by Tim MacWelch
HABITAT Forests
DISTRIBUTION North America
DETAILS A large, soft, colorful mushroom (also known as chicken of the woods), sulphur shelf grows on trees and logs in forests, and is easy to spot with its bright yellow and orange colors. These stalkless shelf fungi grow in clumps on hardwoods and conifers. These clusters can be over 2 inches (5 cm) high and 12 inches (30 cm) across.
IDENTIFIERS Sulphur shelf fruits in late summer and fall. Make certain that the underside is solid and full of little holes (pores). If there are gills underneath the shelves, you have a nestcap, which is not known to be edible, although there are no reports of its actually being poisonous, either.
USES Cook the younger, more tender shelves, as the older ones can cause digestive upset.
SPORE PRINT White.
OYSTER MUSHROOM
Pleurotus ostreatus
SEASON Spring and late fall
HABITAT Hardwood and coniferous forests
DISTRIBUTION North America
DETAILS These popular, fan-shaped mushrooms have very short stalks and grow in clumps on rotten wood, stumps, and logs. They can be 2–10 inches (5–25 cm) across and vary from white to gray in color, sometimes with a yellowish tint and a brownish top.
IDENTIFIERS Stems are usually attached at the side of the mushroom or offset, though they may be absent. The mushroom has broad gills and the gills are attached to the stalk.
USES Inspect these mushrooms carefully before cooking, and remove any of the little black beetles that are attracted to this species. Don’t be upset about the beetles, though—they are a big help in species identification.
SPORE PRINT White.
KING BOLETE
Boletus edulis
SEASON Summer and fall
HABITAT Forests and shady areas
DISTRIBUTION Throughout North America
DETAILS The king bolete is big, thick, and meaty. It grows in forest soils and may be found scattered through an area or on its own. King boletes may have huge caps, up to 10 inches (25 cm) wide, and an overall height of 10 inches (25 cm). It has tiny pores underneath the cap, rather than gills. The cap is brownish, and the stalk is whitish to brown in color.
IDENTIFIERS The upper half of the stalk has a netted appearance, and the overall stalk is bulbous in shape.
USES There are numerous edible bolete species, but also several poisonous ones. Avoid the bitter bolete (Tylopilus felleus), which resembles the king bolete; true to its name, it is extremely bitter. Discard any batch of cooked boletes if they taste bitter.
SPORE PRINT Olive brown.
HEN-OF-THE-WOODS
Grifola frondosus
SEASON Fall
HABITAT Hardwood forests
DISTRIBUTION Southern Canada and U.S. eastern woodlands
DETAILS The fan-shaped caps of this mushroom grow in clumps on living and dead standing trees. Larger caps can reach 3 inches (7.5 cm) wide. They have a similar structure to sulphur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus), though the colors are grayish brown. The streaked upper surface is smooth or a little hairy.
IDENTIFIERS The caps have white pores on the underside, which can become yellowed with age.
USES Younger specimens of this mushroom are the best-tasting and most tender choices. Try simmering these mushrooms at low temperatures to tenderize them. They are also good when fried quickly in butter, or for a survival-style feast, skewer a few on a stick for a shish kebab.
SPORE PRINT White.
119 FORAGE FOR TREE NUTS
Tree nuts boast the biggest caloric payout in the wild-food world. Due to their fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins, and minerals, these nuts were a staple food for our ancestors—and still are for many people today.
CHESTNUT
Castaneaspp.
SEASON Fall and winter
HABITAT Forests and open ground
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS The chestnut is a genus of deciduous hardwood trees and shrubs in the beech family (Fagaceae). Many species are found through the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Various species can grow to 33–98 feet (10–30 m) tall. Don’t confuse chestnut trees and their nuts with horse chestnuts (genus Aesculus), the nuts of which are similar looking—but poisonous.
IDENTIFIERS The alternate simple leaves are ovate or lanceolate, with sharply pointed, widely spaced teeth. The nut is contained in a needle-covered cupule, 2–4 inches (5–10 cm) in diameter, also known as a “bur.” These burs often grow in pairs or clusters, and each bur can hold one to seven nuts.
USES The nuts from this tree pack a caloric punch: 3 1/2 ounces (105 g) of chestnut contains 200 calories, vitamins C and B6, and potassium.
BEECH
Fagus spp.
SEASON Fall and winter
HABITAT Forests
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS Beech trees are deciduous hardwood trees found across the Northern Hemisphere. These trees are typically 60–80 feet (18–24 m) tall, with alternate simple leaves.
IDENTIFIERS Look for the smooth-barked trees in the eastern woodlands, and look for the small three-sided seed falling out of a prickly husk around early October.
USES The nut of a beech tree can be a valuable and delicious wild-food source, but you’ll have to be quick to beat the squirrels to them, as they seem to favor these tree nuts above all others. They’ve always had two-legged competition, however: Native American tribes, such as the Potawatomi, pounded the roasted seeds into flour, and many other cultures have used the oily, sweet nuts for food.
WALNUT
Juglans spp.
SEASON Fall and winter
HABITAT Fields and forest edges
DISTRIBUTION Global
DETAILS Walnut trees are a group of deciduous hardwood trees with varying shapes of nuts and alternate compound leaves.
IDENTIFIERS These nuts are probably the easiest to identify. Freshly fallen black walnuts (Juglans nigra) look like green tennis balls. The rough, round husks turn from green to a very dark brown as they lie on the ground throughout autumn.
USES The nutmeats are rich tasting and contain 173 calories an ounce (30 g). They are high in fat, with a fair bit of protein, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese. The wild animals might even let you get some, primarily because they don’t like to chew through those thick, bitter husks—they’ll leave them on the ground well into winter. Walnut hulls can be used as a dye, a fish poison, and an antiworm and antiparasite tea.
HICKORY
Carya spp.
SEASON Fall and winter
HABITAT Fields and forests
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS These trees are deciduous hardwood trees found in North America and Asia with alternate compound leaves.
IDENTIFIERS The nuts have a “double” nut shell. There’s a husk that peels off, revealing a nut shell underneath. And make sure you don’t get a poisonous buckeye. They also have a double layered nut shell, but hickory nuts have a multichambered inner nutshell (like a walnut), while the bad buckeyes have a solid nutmeat (like an almond).
USES Hickory nuts are the most calorie dense wild-plant food in this book. One ounce (30 g) of nutmeat packs 193 calories, with most of that coming from fat. A majority of hickory nuts taste like their famous relative—the pecan. These sweet and fatty nutmeats are a convenient and useful raw food, picked right out of the shell.
HAZELNUT
Corylus spp.
SEASON Fall
HABITAT Fields, open sunny areas
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS There are several species of hazelnut trees and shrubs in Europe, Asia, and North America. These are deciduous shrubs and small trees with alternate simple leaves that are irregularly toothed.
IDENTIFIERS The most common species in the United States is the American hazelnut (Corylus americana), which grows east of the Mississippi and can reach a height of 10 feet (3 m). It produces small nuts th
at are covered with a ragged-edged husk.
USES Just one ounce (30 g) of the flavorful hazelnut contains 170 calories and 4 grams of protein, as well as good doses of vitamin E, thiamin, copper, and manganese. The hazelnut is also known as the cobnut or filbert nut, according to the species. You can eat them raw, or mill into a peanut butter–like spread for confections.
OAK
Quercus spp.
SEASON Fall
HABITAT Forests, deserts, and mountains
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS There are approximately 600 species of “oak” throughout the world. This list includes deciduous and evergreen tree species found in cool climates down to warmer tropical latitudes. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with a range of about 160 species in Mexico alone.
IDENTIFIERS Oaks have alternate simple leaves in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. The fruit of the oak tree is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cuplike “cupule.”
USES One ounce (30 g) of acorn nutmeat, which many of our ancestors ate as a staple food, contains a little over 100 calories. The bitter acid in the nutmeat is easily removed by cracking the nuts into pieces and soaking in repeated baths of warm water, one hour at a time. (See item 138.)
120 HARVEST WILD GREENS
Greens are the backbone of survival foods. Even in the dead of winter, you can find edible greenery growing in protected spots and use them to provide some nourishment.
WATERCRESS
Nasturtium officinale
SEASON Spring through fall
HABITAT Clear running streams
DISTRIBUTION Global
DETAILS Watercress is an aquatic or semiaquatic perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. One of the earliest vegetables known to be consumed by humans, its botanic relationship to mustards and radishes is immediately obvious in its mustardy, peppery taste.
IDENTIFIERS Watercress grows in fast, clean streams and springs, with hollow floating stems and pinnately compound leaves in an alternate pattern. The small, four-petaled white flowers grow in clusters. The leaves and tender stems have a biting, deliciously spicy flavor.
USES Wash thoroughly if you’re eating raw watercress, as the clear water it grew from could be full of waterborne pathogens (not harmful to the watercress, but not good for you). Cooked watercress is not as tasty, but is much safer for human consumption.
BITTERCRESS
Cardamine pensylvanica
SEASON Spring
HABITAT Fields, lawns, sunny areas
DISTRIBUTION North America
DETAILS A diminutive herbaceous biennial, bittercress (also known as Pennsylvania bittercress) has the familiar pinnately compound leaves of other “cresses” in an alternate pattern. Native to most of Canada and the United States, it is only found in the springtime.
IDENTIFIERS The smooth leaves are divided into several rounded lobes, each one with one or two lobes, and a large terminal leaflet at the end of the leaf, like most other plants with a “cress” name. Bittercress grows one or more flower stalks, which are purple to green in color. These stems can be anywhere from 4–28 inches (10–71 cm) tall. The white flowers are plentiful but tiny, each with four white petals. The fruit is a slender pod about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long.
USES Eat the tender leaves and stems raw as a salad.
WILD MUSTARD
Brassica rapa
SEASON Spring
HABITAT Fields, open sunny areas
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS This annual herbaceous field plant has smooth, succulent, gray-green simple leaves with clasping lobes around the stem in an alternate pattern. These leaves have many deep lobes and smell of mustard when broken.
IDENTIFIERS The leaves and stems produce a whitish, chalky substance that easily wipes off when touched. Wild mustard has yellow flowers with four petals and slender vertical seed pods. Full-grown plants reach heights of 3 feet (1 m), but start as a basal rosette.
USES You can eat the leaves raw when not too bitter, and they make for a good cooked green. You can also grind the small round seeds into a powder and mix with vinegar to make a tangy wild mustard condiment. Related wild mustards in the Brassica genus can also be used like field mustard.
WILD LETTUCE
Lactuca spp.
SEASON Spring and summer
HABITAT Fields, open sunny areas
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS Wild lettuce is a herbaceous biennial plant, starting with a basal rosette of lobed and toothed simple leaves which give way to a tall flower stalk in the second year of the plant’s life. The rosette is common in springtime and often resembles dandelion rosettes. Several species of wild lettuce are native to Europe, yet are also found in North America.
IDENTIFIERS Broken stems and leaves will exude an orange or salmon-hued milky sap, different from dandelion, which has white sap. The leaves can reach 10–12 inches (25–30 cm) in length, and the flower stalks can grow to heights over 8 feet (2.5 m), topped with yellow composite flowers.
USES The leaves are best in the spring and have a flavor similar to their cultivated cousin romaine lettuce. Historically, the sap has been used as a sedative.
LADY’S THUMB
Polygonum persicaria
SEASON Spring through fall
HABITAT Fields, open disturbed soil
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS Lady’s thumb (also called redshank) is a native annual herbaceous plant of Eurasia and an invasive species in North America. It has an erect yet floppy stem with swollen joints. These joints give rise to the genus name Polygonum, which means “many knees.”
IDENTIFIERS Lady’s thumb grows to a height of 24 inches (60 cm). The leaves are simple alternate leaves,which may have a dark V-shaped mark on the surface (or not) and are almost stalk-less.
USES The leaves are the edible part of this plant, and are good raw in salads or as a cooked green. The leaves and stems contain tannins and persicarin, both compounds with anti-inflammatory properties historically used to stop diarrhea. The plant can also prevent infections: Apply the crushed leaves as a field-expedient poultice for wounds.
VIOLETS
Viola spp.
SEASON Spring and summer
HABITAT Fields, lawns, and woods
DISTRIBUTION Global
DETAILS Violets are a diverse group of plants containing almost 600 species. The violets commonly used for wild food are in the genus Viola. These are perennial herbaceous plants.
IDENTIFIERS Violets are small, usually 4–10 inches (10–25 cm), consisting of heart-shaped simple leaves with toothed edges and small flowers, typically with five petals. The flower color is often a quick indicator of species, as there are blue, purple, white, yellow, and combination color violets.
USES You can eat the leaves and flowers of the common blue violet (Viola papilionacea) raw as salad leaves or cooked as greens. You can also find candied violets made from fresh flowers (best from the sweet Viola odorata) and covered in an egg white and crystallized sugar shell. Violet flowers are also a beautiful addition to baked goods.
SHEEP SORREL
Rumex acetosella
SEASON Spring through fall
HABITAT Fields, open sunny areas
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS This small plant with unusual spearhead-shaped simple leaves grows in fields and gardens. Sheep sorrel is a perennial herbaceous plant that has a reddish alternate branching stem and grows up to a height of 18 inches (45 cm).
IDENTIFIERS Sheep sorrel leaves are typically about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long and smooth-edged. Each has a pair of lobes at the base that can point outward or down toward the base of the plant.
USES Eat the tender, sour-tasting leaves raw as a salad or steeped in hot water for a sour drink very similar to wood sorrel (Oxalis spp.). And like wood sorrel, the sour flavor comes from oxalic acid, so consume in moderation. If regular consumption of either of these
plants is followed by urinary gravel (small stones), stop eating—or bigger stones could soon follow.
PLANTAIN
Plantago major
SEASON Spring through fall
HABITAT Lawns and fields
DISTRIBUTION Global
DETAILS The low-growing plantain is a common weed in lawns worldwide. It is an annual herbaceous plant that has parallel veined, smooth-edged simple leaves that grow in a basal rosette.
IDENTIFIERS Torn leaves often reveal stringy fibers inside the heavy parallel veins. These ripped leaves also have an astringent, cabbagelike odor. The small white flowers grow on slender stalks, which later grow greenish seeds.
USES Add chopped young leaves or green seeds to salads or boil for ten to fifteen minutes as a cooked green. Plantain is one of the best medicinal plants for stings and bites. Crush the leaves into a poultice and keep in place until the pain and swelling are relieved. English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and seaside plantain (Plantago juncoides) can be used just like common plantain.
CLEAVERS
Galium aparine
SEASON Spring and summer
HABITAT Fence rows and thickets
DISTRIBUTION Northern Hemisphere
DETAILS Cleavers, which are herbaceous annuals, are vinelike woodland and hedgerow plants native to Eurasia and found throughout North America. The plant has a square stem (up to 3 feet or 1 meter in length) covered with tiny barbs that it uses for climbing. The simple leaves are narrow, lanceolate to linear, and grow in whorls of six to eight.