Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Wild Edibles

7K views 35 replies 19 participants last post by  bstolz 
#1 ·
To me one of the best parts about camping/ being in nature is the ability to identify and devour wild edibles. We are blessed in the NW with a large supply of wild edible plants, esp in the puget sound region.

Did you know that over 99 percent of the sea algea in puget sound is edible? Post your favorite wild foods and recipes if you have any.

I really like....

using acorns to create flour and then cooking up muffins (include some blackberrie)

nettle stew

dandelion pesto

all the native edible berries (thimbleberry is my no1, with huckleberry at no.2)

Wild edibles are a great way to supplemnt backcountry and front country cooking. Please share your thoughts. Also, when harvesting, please use responsible harvest techniques to ensure future success of the plants and future harvests.
 
#2 ·
I usually grab a snack or two to supplement the regular backpacking food on the trail. my favorites include salads of sheep and wood sorrel with other wild greens like dandelion (where available), stonecrop, etc. A handful of wild blueberries or highbush cranberries in the morning oatmeal is always nice, as well. Indian plum is always a nice find, too. I also like to make teas out of young blackberry leaves.
-Ethan
 
#8 ·
I'm curious as to how one prepares skunk cabbage. There's a lot of it growing around here. there are several plants growing in the low, wet area just behind my property. I might want to try that out, just so I'll know if its tasty or not.

I have tried various edible wild greens around here, including red sorrel, dandelion, shotweed, and miner's lettuce. I prefer cultivated greens, as they are usually tastier and more tender. But the wild stuff will do if you're up a trail somewhere.
Lots of wild strawberries around here at the beach, as well as native and Himalayan blackberries, red and evergreen huckleberries, twinberries, salmonberries, and thimbleberries. In the late Summer and early Fall, I can park my boat at dead high tide when hunting cutts up a coastal creek, and kill time picking native blackberries while I'm waiting for the tide to start running back out.
 
#10 ·
This is a great thread. I might point out that Himalayan Blackberry is not native, but I love'm! I don't eat much native stuff except red and blue hucks, and blackcaps, but anxious to try you guys suggestions. I do like chantrelles on steak! I'm embarassed to say I have a small native plant nursery at my home, but haven't learned the edibles!
 
#12 ·
They've been linked to stomach cancer in humans and horses (if eaten regularly). I've stayed away from them since I learned that...

Larry- While Himalaya blackberries (and Evergreen blackberries, for that matter) aren't native there is the low-growing Pacific blackberry that is native here. They are actually way better, flavor wise, than the other species. In fact, a lot of commercial blackberry hybrids use Pacific blackberry as a starting material.
-Ethan
 
#13 ·
As someone who is newer to the backpacking version of camping I have been interested in getting to know what is okay to eat out in the wild to liven up the experience and teach my younger siblings some valuable nature skills. So here is my question that I'd like to pose to you, how did you learn what was okay to eat around here? Are you using books, friends, trial and error hoping that you won't die? What's the secret here.
 
#15 ·
For me it has been a slow learning proccess. I took some ethnobotony classes, read some books, practiced, and learned things from friends. If you are in doubt don't eat it, advice to keep you learning. It's important to learn of plants that are dangerous as well. Aside from one, I do not eat mushrooms that I find.
 
#23 ·
Those don't look like any thimble berry I've ever seen. Those are raspberries. The flowers are thimble berry, but not the fruit. Thimble berries are awesome if you can find them. Easily one of the tastiest berries in western Washington They don't last long because birds eat them.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

-Ethan
 
#25 ·
My mushroom foraging starts with morels and ends with chantrelles. Never had the confidence to eat any of the rest. Went on a couple of outings with folks that belong to the mycological society and they pick and eat most of what they find. Never had the courage to try what they picked. Fiddlehead ferns are good if you pick them before they get more than 6" tall or open up.
 
#26 ·
Man, I don't deal with mushrooms. There's just too many of 'em that'll put you 6 feet under. When I went to Austria, my host family would go pick and cook wild mushrooms. I just had to really hope they knew what they were doing. Turns out they did, though, so that's good...
-Ethan
 
#29 ·
Hey Ethan,
The way to approach mushrooms is to get a good book and pick one mushroom that is easily identified and not easily confused with any others and learn all you can about it and stick to that one. A good one to start with is the Chantrelle. Google it and you'll find a lot of information, they are one of the basic starter mushrooms. Around here there are two main species. The white and the yellow. They come up in the fall, two or three days after the first rains following the summer dry spell, late August through October. Both are the bomb, absolutely delicious... $8 - $10 per lbs. at Central Market. They are easily identifiable and hard to confuse with others if you know what to look for. The books will tell you what to look for.
Olympic College offers a class in mycology and there is a good mycology club in Kitsap County.

Eric

http://www.rrich.com/mstroutchantr.html
 
#28 ·
I love the wild edibles. My favorite is Lamb's Quarter. It grows in disturbed soil. I find it in the spring around the construction sites I work at. Cook it like you would any other green. It's best wilted with bacon and a little Balsamic Vinegar. Nettles are also good prepared this way. Another favorite of mine is a tea brewed from the fresh new salal leaves. It has a subtle sweetness akin to honey. The berries are excellent too, depending on the ripeness. The ones on the coast seem to be sweeter than the ones that grow inland. Horse Tails are another good early spring edible. They are similar to asparagus, but they don't make your pee stink. As far as mushrooms are concerned, DryFlyLarry is right on, Chantrelles are the best by far, followed by Matsutaki's, and Shaggy Manes.

As far as sources of information about wild plants I recommend the following books:

Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska, by Jim Pojar & Andy Mackinnon, Lone Pine Publishing

This book is excellent for identification and how the plants were used by the various indigenous peoples.

Eat the Weeds, by Ben Charles Harris, Barre Publishing

This one is packed full with recipes.

Wild Harvest, Edible Plants of the Northwest, by Terry Domico, Hancock House Publishing

This is the easiest to understand. It's divided up by the seasons so you know what to look for throughout the year. Great for identification and recipe ideas. With this book alone, you could eat good in the woods. I recommend buying this one first.

Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival, by Tom Brown, Jr., Berkley Publishing

This one is obviously geared toward survival with a good section titled 100 Edible Plants. It also digs into the medicinal uses of the plants. One thing that stood out to me was treating mouth sores with a salal leaf poultice. It works well to relieve the pain and help heal cankers.

The best Mushroom books I've found are:

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, by Gary H. Lincoff, Alfred A. Knopf Publishing

The Savory Wild Mushroom, Margaret McKenny and Daniel E. Stuntz, University of Washington Press

Eric
 
#31 ·
No, I haven't. I've always been apprehensive, not knowing what the parasitic fungus was growing on. I hear they're good though. How about you? I normally stick to the few that I've researched and feel comfortable with, Chicken of the Woods, Zeller's Boletes, Shaggy Manes, Matsutaki's, Prince and of course Chantrelles. When I was younger, and a little reckless, I made myself sick by misidentifying a puffball. Lucky for me it wasn't too serious. It just made me retch something fierce. I'm a lot more weary now. I've never gotten into the Morels much. I've found them on occasion, but never in a quantity worthy of harvesting. Last year, my wife and I found 6 really huge ones (6"-9") growing near our burn barrel. I looked them up on the internet, because I couldn't find them in any of my books. They were a variety that tend to grow in the landscaping bark that you buy at a nursery. The internet sources that I found said it was edible, but that most people dry them first, then reconstitute them in milk, before cooking them. I tried it, but it certainly wasn't good. How do you fix them? Which ones are you getting? I'm pretty sure they're not the ones I found.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top