How To Learn About & Start Eating Wild Edibles

Nature truly provides. People walk past wild edibles everyday without knowing it. The most common wild edible that is abundant in almost every yard is the dandelion. It’s seen as a weed and usually sprayed with weed killer. In fact, the flowers, leaves and roots are edible. Dandelions are also a common source of food for bees.

There are over 20,000 species of wild edibles around the world and fewer than 20% provide consistent food sources for us.

Wild edibles provide a great way for us to learn about the wonders of nature, supplement our food source and learn to grow or rely on a wider variety of food sources.

Here are some tips on how we can start to learn about wild edibles:

Books – Books are one of the best resources for learning wild edibles. Find books with excellent, full color pictures. Without pictures, it’ll make it extremely hard to identify. Try to find books that are specific to your region so you’re learning plants that will be easy to locate. Book resources are down below.

Seasonal – Many wild edibles are seasonal. For instance, while the cactus appears year-round, the cactus pear fruit is ripe between late summer and early winter. Depending on your region, there could be wild edibles all throughout the year, but it wouldn’t be from the same plant. This is important to understand if you plan to use wild edibles year round as an additional food source.

Regional – Many plants are regional or may only grow in certain climates. For instance, ponderosa pines usually thrive in elevations of 7000-8000 ft, but when you find them, you can eat the bark, make the needles into a tea and even eat the pine nuts. If your book doesn’t mention the type of regions or climates that it thrives in, do a quick internet search.

Positively Identify – It’s extremely important to positively identify a plant before eating. It’s not recommended nor safe to use the ‘survival’ method of testing whether a plan is edible or not. In this day and age, edible plants have been identified and there’s no need to test whether it’s safe or not. Look to books and experts first. If you’re not sure whether it’s edible or not, take a few pictures of it (include the leaves, bark, fruit and even surrounding area) then type a few key words of what the plant looks like into your favorite search bar and compare your pictures to the pictures on the internet until you find a match. There are many plants that have identical evil twins which are poisonous. Positively identifying before eating could very well save your life, or at least a trip to the hospital.

Utilizing The Plant – Once you’ve positively identified that the plant is edible, find out how much of the plant is edible and what can be done with it. For instance, the yucca plant has edible flowers, fruit and the roots can be ground into flour. The leaves can also be made into cordage and the dead leaves can be made into a great fire starter. Sometimes a plant has so many great uses, while other times it may only have one or two. Also make sure to understand how to process the edibles. For instance, before eating acorns, the toxin needs to be leached from it first. Or in the case of the yaupon holly, the leaves can be made into a tea, but the berries are not edible.

Don’t Eat What Animals Eat – Just because an animal is eating a wild edible doesn’t mean that it’s meant for human consumption. Animals and humans process foods very differently. The squirrel can eat the acorns raw, but raw acorns are toxic to humans and the toxins must be leached first. Again, positively identify based on books and expert sources.

Leave Some – Leave some of the plant behind. If you want to take a few acorns, great! But leave some for the animals, as well. Also, some plants won’t grow back the same if you take all the leaves or fruit off of it. It’s best to take only the little bit that you need at a time and move onto a different plant if you need more. Allow the plant to continue to thrive.

Here are some recommended books, keep in mind that wild edibles vary wildly to region, so do try to get a region specific wild edible book:

I warn you, once you begin your wild edible learning journey, you’re going to be addicted! You’ll now look at every single plant and ask yourself, “can I eat it?” Learning wild edibles is addictive, rewarding and so much fun. Get curious and go find some wild edibles to devour!

Take a look at the videos below to start getting excited about your wild edible journey!