Wild edibles of early spring. Foraging for good foods in April [Video]

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PineMartyn

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Apr 3, 2013
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My wife and I greatly enjoy foraging for and harvesting wild edibles when camping. When we're a week into a canoe trip, we really crave fresh greens, fruits, and veggies. Dehydrated meals are great, but there's just something deeply satisfying about supplementing one's meals with freshly harvested plants.

Early spring's an especially good time for beginners to get into this because there are not many plants out to bewilder and overwhelm you. Also, many wild edibles are best in the spring, as most get bitter by late spring and summer. So, if you've always wanted to improve your knowledge of wild edibles, now (late winter) is the time to get a hold of a few books on the subject, thumb through them, and familiarize yourself with the ones that are common to your own area and bloom in early spring. You will have greater success if, in addition to a field guide, you have a search image in your mind of what the spring edibles in your area look like.

Here's a video my wife and I made last spring to introduce people to the pleasures of this.
[video=youtube_share;bUSUOGlQRRg]http://youtu.be/bUSUOGlQRRg[/video]

And here is a link to some photos of just some of the wild edible plants and the meals we've enjoyed with them while camping, and at home too: http://s1122.photobucket.com/albums/l529/PineMartyn/Wild Edibles/

Hope this helps,
- Martin
 
Very nice. Thanks for the vid.


Question, if you don't mind. I have some burdock growing on my property. Have you ever tried it? When would you harvest? Just the roots?

Thanks!
 
schmittie,

Burdock tubers should be harvested either in the fall or spring of it's first year, when it's at it's plumpest. Second-year burdock plants will have very deep and woody tubers. If harvesting them in the spring, try to get them before the stalk emerges. This can make it hard to identify them, since you won't have the familiar stalk to aid in recognizing it, but by the time the stalk emerges in late spring, the tubers start to get woody and lacking in flavour. In any case, they can be cut up and boiled or sauteed well until tender.

Me, harvesting 1st year burdock in late summer on a canoe trip:


My wife, at lake side, cleaning the burdock tubers for dinner that night and scraping off the outer skin with a thumbnail:


A young, first year burdock plant in spring:


When at home, we use the burdock and carrots in a Japanese side-dish called kinpira gobo:

You can find the recipe here: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/vegetable/r/kinpiragobo.htm

Hope this helps,
- Martin
 
Hi Martin - I really enjoyed your video (loved the White Throat opener and closer ;) )!
I look forward to looking through your photobucket albums.
What a ramp patch! That's certainly a nice find.
So, since this is BF after all, what's your preferred foraging knife? :)
 
jwren said:
Hi Martin - I really enjoyed your video (loved the White Throat opener and closer ;) )!
I look forward to looking through your photobucket albums.
What a ramp patch! That's certainly a nice find.
So, since this is BF after all, what's your preferred foraging knife? :)
Click to expand...

Thanks jwren. I'm happy to hear you liked the video.

I can't say I have one knife that I find especially useful for foraging tasks since most of the time plant foraging consists mostly of hand-picking leaves, flowers, and berries, or pulling up young shoots with your hands and so no tools are required.

The only three blades I ever carry (except for a cheap filleting knife when we go fishing) are the Leatherman Blast multitool (EDC), a Tool Logic SL3 folding blade (EDC), and my only fixed blade is a low-end stainless Mora Companion.

When we go specifically in search of wild edibles, we always bring a small stainless steel garden trowel like the one in the video. It's easier than making and using a digging stick, and it prevents needlessly dulling my knives when unearthing roots, tubers and corms.

When cutting thick woody stems, I find the saw blade on my Leatherman Blast multi-tool (part of my EDC) works best. My wife uses the saw blade on her SAK.

For most above ground plant cutting, virtually any blade will do. I find the serrations on my humble Tool Logic SL3 folder are particularly good for making short work of the tougher fibrous plants.

On backpacking, hiking, or canoe trips, I carry a fixed blade knife (the stainless Mora Companion) and that's especially useful when chopping and slicing through tough plant material or cracking nuts and the like.

But really, nearly any knife will do. The only special purpose tool one might carry is a steel garden trowel. Avoid the plastic trowels as they eventually break when you are working in hard or rocky ground and you need to stab hard with it and pry hard on it.

Hope this helps,
- Martin
 
Martin - thanks for all the info on the foraging tools!
One I find real handy (but don't tell anyone around these parts :D ) is a good pair of scissors.

Was able to go on a short walk today, in a protected area, so only looking, no collecting :)
But of note - lots of chickweed (Stellaria media) in bloom
- Lactuca rosettes, but only saw biennis :(
- huge patches of Yellow Dogtooth Violet in bloom - beautiful!
- a decent sized patch of Ramps
- LOTS of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria) - I'd bet I wouldn't get in trouble if I picked this one :rolleyes:
- Beech (Fagus) leaf buds getting ready to pop
- and on a side note - a couple small patches of Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in bloom - always a rare treat!

Sorry no pics - I usually go on walks sans camera....
 
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