Food Foraging for the Faint-Hearted
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 09. 2.08
We have read about food foraging and the hardy men who do it. They are wild and bearded and live near the forest and spend all their time digging for exotic mushrooms and unrecognisable flowers and grasses. Great for them but no thanks. But there is a coward's way to do this, especially now that the fertile harvesting season is upon us: go for the local. Dandelions are the easiest; their young and tender leaves are delicious in salads. The roots are a Japanese delicacy, roasted, processed and drunk like coffee. A farmer in Prince Edward Island is growing them specifically for that market.
Wild blueberries, small and flavourful, are everywhere in woods in Northern Ontario this month. They are easy to find and so much more delicious and flavourful than the fat, farm-grown ones. They are called Saskatoon berries all across the Prairies. If you happen to live in British Columbia, watch out for salal berries, also dark blue but the size of a cranberry and delicious in jams. The common milkweed, found growing wild by the roadside, has several different menu opportunities. In early spring the shoots can be eaten like asparagus. In June, the unopened flower buds look and taste a bit like broccoli and can be eaten hot, or cold with a vinaigrette sauce. Don't bother with the milk; it tastes terrible.
Fiddleheads are the quintessential Canadian delicacy; a fern so young and new that it hasn't yet "unfurled" and opened its leaves. Found in the early spring in the forest and only from the ostrich fern. Shake out the dirt in a paper bag, then steam first and then saute. Yummy
Bulrushes, those familiar marshy plants that most of us stick in a vase, have young shoots that can be eaten raw, poached or roasted.
Elderflowers and the berries, elderberries, are well known for the wine that can be made and the pies and jams. Or, just order them all from Forbes Wild Foods: cattail hearts in a bottle, cedar jelly and preserved fiddleheads. : : Globe and Mail
More on Food Foraging
:: Food Foraging: Gourmet Food Hunting
:: A Year in the Woods Eating Wild Food
:: Forbes Wild Foods
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I used to collect fern shoots at my old job in Japan. Excellent stuff. The average Japanese person is still in touch with nature enough that they can gather edible wild plants for consumption. Baby bamboo shoots are delicious, and it saddens me that this year will have been my last.
I have been eating cat tail since I was a child. My grandma's house used to have wild blueberries nearby, but development killed them off.
Mushrooms I won't touch though. Discerning poisonous versus edible ones can be quite daunting, and I wouldn't trust myself to do it, even with a field guide.
Agreed.... every area has it's own natural foods. Just be careful...do your research... You can not be wrong even once with items like mushrooms...
Be careful. Next to the Cat tail could be bulbs of Cecuta verosa. If you will eat it death will come in an hour. It happen with my school mate when we where freshmen in college.
Saskatoons and blueberries are two different plants, and are not "called" the same thing by Canadians. Sorry.
Just to clarify:
Blueberry plant, Vaccinium is not the Saskatoon, Amelanchier alnifolia.
Equally delicious though.
There are plenty of edible mushrooms that are really easy to identify. Shaggy Manes are an example of this, and in the boreal forest I grew up in, they not only grew wild in the forest but on people's lawns as well. They're quite plentiful in many parts of North America.
You can identify them here: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/coprinus_comatus.html
I enjoy foraging for wild foods myself, but please remember that our public lands belong to everyone, including the animals. Please do not take plants or fruit from parks or nature preserves.