Foraging Edible Wild Plants

Discover an abundance of edible wild plants that can be foraged.

By Tom Brown Jr.
Updated on September 10, 2024
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by Adobestock/Irina

Discover an abundance of edible wild plants that can be foraged in most regions of the United States.

Foraging is a rewarding and enjoyable activity, as well as an emergency technique. Plus, it allows you to add variety to your meals while lowering your grocery bills! But writing a survival article on wild foods that will be relevant to readers in a broad range of areas and terrains is difficult. Therefore, I’ve tried to include a variety of widely distributed plants that can be easily identified and are, for the most part, available throughout the year.

When you set out to gather wild edible plants, you must do so with a great deal of caution. Some people might have allergic reactions to otherwise “safe” plants, and a number of factors — including the time of collection and method of preparation — can make a big difference in both the safety and the palatability of many free foods. Never pick plants close to roadways, polluted waterways, croplands, or any other place where chemical sprays or fumes could’ve contaminated them.

Furthermore, a forager should never eat a plant that looks unhealthy, or one they can’t identify beyond a shadow of a doubt. Whenever my survival school students collect wild edibles, I ask them whether they’d stake their lives on their ability to identify the species at hand. That, in fact, is just what they’ll be doing when they eat it. So, use a good manual on the subject — preferably one that contains both sketches and photographs showing leaf, root, flower, and stalk structure — and, when possible, get some training from an expert in your area, because the common names and, surprisingly, the appearance of some plants will change from one locale to another.

Tips for Harvesting Edible Plants

Someone in a survival situation will likely find that roots and tubers are most easily gathered with a “digging stick,” a sturdy branch that’s pointed at one end. When working in rocky soil, you can fire-harden the point by heating — but not burning — it over glowing coals. Then, push the stick into the ground next to the plant, and lever out the root.

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