Last week, my friend Andrea took TC and I on a hike through Redwood Regional Park to hunt for edible plants. Andrea is the most well-versed person on plants that I know — in fact, she has a great blog that you should check out if you’re interested in learning about plants as food, poison, medicine, or just something pretty to look at.
Anyway, we hit the jackpot almost immediately, and spent the first hour traversing only 1 mile or so. Luckily for us, there were so many things to look at and learn about. I took tons of pictures, which are featured in the slide show below.
We’ve already decided to return in July for berry picking. In addition to currants, thimbleberries, and wild strawberries, we also saw a lot of blackberry bushes. So exciting. Many thanks to Andrea for being a wonderful guide!
UPDATE (4/23/12): Andrea wrote up her thoughts about our foraging outing here. If you want to know more about the plants we found, I encourage you to check it out!
April 16, 2012 at 4:45 am
Fiddleheads are edible, but I’ve always found them somewhat “meh.” I think they’re an “acquired taste” in the manner of “this dish is exceedingly expensive, so I’ll be damned if I dislike it.”
April 16, 2012 at 8:31 am
I love edible wild plants and this post! Your photos are great. I remember seeing miner’s lettuce all over during my West coast hikes and wish I had known to snack on it!
I’ve also heard that the wild white carrot that grows here in PA (which apparently you did not observe) causes spontaneous abortion…which makes it maybe not edible for part of the population.
April 16, 2012 at 8:45 am
Glad you liked this post, Suzanne! Yeah, miner’s lettuce was very tasty. We did figure out the difference between wild carrot and hemlock — carrot has a smooth stalk whereas hemlock is furry. I didn’t know about the spontaneous abortions induced by white wild carrot, so thanks for the info. It seems to me that if anything is questionable, then it’s best not to eat it!
April 25, 2012 at 7:24 am
That was such a nice day. Josh is all excited about the future prospect of wild strawberries, so I think we’re committed to a return trip. My favorite caption is “banana slug…edible if you are really desperate, I guess.” LOL!
April 25, 2012 at 8:04 am
Ha, glad you liked the caption! I got a kick out of it myself.