Back for round 2!
In February, Uri and I had attended a Winter Foraging workshop, and we loved it so much that we immediately signed up for another one, two months later. With the promise of budding trees and leafing weeds, the spring foraging workshop would no doubt take our skills to the next level (we hoped).
But winter had been holding on: cold rain and periodic snowfalls made us concerned that there wouldn't be much difference in vegetation between this early April workshop and the previous one. But, come Saturday morning, the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and the song birds reminded us that spring was here. Some weeds were just as stubborn as us to welcome spring.
So, once again, we arrived to a slowly coalescing group circling around a small fire outside the nature center where Hana Pandori (IG: @wildwoman.botanicals.birth) welcomed us. Hana would be our guide again today, and she hosts a number of workshops year-round. Like Uri and I, a lot of the other participants had returned from the previous workshop, eager for more.
We reviewed the basics of foraging, such as proper harvesting technique and specific types of clippers that work best for spring vegetation. Unlike winter foraging where large loppers were needed for tree branches, the soft greenery emerging allowed for more fine cutters or even scissors.
Overall, we spent 2.5 hrs walking around the preserve, pausing at various tree and plant species, nibbling here and there to attest to the edibility of what we were learning. At the end, we returned back to the fire to review.
Hana was also generous enough to share some homemade snacks made from her own foraging efforts. The tea we had was a warm blend of chaga mushroom and spicebush. We also indulged in some nettle frittata (pictured below). While we didn't see nettle today, there are so many recipes for it. So, don't be turned off by the stinging hairs!
Foraging ethics (important!)
When you go foraging, it is really important to be considerate. If everyone harvested every plant they could eat, particularly more uncommon plants, there wouldn't be any in the future or for anyone else. For example, ramps can take SEVEN years to reach maturity, and they are a highly prized plant to forage in the spring. If you rip the roots from the ground, they won't regrow. If you harvest every leaf on the plant, it will die since it can no longer photosynthesize.
So, when you're out there:
Don't take the last one.
Don't take all of the plant (exemptions can be made for invasives, like garlic mustard).
Carry mushrooms in an hole-y bag or basket to distribute the spores as you walk.
Do as little damage as possible.
Avoid roadsides or areas that may be contaminated.
On the Walk
(photos of each plant at the end)
It's hard to escape garlic mustard- this invasive plant has taken over the woods in New York. Though not at their multi-foot height and vast coverage yet, these stumpy heart-shaped leaves were just a few inches off the ground when we foraged them. Garlic mustard is typically quite bitter when its tall and flowering, but the bitterness is just a hair milder in this younger stage. The leaves can be sautéed with other mixed greens, added as garnish, or eaten raw in salads. Any time your recipe can include greens, you can toss in this leafy weed! It's loaded with Vitamin A and C for an added bonus*.
A number of recipes can be found here.
Did you know that you can eat every single part of the cattail?
The pollen (loaded with protein) can be harvested when the cattail is flowering if you shake the flowers into a jar, and this pollen can be added into recipes as toppings or mixed in with flour. The green female flowers can be harvested and boiled, eaten similar to corn on the cob. Shoots and stalks can be cooked and eaten like asparagus. Cattail roots can be harvested and ground into a flour or peeled and cooked like potatoes. Additional recipes linked here include pollen spaghetti, fermented cattail shoots, cattail bread, and shoots in cream sauce. Outside of eating the cattail, the fluffy flower part makes an excellent absorbent material, fire starter, insulator, and stuffer (for pillows for instance). According to the Mansfield News Journal, cattail is also used for its coagulating properties and so can reduce anemia, and the young flowers can be used to relieve diarrhea. A miracle plant?
Like garlic mustard, wintercress is also bitter to the taste, but boiling helps reduce this. So, it goes perfect in soups! There are dozens of recipes online with wintercress sautéed with other vegetables or meats, cooked into frittatas, blended into pestos, or boiled into broths. This plant has an excellent source of Vitamin A and C and has been used to treat respiratory illness, coughs, diarrhea, (it even has been used as an aphrodisiac?)*
Our absolute favorite finding of the trip, coltsfoot has a small and edible yellow flower that taste like a strong cucumber. It's distinguishable in the spring because the flowers sprout before the leaves do. Once you've tried it, it's hard to not pluck them off the ground and pop them in your mouth every chance you get. When searching for recipes, it appears that these flowers are used in about every possible way: sautéed, raw, breaded, steeped in tea, made into wine, or cooked into soup. These flowers can be used to strongly flavor honey if you steep them in honey for a few weeks. You can coat them in a delicious sesame sauce, replicating Japanese goma-ae. It has also been used as a cough suppressant*. Be cautious, however, because there are cases of it causing liver problems, particularly in infants.
Skunk cabbage has earned its name because, when torn, the plant smells exactly like skunk spray. I have learned this the hard way, having to weedwack this plant all through college when I worked at a nature center. But, you can eat it when cooked properly (not raw, otherwise it will burn your throat). And it does take some work. Young leaves must be boiled in water several times, changing the water each time, to remove the stinging properties. Native Americans have also historically used the roots, drying and roasting them. So, while you can technically eat it, if you are looking for a more low maintenance type of plant to forage, maybe pass on this one.
There are many purposes for dandelions beyond bothering homeowners by peppering their manicured lawns. On that note, make sure the place you are harvesting from has not been sprayed or chemically treated.
Before the yellow flowers blossom, you can pluck the tight, small buds and put them in a brine solution. As Hana described it, it makes these buds function and taste like capers! Dandelion leaves can be harvested for greenery in salads. You can even make dandelion wine! A large list of recipes linked here also includes cooked dandelion roots, root coffee, herbal tea, root tinctures, wild greens quesadillas, pesto, cookies, jelly, and salves.
Resembling a thistle at maturity, teasel is the softer relative which is tasty when first growing. You can use the leaves as you would dandelion leaves: eat them raw, toss them in a mixed green salad, sauté them with other veggies, top them on pizza, or throw them in a smoothie. The root can be steeped for tea or made into tinctures for health purposes since it contains inulin (a prebiotic)*.
This is another common backyard weed with a wide, rounded leaf. It has tough veins which you can remove (if you want) before adding into any recipe. It surprisingly has a lot of uses outside of eating it as another mixed green, such as for a variety of skin remedies like bee stings. Per a really helpful blog, you can use these leaves for: plantain-infused oils, balm, chapstick, lotion bars, bath salts, poultices, and tinctures. You can also blend into a tasty hummus!
Like dogwood, you can use the nimble willow branches for basket-weaving! Willow bark can also be used for its medicinal properties to treat headaches and pain since it has the chemical salicin, which is chemically similar to what is found in aspirin*.
When searching for morels, you might stumble across this look-alike. This edible mushroom can have toxic effects, but with proper preparation, you can safely eat it. A particularly yummy recipe: you boil the mushrooms, pat them dry, coat them in a flour batter that includes dried ramp leaves, and fry!
There are, of course, so many more plants that you can find in New York in spring that we didn't get to see here: chickweed, wild violets, ramps, clover, and fiddlehead ferns. I'm definitely excited to get out there and start forging more.
Happy hunting!
*Of course, always dig into the scientific literature for more information, and confer with your doctor about any health-related claims.
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