COMON EDIBLE PLANTS

OF THE EASTERN
WODLANDS

WHETHER YOURE IN A real-life wilder-
ness survival situation or you just want
to try living of the land for a day or
two, youll have a huge advantage if
you can forage food from nature.
Tis quick guide gives you an
overview of a few of the most com-
mon edible plants in the Eastern
Woodlands of the United States. Its
adapted from Te Unofcial Hunger
Games Wilderness Survival Guide by
Creek Stewart.
Eating the wrong type of plant
can have painful or even deadly con-
sequences, so there are three impor-
tant rules you need to memorize be-
fore you attempt to forage wild plants.
CREEK STEWARTS THREE RULES
OF WILD EDIBLE PLANTS
Rule 1: If in doubt, leave it out. If
you are not 100 percent certain of a
plants identity, then dont eat it.
Rule 2: Focus on the 20 percent
of plants that you see 80 percent of
the time. Tere are hundreds of wild
edible plants out there, but youll save
energy and avoid identity problems
if you limit yourself to plants that are
readily available and dont have poi-
sonous look-alikes. You also want to
select plants that are easy to prepare
and ofer signifcant food value
Rule 3: Get a good feld guide.
Even with years of experience in gath-
ering and eating wild edibles, I almost
always reference one or two feld
guides when foraging. Te one I use
most ofen and highly recommend is
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants:
Eastern and Central North America by
Lee Allen Peterson. For further study
of the plants mentioned in this guide
as well as many others, I suggest pick-
ing up a copy of that feld guide.
DANDELION
Most people view dandelions as an-
noying weed, but it is an amazing
wild edible. It is easy to identify and
to my knowledge has no poisonous
look-alikes.
Edible Parts
Roots, leaves, stems, blooms
Where It Grows
Open grassy areas
Trives in a wasteland envi-
ronments like old construc-
tion sites and barren roadsides
Identifying Features
Leaves: Green, deeply toothed,
lance-shaped; grow in a basal rosette
very close to the ground
Blooms: Circular-shaped, bright
yellow
Other features: White milky sap
appears if you break the leaves or
fower stalk
How To Eat
Te leaves and blooms can be eaten
raw, like a salad. Dandelion roots can
be cooked like root vegetables (car-
rots or potatoes, for example). Te
leaves also can be cooked like spinach
as a pot herb. Cooking the leaves re-
moves the slightly bitter favor.
Dandelion
LAMBS-QUARTER
You probably have lambs-quarter
growing in your backyard and dont
even know it. Once you learn how
to identify it, youll see it all over the
place.
A slang name for this plant is
goosefoot because the leaves slightly
resemble the feet of geese.
It is an excellent wild green with a
very pleasant, mild favor, and is best
gathered when the plant is young.
Edible Part
Leaves
Where It Grows
Almost anywhere; thrives in waste-
land environments like old construc-
Lambs-quarter plant
tion sites, barren roadsides and the
edges of felds
Identifying Features
Leaves: diamond-shaped, sofly
toothed; white powdery underbellies
Stalks: Grow very tall in matu-
rity (up to 6 [2m]) and branch out
like crazy
How To Eat
Te young, tender leaves make ex-
cellent additions to fresh salads, or it
can be cooked alone as a potherb like
spinach. It also can be added to soups
and stews. I make a mean lambs-
quarter soup with cattail pollen, milk,
wild onions, salt and pepper.
PINE TREE
Ive eaten the inner pine bark be-
fore, but cant imagine eating much
of it. To me, it tasted like cardboard
that had been marinated in Pine-Sol
cleaning solution. But, in truly des-
perate food situations, it will fll you
up and keep you going. Harvesting
pine nuts from pinecones is a very
tedious task. It takes a lot of pine nuts
to make any kind of diference to an
aching belly.
Pine tree
Edible Parts
Inner bark, nuts (harvest from pine-
cone), needles
Where It Grows
Almost everywhere
Identifying Features
Leaves: Tin needles
Shape: Cone-like with branches
narrowing to a point at the top.
Other features: Nuts grow inside
the pinecones
How To Eat
Inner Bark: Access it by scraping
or peeling of the rough, gray outer
bark. Te edible inner bark layer is
Inner pine bark
Pine cone opening
just beneath. Peel the inner bark of
in strips, or scrape of handfuls. Eat
it raw or sun-dried to create a type of
dried chip.
Nuts: Place a mature but un-
opened pinecone near a fre. Te heat
from the fre causes the pinecone to
open up, and then you can pick out
the nuts.
Needles: Boil in water to create a
tea that is full of vitamin C.
STINGING NETTLE
Be careful as you harvest this plant.
Te tiny hairs along the stem pack
quite the itchy punch if you brush
them on your skin. Use gel from the
stem of the jewelweed plant, which
usually grows near the stinging nettle,
to neutralize the pain if you are stung
by the plant.
Cooking the plant neutralizes
the plants toxin, so dont worry about
getting an itchy tongue.
Edible Parts
Leaves of the young plant and new
leaves at the top of older plants
Where It Grows
Moist, wooded areas down by a creek
or in a shady area
Identifying Features
Leaves: toothed, like a saw; grow
opposite each other along the stalk;
resemble wild mint but without the
mint odor or favor
Stinging nettle plant
continued
Jewelweed (non-edible), a topical stinging nettle remedy
Tiny stinging hairs along stem
Stalk: covered in tiny stinging
hairs
How To Eat
Cook the young plants and new leaves
at the top of the older plants like you
would spinach. As they grow older,
pinch of the top 23 (58cm) of the
plant because the rest of the plant be-
comes quite bitter and fbrous.
CURLY DOCK
Young dock leaves have a sour, tangy
favor. Curly dock gets its name from
its leaves, which have curly, wrinkled
edges. Tey are very easy to spot
amongst the other grasses and weeds
in early spring.
Edible Part
Leaves, seeds
Where It Grows
Very sunny, open areas
Identifying Features
Leaves: Lance-shaped with wrin-
kled edges; grow quite long18
(46cm).
Bloom: Center fower stalk
topped with hundreds of small seeds
How To Eat
Leaves: Te leaves can be eaten
raw when they are young, but are best
boiled in one change of water afer
Curly dock
Handful of mature dock seeds
continued
Ive seen Jerusalem artichoke tu-
bers for sale in high-end organic food
stores under the name sunchoke. If
you want your own crop, buy some
tubers at the store and plant them just
like you would plant potatoes. Or,
you can just fnd some in the wild.
Edible Part
Tuber (part of the root)
Where It Grows
Open sunny felds, ofen along
the edge of a forest
Trives in a wasteland envi-
ronments like old construc-
tion sites and barren roadsides
they mature. It makes an excellent
spinach-like dish.
Seeds: Te seeds are also ed-
ible and can be ground into four or
boiled in water and eaten as gruel
similar to oatmeal or grits. If you boil
the seeds, add some berries or honey
if you have them to make the dish far
more enjoyable to eat.
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE
Tis plant has an odd name because
its not an artichoke, and I dont think
it comes from Jerusalem, either. It ac-
tually belongs to the sunfower family
and has a small sunfower-like bloom
in late summer.
Jerusalem artichoke plant
continued
Identifying Features
Leaves: pointed and lance-
shaped, alternate in position up the
stalk
Stalks: coarse and hairy, grow
very tall
Blooms: small, yellow and sun-
fower-like, appear in late summer
How To Eat
Gather the tubers in the winter afer
the frst frost. Te tubers will keep all
winter in the ground and you can dig
them up as needed.
Cook the tubers exactly like po-
tatoesbake in a fre or slice and fry
in a pan.
KATNISS PLANT
Tis aquatic plant is also known as
the arrowhead plant. It was a staple
wild edible food in the diet of Native
Americans.
Katniss tubers will foat when
they are dislodged from the mucky
mud in which they grow. Use the Na-
tive Americans method of harvest-
ing them: Stomp through the water
where the plants grow to loose the
tubers from the mud. Te tubers will
foat to the top of water where they
are easy to collect.
Edible Part
Tuber (part of the root)
Jerusalem artichoke tubers
continued
Katniss plant
Katniss tubers
Veins on backside of katniss plant leaf
Where it Grows
Marshy areas or at the edges of water
Identifying Features
Leaves: green, arrowhead-shaped;
backside has veins that branch out
like spider legs from a central point
How To Eat
Te tubers are best when harvest in
the fall. Prepare them exactly like you
would a potatobake in a fre or slice
and fry in a pan.
CATTAIL
Te cattail plant has edible parts all
year long.
Edible Parts
Inner stalk of new shoots that
are less than 24 (61cm) tall
Rhizomes (the young, under-
ground stems)
Green bloom head (dont eat if
its brown)
Pollen
Where It Grows
Marshy areas or at the edges of water
Identifying Features
Leaves: Flat and long (up to 5 to
10) and bow or bend as the grow
Bloom: Dark brown, cigar-like in
appearance, grow at the end of stalk
How To Eat
Green heads: Boil in water and eat
like a mini corn on the cob (but dont
expect a corn favor)
Inner stalks: Peel away the outer
leaf layers to reveal the white inner
core. Eat this raw or cooked like a stir
fry vegetable or add it to a stew.
Green (edible) cattail seed head (pollen forming section on top)
continued
Asparagus-like cattail rhizome
Inner stalks of cattail
You can pull the
inner stalks right out of
the plant in the ground.
Grab the inner-most
section of the plant
around 68 (1520cm)
from the bottom and
frmly pull up. Te center stalk will
pull right out. Ten, peel away the
outer sheath of leaves to reveal the
edible non-fbrous middle portion.
Rhizomes: In the spring, cattail
plants send out new horizontal rhi-
zomes that eventually turn up and be-
come new cattail plants. If you catch
them at the right time, you can just
snap of the creamy white pointed
rhizome shoot. Tey are delicious
when prepared like asparagus.
Pokeweed
POKEWEED
Pokeweed is a little tricky. Its fairly
easy to identify and only the young
shoots 12 (30cm) or less should be
harvested. Te mature leaves, stalks
and berries (purple when mature) are
all poisonous. Te root is also poison-
ous. Te stalk begins to turn a pur-
plish shade with age.
Edible Parts
Young shoots 12 (30cm) or less in
height; plant must be green
Non Edible Parts
Ignore any pokeweed that has any
shade of purple in it. It has matured
and is now poisonous.
Where It Grows
Semi-shaded areas along forest
edges in early spring
Small, edible pokeweed plants
ofen grow around larger ma-
ture plants.
Identifying Features
Leaves: Large, oval-shaped and vi-
brant green; stand out among other
vegetation
continued
Pokeweed berries (poisonous)
Stalks: Purple when mature; can
grow as tall as 8 (2m) (poisonous
when purple).
Berries (poisonous): Similar in
appearance to blueberries; start out
green, but turn deep purple when
mature.
How To Eat
Pokeweed is an excellent potherb.
I especially like it mixed in with
scrambled eggs. It can also be added
to soups and stews.
WILD ONION
Ive always considered wild onion an
ingredient rather than a stand-alone
food. Ill ofen add a bit of wild onion
to a salad or on a fre-roasted rabbit to
enhance the favor.
Edible Parts
Bulb, bulbils, leaves, fowers and stalk
Where It Grows
Open sunny spaces, especially
along treelines and fence-rows;
Trives in a wasteland envi-
ronments like old construc-
tion sites and barren roadsides
Identifying Features
Stalks: Green, spiky tops about
the size of pick-up sticks; grow in
very noticeable bunches
Blooms: White, purple or pink
Other features: Distinct oniony
smell that is very noticeable
How To Eat
Te green tops can be used just as you
would chives, and the underground
bulbs make perfect additions to stews
or chopped up and cooked with other
root vegetables.
Wild Onion
Wild mint
MINT
I rarely fnd wild mint, but when I
do there is a lot of it in one spot. You
can chew on the leaves to ease hunger
pangs.
Edible Part
Leaves
Where It Grows
Moist areas, especially rivers and
streams
Identifying Features
Leaves: Jagged-toothed with dis-
tinct veins; leaves grow opposite each
other up the stem
Stem: Square-shaped and hollow
Other features: Has a very strong
mint smell when leaves are crushed
How To Eat
Mint isnt really a standalone food. Its
best added to other dishes and is es-
pecially good with meats such as rab-
bit and quail.
Mint also makes an excellent tea.
Simply boil six to ten mint leaves in a
cup of water for a few minutes.