I love wandering through the woods or along a river snacking on local wild foods. I make it a goal to learn edible plants and mushrooms wherever I live so I can continue my browsing. Since my sister and I were young we knew at least a dozen plants around us that we could absolutely eat and a handful that were toxic. If it wasn’t in those two categories we just didn’t mess with it. Now that I’m older and wiser, maybe, I like to branch out a bit and learn to identify as many plants and mushrooms as I can in any given area. Not only is foraging fun but it is a great way to supplement your homestead. You can read about other ways to supplement your homestead in our previous post: ‘Filling Your Freezer for Free’. So then the question is then, ‘how to get started identifying plants and mushrooms to forage.’ Well, I’ll tell you how I start. I still start by identifying the easy-to-identify plants that I can eat or not. Plants (especially berries), that are easy to identify, and the extremely toxic plants/mushrooms/berries that I shouldn’t even touch. Then I work my way towards the harder to identify berries, then other plants, then mushrooms, and finally medicinals (which I am just starting to learn).
Berries
Raspeberries -edible 
Blueberries and Crowberries – both edible 
Low-bush Cranberries -edible
When you are first learning to forage or you have moved to a new place, start with the berries. Everyone loves berries and they are everywhere. Chances are that all the berries where you live will show up in a local plant book. They are generally very easy to identify with their bright colors and also easy to access. Now I’m not saying all berries are edible because they aren’t, but they are easy to find and usually easy to identify. Berries are also easy to eat. Wash them and eat them. Ignore the rest of the plant even if it is edible. You’ll feel like a champion forager already knowing your berries.
Flowers, Weeds, and Other Plants
Wild Iris 
Fireweed 
Coldsfoot
I recommend starting to identify flowers mostly because there are so many resources for learning flowers and they’re bright and attract your attention. Start with the easy-to-identify edible flowers in your backyard or neighborhood such as fireweed or dandelion and poisonous plants such as foxglove. Then work your way towards the plants that don’t have an obvious flower or are harder to identify. There will be both poisonous plants and edible plants and some plants that are in between. For example, stinging nettle is very edible but highly annoying because of its tendency to sting and leave a rash when you brush against it. There are lots of botany clubs around and great flower guidebooks to help you learn about your wildflowers and plants, I highly recommend joining one.
Mushrooms
Fly Amanita – very toxic 
Coral mushroom – edible 
Aspen Boletes in the top row – edible to some people, Bottom rows King Boletes – edible and delicious
I find mushrooms very hard to identify personally. To me they all look the same. I usually start by just walking around with a guidebook seeing what I can identify in the field. I like the bright ones, which are usually poisonous, such as Fly Amanita (pictured above). When I first started out it seemed like all I could find were poisonous mushrooms, but that’s ok. Good for me on learning some of the toxic ones first. For mushrooms, I’d strongly suggest learning from somebody else.
Safety Tips: For you and the plants
- Don’t eat plants or berries harvested by the side of the road. The berries could be covered with pesticides, dust, and car exhaust.
- When in doubt, throw it out. If you’re not sure about identification, don’t eat it or even pick it.
- Always leave at least 1/4 of the plants or mushrooms alone so they can reproduce.
- Don’t assume because one part of a plant is edible that the rest of the plant is as well. Take rhubarb for instance. You can eat the stalk but the leaf is toxic.
- Don’t pick on private property, it’s rude.
- Check for bugs in your berries if you absolutely have to eat them right away. Especially salmonberries. Trust me, you’ll thank me for that. Those berries have some spicy bugs, it feels as though your mouth is on fire.
- Bring along a field guide with you when harvesting.
- Pay attention to your surroundings. At least in Alaska, bears like berries too.
- Wear appropriate clothing, blackberries have thorns, so do salmonberries. Stinging nettles sting even if they are good to eat, so a pair of gloves is always wise to bring with you.
- Be 100% sure on mushroom identification, there are many look-alikes and some of the drabbest looking mushrooms can be deadly.
- Be careful when foraging with young children, especially young ones that still like to put things in their mouths. Emphasize that they need to ask before eating or picking.
- There are many common names for the same plant or mushroom, double-check your latin names in your guidebooks to make sure you have the correct species.
Resources for learning
- Field Guides – Use local guides, not nationwide guides. The more localized the better. Check your local library or non-profits to see if they have any you can borrow. Remember local plant guides are better than national ones. One of my favorite series of plant identification books is a series published by Lone Pine Publishing. For Interior Alaska, I use ‘Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland’. For the west coast of the U.S. I use ‘Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast‘ by the same publisher. These books are wonderful not only for the descriptions and photos but also because they often tell you what is edible and what is not, and how the plants were used by Native Americans. My favorite starter mushroom book is ‘All the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms‘. I guarantee it will get you hooked on mushrooms.
- Classes – There are lots of classes you can take through a local college, university, and non-profits. These classes are great since they are usually taught by somebody local that is very knowledgeable of the area.
- Friends – Go foraging with a knowledgeable friend that has been foraging for a number of years. It is very helpful to learn from somebody else.
- Botany or Mushroom Clubs – I attended a Botany Club field trip one time for job training in Northern California. That group knew so much about plant identification it was amazing! I learned more in one afternoon than I would have if I spent months learning on my own. On top of learning my plants quickly in a new area, I also met some really wonderful people. I highly recommend joining a group if you have the opportunity.
- Botanical Gardens – Go visit a local botanical garden in your area. Look for local plants and see if you can differentiate between them. Or better yet go volunteer at a botanical garden and learn from some of the best.
- Website Resources – There are many resources, so read as much as you can. One of my personal favorites is a blog called ‘Grow Forage Cook Ferment’, a great medicinal website as well.
Those are my tips for getting starting in foraging. In summary, berries are where to start, be careful, learn locally, and have fun. Does anybody else have favorite resources for learning they’d like to share?
