New Plants: Ground Cherry and Heal's All.
Improved photos and Information: Hackberry, Lizard's Tail, Pickerelweed, Queen Anne's Lace, and Wine Cup.
Previous Update: Woo hoo! I'm in the news!
Houston Chronicle article about foraging.
Introductions and Guidance
Greetings, friend. My name is Merriwether, welcome to my edible wild plants blog. By day I'm a research chemist but my weekends are spent exploring the surprisingly large tracts of wild land in and around Houston. Since the Fall of 2008, I've been teaching teaching an edible wild plant classes at the Houston Arboretum and other parks and nature preserves around Houston.
This blog contains the names and pictures of edible wild plants I've found in my explorations. Each plant has a post listing when and where to find it, which parts are edible, and how to prepare them. All the photographs of these plants were taken by me. These wild edibles can be found around Houston and other areas of Texas, though most of these plants can also be found nationwide and even worldwide.
There are three ways to find a plant on this blog. The first is by common name as listed in the sidebar to the left. Meanwhile on the right sidebar you can look for the plant based on the environment it grows, season, plant type, flower color, fruit or seedpod color, and use. Finally, the blog search box at the top of the page can be used to search for key words such as scientific names.
Beneath the left-hand full list of plants is a list of articles I've written on ways to use edible wild plants, gardening, and assorted information to help you live a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Foods edible raw have been marked with the Raw label to make them easier to focus on by raw foodists. Please read the plant details to identify which parts of the plant can safely be eaten raw and thoroughly wash any plants, especially if collected from ponds, streams, marshes, or swamps.
I'm a teacher at heart so if you have questions feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer them.. Also, please read and take to heart the Foraging Ethics. This is to insure that the joy of wild foods remains available to all.
Peace be with you.
-Merriwether
This blog contains the names and pictures of edible wild plants I've found in my explorations. Each plant has a post listing when and where to find it, which parts are edible, and how to prepare them. All the photographs of these plants were taken by me. These wild edibles can be found around Houston and other areas of Texas, though most of these plants can also be found nationwide and even worldwide.
There are three ways to find a plant on this blog. The first is by common name as listed in the sidebar to the left. Meanwhile on the right sidebar you can look for the plant based on the environment it grows, season, plant type, flower color, fruit or seedpod color, and use. Finally, the blog search box at the top of the page can be used to search for key words such as scientific names.
Beneath the left-hand full list of plants is a list of articles I've written on ways to use edible wild plants, gardening, and assorted information to help you live a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Foods edible raw have been marked with the Raw label to make them easier to focus on by raw foodists. Please read the plant details to identify which parts of the plant can safely be eaten raw and thoroughly wash any plants, especially if collected from ponds, streams, marshes, or swamps.
I'm a teacher at heart so if you have questions feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer them.. Also, please read and take to heart the Foraging Ethics. This is to insure that the joy of wild foods remains available to all.
Peace be with you.
-Merriwether
Foraging Ethics
1. Respect the law. You must have permission from the property owner to collect plant matter. To forage without permission is considered stealing and you can be arrested. Most state and federal land prohibit gathering plants except in survival situations.
2. Respect the land. Fill your holes, pack out your garbage (and garbage left by others), don't hack/slash/smash/burn your way through nature. Don't harvest a plant if there are just a few around.
3. Respect the plant. Don't strip all the leaves from one plant, just take 1 shoot or 2-3 leaves from many plants. Minimize damage to the plants. Cut leaves off the plant with a sharp knife or shears rather than tearing them off. Harvest inner bark using long, thin vertical strips on one side of the tree, do not cut a ring all around the tree which will kill it. Sterilize your cutting tools with alcohol or bleach to prevent transfer of diseases.
4. Respect yourself. Please positively identify any plant before eating it. Eating the wrong plant can lead to illness or in rare circumstances, even death. Also be aware of any environmental hazards in your foraging location such as snakes, bears, or chemical hazards from old oil fields, roadways, lead paint around old buildings or areas subject to flooding from sewers.
2. Respect the land. Fill your holes, pack out your garbage (and garbage left by others), don't hack/slash/smash/burn your way through nature. Don't harvest a plant if there are just a few around.
3. Respect the plant. Don't strip all the leaves from one plant, just take 1 shoot or 2-3 leaves from many plants. Minimize damage to the plants. Cut leaves off the plant with a sharp knife or shears rather than tearing them off. Harvest inner bark using long, thin vertical strips on one side of the tree, do not cut a ring all around the tree which will kill it. Sterilize your cutting tools with alcohol or bleach to prevent transfer of diseases.
4. Respect yourself. Please positively identify any plant before eating it. Eating the wrong plant can lead to illness or in rare circumstances, even death. Also be aware of any environmental hazards in your foraging location such as snakes, bears, or chemical hazards from old oil fields, roadways, lead paint around old buildings or areas subject to flooding from sewers.
The Forager's Shack
Check out The Forager's Shack for the books, videos, and gear I recommend for foragers, gardeners, and people wanting to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. I only suggest gear I actually use and has my seal of approval so you know your money won't be wasted on junk.
I earn 4%-6% of the value of your purchase from the Forager's Shack, which allows me to maintain and improve this website. Win-win for all of us, don't you think?
I earn 4%-6% of the value of your purchase from the Forager's Shack, which allows me to maintain and improve this website. Win-win for all of us, don't you think?
Collecting Tools
All one really needs to properly gather wild edible plants is sharp knife, a digging tool, and a container to hold your harvest. Personally, I prefer to use a garden shears instead of a knife when gathering leaves, shoots, tendrils, twigs, and other items that are cut off a plant. Note though that I always have a knife with me as part of the 10 Wilderness Essentials. For digging roots and tubers I use a Japanese Hori Hori Knife.
My harvest container depends on what I'm collecting. A net bags such as the type onions come in is very good for leaves/twigs/roots. Reusing a bag like this is also good for the environment. Berries and other delicate plant matter work best in shallow Tupperware-style containers. Don't use high-sided container for berries. You'll be tempted to fill the container to the top and the resulting weight will crush the berries at the bottom.
A bag with lots of pockets works great for carrying your tools, guidebooks, and harvest containers. I prefer a shoulder bag to a backpack because the shoulder bag has quicker access. You need to remove a backpack to take out/put in stuff. Shoulder bags do have an annoying tendency to swing forward into the way when you bend over, but I find clipping it to one of my rear belt loops with a cheap carabiner takes care of this problem.
Other optional gear:
1. Guidebook of edible plants (better safe than sorry)
2. Leather gloves (some plants have thorns)
3. Sunblock
4. Bug repellent
5. Long pants (better protection against bugs, sun, thorns, etc...)
6. Water (duh)
7. Small notebook
8. Ruler or small tape measure
9. Camera
Check out my store, The Forager's Shack, for these items and more to help you in your foraging!
Foraging for Calories
Let's talk about finding calories in the woods for a bit. Most vitamins and minerals are actually easy to come by from edible wild plants but calories are a lot more difficult. There's a basic rule of thumb that states that while at rest your body will consume calories equal to ten times your body weight. If you are working hard this can jump up to twenty times your weight (find your calorie requirements here).
I'm 6'5" and 200 pounds. To meet my energy needs to make it through a hard day backpacking I'll need 20 x 200 = 4,000 calories. Food-wise how much is this?
Snickers Bar...........136 calories per oz
Peanut butter..........168 calories per oz
Whole wheat flour......97 calories per oz
Baked potato (plain)...26 calories per oz
A regular Snickers Bar is 2oz, so I'd need to eat FOURTEEN of them to fuel myself. I kind of like the sound of that, though the resulting dentistry bills would suck. What if I eat something healthier like potatoes? A large, plain baked potato weighs about 10oz, so I'd need to eat FIFTEEN of them.
I don't want to carry fifteen potatoes per day when I'm out in the woods.
So, what about wild edibles?
Acorns................112 calories per oz
Pecans................197 calories per oz
Apple..................15 calories per oz
Cattail tuber..........19 calories per oz
Blackberries...........12 calories per oz
Nuts are definitely the main source of non-animal-based calories in the wild. I would need to eat 35oz (2.2 lbs) of acorn nut meat, which means collecting somewhat more than that weight of acorns as I need to shell, crush, then extract the tannin from them before eating. Pecans do much better, I'd only need to eat 20oz of shelled pecan nut meat.
But nuts are only available for a short time. What about berries or some sort of tuber? Unfortunately, these have approximately 1/5 the calories of nuts. One of most common sources of calories in the woods are greenbrier roots. They have slightly fewer calories than potatoes so I'm going to have to dig up around ten pounds of them which is time consuming and hard. Plus they don't taste very good. Cattail tubers are easier to dig but give even less calories than greenbrier. Berries give still fewer calories, I'd need to find twenty pounds of them to meet my energy needs.
Most of us have some built-in fat reserves to get us through short periods of famine. However it does not take long for irritability, confusion, and weakness to set in when the body is deprived of it necessary calories. For more information on the effects of starvation I recommend reading They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment
I'm 6'5" and 200 pounds. To meet my energy needs to make it through a hard day backpacking I'll need 20 x 200 = 4,000 calories. Food-wise how much is this?
Snickers Bar...........136 calories per oz
Peanut butter..........168 calories per oz
Whole wheat flour......97 calories per oz
Baked potato (plain)...26 calories per oz
A regular Snickers Bar is 2oz, so I'd need to eat FOURTEEN of them to fuel myself. I kind of like the sound of that, though the resulting dentistry bills would suck. What if I eat something healthier like potatoes? A large, plain baked potato weighs about 10oz, so I'd need to eat FIFTEEN of them.
I don't want to carry fifteen potatoes per day when I'm out in the woods.
So, what about wild edibles?
Acorns................112 calories per oz
Pecans................197 calories per oz
Apple..................15 calories per oz
Cattail tuber..........19 calories per oz
Blackberries...........12 calories per oz
Nuts are definitely the main source of non-animal-based calories in the wild. I would need to eat 35oz (2.2 lbs) of acorn nut meat, which means collecting somewhat more than that weight of acorns as I need to shell, crush, then extract the tannin from them before eating. Pecans do much better, I'd only need to eat 20oz of shelled pecan nut meat.
But nuts are only available for a short time. What about berries or some sort of tuber? Unfortunately, these have approximately 1/5 the calories of nuts. One of most common sources of calories in the woods are greenbrier roots. They have slightly fewer calories than potatoes so I'm going to have to dig up around ten pounds of them which is time consuming and hard. Plus they don't taste very good. Cattail tubers are easier to dig but give even less calories than greenbrier. Berries give still fewer calories, I'd need to find twenty pounds of them to meet my energy needs.
Most of us have some built-in fat reserves to get us through short periods of famine. However it does not take long for irritability, confusion, and weakness to set in when the body is deprived of it necessary calories. For more information on the effects of starvation I recommend reading They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment
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