Foraging is the act of wandering with the intent of collecting food or supplies. It’s mostly a fun hobby but there are many benefits to foraging. It saves money and encourages you to be active in nature, which has a multitude of physical and mental benefits. Foraging likely leads to more mindful eating and respect for nature. It requires you to slow down almost in a meditative way.
Not only can you find foods and medicine in nature that are hard to find in stores, but they tend to be more nutrient dense and have less exposure to chemical pesticides and fertilizers. If you forage with respect, you will help our planet by preserving resources like water used for factory farming and prevent unnecessary transport of food in cargo ships and trucks. Seasonal local eating is good for humans and our planet.
You should do everything possible to avoid disrupting the ecosystem. Only take enough for yourself. Do not hoard. Do not sell. Never take more than 1/3 of any plant. Consider replanting in your backyard. Research each plant so you know how and when to harvest.
My own personal rule is I try to only forage walking distance from my home. This prevents too many people from driving to a location and wiping out an entire species. You can find lots of food to forage even in bigger cities and this is called Urban Foraging. I think if we learn how to utilize resources close to home, we will be better prepared to live off the land if needed. To get started download a plant identification phone app like “Picture This”. Learn about all the plants and weeds growing nearby. Start in your own backyard.
Here’s a small list of some of the things I’ve foraged over the years…
Elderberries – I hunt for elderberries each September to make medicinal antiviral syrup for flu season. Elderberry has antiviral properties, anti-inflammatory properties, stimulates the immune system, and has cancer fighting antioxidants. It has a flavonoid that has been big in the news lately…quercetin. Quercetin has anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and seasonal allergy benefits. Both elderberry and Quercetin have been recommended recently by experts to prevent viral infections and you’ll notice them more on pharmacy shelves. Quercetin is the chemical compound that makes an elderberry purple and it’s also found in purple hued cannabis cultivars such as Terple by Tryke. Elderberry skins and stems are poisonous so don’t eat them fresh. I simmer the elderberries in boiling water for about an hour. Strain through cheesecloth and cool. Then mix the liquid into raw Utah honey. Freeze or refrigerate for 30 days. I take a teaspoonful daily for prevention and more if treating a viral infection. It’s delicious added to plain yogurt, tea, smoothies or sparkling water.
Mushrooms: Morels, Puccini, Oysters, Chanterelles – Utah is not the easiest place to forage for mushrooms but I have found many edible varieties near my home in Ogden. And, if you have ever consumed wild mushrooms, you know they are a culinary treasure. Oysters are likely the easiest to find and safely identify. I usually find these in the fall on dead trees. With mushroom hunting it’s important to notice the weather patterns, a couple days after rain you may have more luck. You should learn to identify trees, look for ideal micro-climates, and pay attention to altitude. Morel season is in the spring and they can be hard to find but if you know the right spot you can find them every year. The Uinta Mountain range is the place to forage for mushrooms in Utah. Since mushrooms can be deadly if misidentified, my general rule is I never eat anything unless I’ve personally identified it and I have confirmation from an expert. Never take an entire flush and use a basket to collect so you spread spores as you travel home.
Grindelia – Grindelia is also called gum weed. You will find this sticky yellow flower all over our Utah mountains in the summer and fall. It has many medicinal benefits related to our respiratory system and mucous production. You can dry out the leaves and flowers and prepare an extract that may be helpful with asthma, colds, sinus infections, allergies and the flu. I collect this plant each year and make an infused oil and a salve out of the sticky flowers. I use grindelia quite a bit mostly because I’m extra prone to getting poison ivy and it soothes poison ivy rashes.
Rose Hips – Wild roses are beautiful and sweet smelling but did you know they are full of medicinal value? The petals can be collected to make rose water and after the flower dies it turns into this magical medicinal little fruit called a rosehip. Rosehips have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any fruit or vegetable (yes…more than oranges). I add dried rosehips to tea for the vitamin C benefits. Rose hips are available in the fall and all winter. They are easy to identify and collect. Rosehip is my secret ingredient in my homemade cosmetic preparations. I infuse them into an oil and use it daily as a face serum to prevent fine lines and wrinkles. If you choose to eat rose hips raw, watch out for the hairs in the seeds. These tiny hairs are extremely irritating and they are used to make itching powder.
Snake Grass – Horsetail or snake grass is the plant with the highest amount of silica(35%). Silica stimulates collagen production which is important in the aging process. Silica promotes healthy skin, hair and nail growth and prevents fine lines and wrinkles. Silica is also helpful for bone and joint health. Snake grass is also used for its weight loss and diuretic properties. It’s also been used for lung health and asthma. It also contains quercetin which has anti-inflammatory and anti-viral benefits. Snake Grass should be consumed in moderation and it’s important to cook or dry it to destroy the enzyme thiaminase which can destroy our bodies thiamine (Vit B1). I love to collect this one in the winter along with a couple rose hips. I’ll cut the snake grass into smaller pieces and prepare a snake grass/rosehip tea to warm up after winter hikes and help heal dry winter skin.
Arrowleaf Balsam Root – This beautiful plant covers our mountain in the spring and early summer. It grows on steep hillsides and is important to prevent erosion. Because it is so important to our ecosystem, I discourage processing and harvesting. It takes many years for each plant to become established enough to produce flowers. You need to dig up the entire plant and harvest the roots to make a tincture. I do use balsam root tincture for respiratory infections but right now it’s more responsible to purchase the extract. It helps to dry out mucous so I use it for allergies, colds, and productive coughs. This is an example of a plant that I avoid processing too often because it requires destroying the entire plant.
Ramps – Like wild mushrooms, ramps are a culinary treat. They are also called wild leeks. You can find ramps near streams in the spring/early summer. They taste almost like a cross between garlic and an onion. I love to collect a couple ramps, morels and sage together. That flavor combination can make the tastiest meal.
Dandelions – Ralph Waldo Emerson said “a weed is simply a plant whose virtues we haven’t discovered”. Dandelions are amazing plants because almost every part of the plant is edible and medicinal. The greens have a slightly bitter taste similar to arugula but they are the most nutritionally dense green you can eat (more nutritious than kale or spinach). They are full of vitamins, folate, potassium and calcium. Dandelions are used medicinally to lower blood pressure, treat diabetes and as a diuretic. They are full of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. Only ingest small amounts. Throw a couple of leaves and flowers into a salad. I like to dry the flowers and infuse them with oil. I use the oil for sore muscles, minimizing wrinkles, eczema, and acne. Even the root may be ground up and brewed as a coffee substitute. Be cautious with dandelions grown in yards and areas where they may have poison or fertilizer applied. And please stop killing all that food in your yard.
Glacier Lilly – Glacier Lilies are usually the first wildflowers to pop up in Utah in early spring. They are common in subalpine meadows where snow is beginning to melt. The swollen bottom of the stem (also called a corm) is a good food source. It is edible raw and tastes refreshing almost like a cucumber. Cooking or drying will make them even sweeter. Glacier Lilies will grow in large patches and are a favorite for bears, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. If you see a patch all dug up that’s a sign of bears in the area. I like to eat one or two only when I see large patches and leave the majority for wildlife.
Hops – Wild hops grow in the mountains of Utah and are best harvested around Labor Day. Hops are primarily used for beer as flavoring, a stability agent, and an antimicrobial. Some local Utah brewers forage wild hops to make a special local brew each fall. Cannabis and hops are botanically related and have many similarities. They are similar in how they look, how they reproduce, and both have resinous glands that produce medicinal compounds (with cannabis we call them trichomes and with hops we call then lupulin glands). Like most plants, hops are full of terpenes (myrcene, humulene, and caryophyllene) but rather than cannabinoids they have a variety of other medicinal hop acidic compounds. Hops have been used medicinally for sleep, stress, mood, hot flashes, inflammation, muscle relaxation and to aid digestion. You can use the cones to make beer or tea. You can also sauté or grill the green hop shoots.
Prickly Pear – Utah is full of prickly pear cacti. The pads or “nopales” are edible as a vegetable and once cooked taste similar to okra. Nopales are available in our mountain year-round and thrive without water so they are an important and accessible food source. The prickly pear cactus will flower in the spring then those flowers die and turn into a purple/red fruit. The fruit of the prickly pear is sweet and can be consumed raw, added to drinks, pickled, or cooked into jellies. As the name implies the prickly pear is difficult to handle so bring gloves to harvest. The needles on the pad can be removed with a knife and the needles on the fruit can be burned off over an open flame. I recommend removing only one pad/fruit from each plant and replanting part of the pad at home to grow more. Medicinal uses include diabetes, cholesterol, obesity, and GI issues. You may notice prickly pear juice is often added to alcoholic drinks because of its traditional medicinal use to prevent hangovers.
Utah Fruit – Blackberries, strawberries, sumac berries, gooseberries, currants, and raspberries are all over Utah in the fall. I have also found wild plums, apples and cherries in the mountains. Fruit is a great food source to forage in urban areas like parks, parking lots, and yards. Do not be afraid to ask the owners of fruit trees in yards if you can harvest some. So often fruit goes to waste in urban areas.
Greens – Dandelions, wild lettuce, purslane, nettle, lambs quarter, and curly dock are all common greens in Utah. We usually think of them as common weeds. Wild lettuce is also called opium lettuce and it has a milky substance that may be processed and used as a mild pain reliever. Purslane is important for heart health and is known for having the highest levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in any land-based plant. Nettle is a green that has a long history of use for allergies, inflammation, diabetes, and urinary issues. Lamb’s Quarter tastes like spinach and is famously quoted by Michael Pollan as “one of the most nutritious weeds in the world”. Young curly dock greens taste like spinach when harvested in the early spring. You can also eat the stems and process the seeds into flour year-round. All these greens are full of nutrients and can be tossed into a salad or smoothies. It’s fun at the right time of year to collect your own mountain salad on a hike.
Asparagus – You can find wild asparagus in the early spring growing along roadsides.
Sap – Tree sap (also called pitch) of pine or fir evergreens has a variety of uses and it’s my favorite survival tool in the wilderness. This sap is full of terpenes (pinene and limonene) and medicinal compounds. The sap or resin is produced inside the truck of a tree and oozes out to prevent infection and seal up damage to a tree. Its antimicrobial effects can help human wounds as well. If you end up with cuts after collecting blackberries, just look for a pine or fir tree. You can pop the bubbles on the trunk to collect the sap. Apply it directly to your wounds for anti-inflammatory and antiseptic benefits and the sticky substance also serves as a band aid to seal up the wound. You can chew softer sap like gum for colds, sore throats, or tooth pain. You can even use it as a fire starter or as glue to seal or waterproof tents or tarps.
