreage farmland, would the patches of woods in and around their cultivated land be safe? or should i be nervous about chemicals used around these patches of woodland?
i appreciate the vote of confidence, when i'm all moved in in the next few days i'll get out the camera, snap some area shots and some gear shots as well (since for the first time in my life all my knives are actually in one place at one time.)
My only problem with this forum so far is maxpedition...i never would have heard of them otherwise i don't think. my wallet took a hard hit on that one haha.
 
Personally I wouldn't be too concerned as long as it's not right by an obviously polluted water source. Where else would the contamination come from, air pollution? At any rate store bought vegetables are probably a lot more contaminated.

I've never met a raspberry I didnt like :)

There's an excellent book which I'm sure others will recommend too, Petersons Field guides Edible Wild Plants; Eastern/Central North America by Lee Allen Peterson. Tons of information and very clear illustrations, which I often prefer to photo's because important little details stand out more.
 
I'm with Ankar. All spring, I've been gathering wild edibles on my suburban college campus. Despite the weird looks I get, I do it almost everyday :D. Dandelions, redbud flowers, violets, and wood sorrel are among the ones most commonly gathered. Usually, if the area looks clean enough, I'll grab it. I spotted a big patch of cleavers by a parking lot the other day and I might even go grab some of that.

I'll also agree with Ankar on the Peterson's Field Guide. Couple that with Newcomb's Wildflower guide and you will be good to go. I recommend ID'ing the plant first with Newcomb's, then looking it up in the Peterson's edible plants guide.

Good luck! It's a fun way to better appreciate nature's gifts! Not to mention all the free food that only you will want so more for us! :D
 
I wouldn't get overly concerned about it. Avoid vegetation that is directly on the shoulders of major roads (e.g. highways). Some older orchards can have high metal contamination, Cd and As used to be used on orchard soils. For the most part, fallow fields are fine. My buddy bought an older farm in Essex, Ont and built a fish farm on its lands. Given the fish are highly sensitive to many of the organophosphates and bioaccumulate legacy organochlorines like DDT he was really concerned about residual contamination. We tested his soil, vegetation and later the fish from his ponds. It is one of the cleanest set of samples my lab has ever encountered. The only legacy organochlorines were sourced from the fish feed, which always has very trace amount of PCBs associated with them (from the marine food source used to make the feed).

Anyhow, I wouldn't be very concerned with it unless your plants are growing in an obvious industrial brownfield site.

I'll repeat Docs question about your whereabouts. I'm in Windsor. If you are closeby and have a little bit of free time next Sat (May 2), how about dropping down for our little gathering?

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=630750

Ken
 
Capt Carl, that's just the kind of talk i was hoping to hear! i look foreward to getting my own weird looks from ppl while out around the city.
KGD and Doc. interesting stuff, amazing how resiliant plants are even in the face of our best efforts to ruin them as a community it seems.

i've just moved to London Ontario. i would love to make it to a gathering, i will have to get back to you on next weekend, it may be a little soon with everything going on for me here along with the recent relocation. but it's not an offer that will go unused for long.

any others in the area? how many will be at the gathering on the 2nd? it's nice to hear that i'm not the only one around here!
 
Windsor is about a 2h drive from London. This is the first one we've had in the couple of years I've been around BF, although there have been a couple of knife shows both in Windsor and the London area. We are blessed with the fact that there are quite a few makers in our area. Also lots of members in Michigan.
 
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