I make a point to eat a dandelion every day. The whole plant is edible, from the sunny top to the deep taproot, and all the stem, stalk, and leaf in between. And there are ways to eat it that won’t contort your face with bitterness but rather turn your frown upside down, inside out,…

Living in a major American metropolis almost guarantees you’ll see some notable sights—police chases, rowdy gangs—you know, the usual. But in the past few years, I’ve seen a more unexpected sight: people foraging along the city parkway where I live. Admittedly, I’ve met such a sight with internally raised eyebrows, chalking the unusual nature of…

When Tama Matsuoka Wong looks out at her backyard meadow, where others may see an unruly mess of weeds gone wild, she sees a treasure trove. It contains over 225 native and non-native plants, which she observes, identifies, and forages daily. “I have to do foraging,” she said. “It gets me out, rejuvenates me. After…

When you work with wild food, says Alan Bergo, “you learn about a lot more than food.” For the Minnesota professional chef turned full-time forager, foraging expanded his horizons beyond what he even thought possible—and possibly saved his life. Take the results of a recent rabbit hole of research: isirgan salatasi, a traditional Turkish salad…

Wild foods found me in my mid-20s. I’ve always been a nature buff—a birdwatcher, hiker, and so on—but it wasn’t until I moved to Seattle and fell in with a crowd of outdoorsy folks who liked to eat well that I recognized the specific charms of foraging. I was hanging around with a bunch of…

​​“I added up a list of all the things I collect within walking distance of my house, and it was 346 species,” says renowned forager Sam Thayer. A count of plants (excluding spices) in all the products at his local grocery store? 124. For more than two decades, Thayer’s been touting the bounty of readily…

Q: Is it safe to eat ferns? A: Brilliant green, delicate fiddlehead ferns are a welcome sign that spring has arrived. Despite a shroud of confusion — even danger — and a very short season, these tasty greens are increasingly popular among chefs in fine restaurants, farmers markets, and home cooks. Rather than a variety…

If you’re someone who struggles with what to make for dinner every night, then using seasonal fruits and vegetables as your guide may change the way you think about cooking. If you really want to get in tune with nature, then foraging is a great way to take advantage of edible wild food that grows…

As the temperature warms and the days grow longer, the earth seems to awaken with new life. Spring arrives with all its promises of growth and new beginnings. It’s also a prime season for foraging, as wild greens emerge from the slumber of winter. While forests and other untamed places are optimal for seasonal foraging…

As summer’s sunny days yield to the darkened cold of autumn, forests pop with wild mushrooms. Autumn rains dampen the dense substrate of soil, spent fir needles, and fallen trees that provide the perfect environment for some of the most delicious treasures you can find. Mushrooms may look like singular bodies popping up from the…