Foraging for Wild Edibles: Adult Beverages

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In recognition of World Cocktail Day, I want to invite you to join me in sipping and savoring your favorite cocktail later today! Moreover, I want to encourage you to experiment over this next year and then plan to celebrate next World Cocktail Day by serving your own foraged, homemade cocktail to your adult family members and friends.  How?  Read on!

What follows is a calendar for when to forage for certain wild edibles along with information and recipes about how to use them to make some delicious and truly unique cocktails as well as other adult beverages.

Always be certain that the species you collect is edible and that what you collect is indeed the species you were seeking.

Foraging Calendar for the Ingredients of Adult Beverages:

(click on each table for easier reading)

Recipes for Your Culinary Consideration Featuring Your Foraged Wild Edibles:

Fruit –

American Black Currant (ripened fruit; mid-July)

Autumn-olive (ripened fruit; early October)

Black Walnut (formed, but pre-ripened fruit; late July through August)

Blueberry (all species listed below) (ripened fruit; mid-July)

Common Blackberry (ripened fruit; early August)

Common Elderberry (ripened fruit; mid-August)

Eastern Red Cedar (ripened fruit; late October)

  • Winter Infused Gin = berries from Eastern Red Cedar and a sprig of any pine, spruce or fir (including Eastern Hemlock) listed below – never use Yew (Taxus baccata), which is deadly poisonous!

Hawthorn (ripened fruit; late September)

Hazelnut (both species listed below) (ripened nuts; late August)

Nannyberry (ripened fruit; early September)

  • Black Haw Wine (substitute Nannyberry fruit for Black Haw fruit) = Nannyberry fruit

Red Raspberry (ripened fruit; early July)

Roses (all species listed below) (ripened fruit (hips); mid-October)

Flowers –

Common Blue Violet (petals only – i.e., remove green parts of flowerhead) (May)

Common Dandelion (petals only – i.e., remove green parts of flowerhead) (April-May)

Common Elderberry (individual flowers removed from flower heads; mid-June)

Honeysuckles (please, only harvest from the invasive species listed below) (blossoms; mid-May)

Pineapple Weed (flowers and leaves; early June)

Yarrow (destemmed flower clusters; mid-June)

  • Wildflower Mead = dandelion flower petals, destemmed flower clusters of Yarrow

Yellow Wood Sorrel (flowers and leaves; early June)

Leaves –

Common Dandelion (April)

Conifers (pine, spruce or fir from the species listed below) (newest needles in May)

  • Conifer Infused Vodka = conifer needles, such as pine, spruce or fir (including Eastern Hemlock) – never use Yew, which is deadly poisonous!
    • Winter Infused Gin = berries from Eastern Red Cedar and a sprig of any pine, spruce or fir (including Eastern Hemlock) – never use Yew (Taxus baccata), which is deadly poisonous!

Mint (young leaves anytime between June-September)

Pineapple Weed (flowers and leaves; early June)

Sheep Sorrel (AKA Field Sorrel; young leaves; May-June)

Yellow Wood Sorrel (flowers and leaves; early June)

Stems –

Cattails (shoots; mid-May)

Japanese Knotweed (young shoots; late May)

Purslane (stems; June)

Roots –

Burdock (both species listed below) (roots; fall after first frost)

Common Dandelion (roots; fall after first frost)

Flower buds –

Orange Daylily (flower buds; late June)

Final Thought:

And, for the truly inspired mixologists, home brewers, and foragers out there, consider these intriguing and involved endeavors:

Need-to-Know Information regarding the Targeted Plants:

Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) = ripened fruit; good source of vitamins A, C, and E, contain high levels of flavonoids and essential fatty acids, a rich source of lycopene, and it has strong antioxidant activity

Autumn-olive ripened fruit
  • Where found:  Open areas: successional fields, pastures, hedge rows, utility rights-of-way, thickets
  • Tall shrub (generally 10-20 feet) that branches frequently; it is usually a little taller than wide
  • Young branches are silvery green to brown and covered with small scales
  • Alternate leaves are up to 3″ long and 1¼” across, and are elliptical, oblong or ovate with smooth margins, blunt tips, and wedge-shaped to rounded bottoms
  • Lower surface of leaf is whitish green to white and densely covered with small silvery scales
  • Drupe-like fleshy fruits are silvery bright red (when fully ripened), about 1/3″ long, and ovoid in shape – View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Autumnberries for info about foraging for ripened fruit

Common Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) = ripened fruit

ripe Common Blackberry fruit
  • Where found: Dry fields and clearings
  • Canes are green where there is new growth at the tips, otherwise they are brown or reddish brown and have visible ridges and stout thorns
  • Alternate leaves are usually trifoliate or palmately compound with long petioles
  • Berries are ready for picking when they are dark black in color and look quite plump – View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Blackberries for info about foraging for ripened fruit.

Blue Ridge Blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum), Early Low Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), and Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) = ripened fruit; Fully ripened when dark blue or blue-black in color; excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese and other trace minerals, iron, and a number of antioxidants (antioxidants are highly concentrated in the deep-blue pigments of wild blueberries)

ripe Highbush Blueberry fruit

Blue Ridge Blueberry:

  • Where found:  Hardwood forests and edges of forests
  • Erect shrub with alternate branching that generally grows up to 20” tall
  • Twigs typically green or greenish brown

Early Low Blueberry:

  • Where found:  Dry fields and clearings
  • Low spreading shrub with alternate branching that generally grows up to 12” tall
  • Twigs are green or with reddish tinge
  • In best habitat, may become practically the only species covering large areas

Highbush Blueberry: View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Highbush Blueberry for info about foraging.

  • Where found:  Swamps, pastures and woods
  • Multi-stemmed with upright-spreading alternate branching, 6′ to 12′ tall with equal width
  • Bark of trunk and larger branches is somewhat shredded and gray to gray-brown

Common Burdock (Arctium minus) and Great Burdock (Arctium lappa) = roots

Photo Credit: https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/what-is-burdock-root

Common Burdock:

  • Where found: Waste places, disturbed ground, fields, and roadsides
  • Grows up to 6 feet tall with multiple branches
  • Lower leaves are heart-shaped with very wavy margins; all leaves dark green above and woolly below
  • Deep taproot, up to 12 inches deep

Great Burdock:

  • Where found:  Waste places, disturbed ground, fields, and roadsides
  • Grows up to 10 feet tall with multiple branches
  • Large, wavy-edged leaves that are hairy underneath
  • Extremely deep taproot, up to 3 feet deep

Common Cattail (Typha latifolia) and Narrow-leaved Cattail (Typha angustifolia) = young shoots; Best collected when two to four feet tall – cut them off at or just below the water level and peel back the two main outer leaves, then grab the other inner leaves and pull gently to remove the tender pure white center section (usually first 4-10”)

CAUTION:  Do not collect shoots of Iris (Iris pseudacorus or Iris versicolor) and Sweetflag (Acorus calamus) – both are poisonous!  NOTE:  Individual leaves of Iris are flat as they fan out from a central point and individual leaves of a single Sweetflag plant emerge from different points off its rootstock, whereas Cattail leaves emerge from a single cylindrical sheath.

Photo Credit: https://www.wideopenspaces.com/cattails-ultimate-survival-plant-pics/

View Foraging for Wild Edibles: The Many Culinary Uses of Cattails for info about foraging.

Common Cattail:

  • Where Found: Always in or near water, usually shallow
  • Little or no gap between the male flower (top) and fe
    • Leaves usually broader than Narrow-leaved Cattail

Narrow-leaved Cattail:

  • Where Found:  Always in or near water, usually deeper
    • Distinct gap of a few inches between the male flower (top) and female flower (bottom)
  • Leaves usually narrower than Common Cattail

Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) = ripe fruit

Photo Credit: (c) 2003, Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/eastern-red-cedar#lboxg-6
  • Where Found: Rocky summits, bluffs above ravines and lakes, ledges, successional fields, and pastures; grows best in open sites with thin, rocky or sandy dry soils
  • Evergreen coniferous tree typically 30-80′ tall at maturity, forming a short trunk and a crown that is ovoid, oblongoid, or conical in shape; trunk usually undivided at the base, although it may form 2 or more major branches above that are ascending and abundantly branched in various directions
  • Trunk bark is usually reddish brown, thin, and fibrous, tearing off in linear strips
  • Two kinds of hairless leaves that become dark green at maturity: awl-shaped are 1/8–1/2″ long and linear in shape and scale-shaped are typically the dominant type of leaf that are 1/16–1/8″ long and lanceolate-ovate in shape
  • Individual waxy-fleshy seed cones are about ¼” across, globoid, and berry-like in appearance; they are sweet-tasting and resinous, each typically containing 1-2 bony seeds about 1/8″ long

American Black Currant (Ribes americanum) = ripened fruit

American Black Currant ripening fruit
  • Where Found:  Rich woods, moist thickets and stream banks
  • Erect shrub with few alternate branches that grows 3’ – 5′ tall with a stem that lack thorns or prickles
  • Leaves palmately lobed (3 or 5 lobes) with coarsely toothed margins
  • Base of older stems is reddish brown or reddish black with white lenticels, while other stems are medium gray and winged with light brown woody ridges
  • Peak flavor about seven days after they have turned blue-black in color – View Foraging for Wild Edibles:  American Black Currants for info about foraging for ripened fruit.

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) = flower petals, leaves, roots

Common Dandelion bloom
  • Where Found:  Lawns, roadsides, hayfields, disturbed soils, and waste places especially in urban settings
  • Rosette of basal leaves produces several smooth, hollow, leafless flower stems typically 2-15” tall
  • Leaf margins typically shallowly lobed to deeply lobed and often with sharp teeth
  • Exudes white milky sap when leaves, stem or flower buds are picked
Common Dandelion roots
Photo Credit: https://www.wildwalks-southwest.co.uk/dandelion-root-caramel-brittle/

Orange Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) = flower buds

Orange Daylily flowers
  • Where Found:  Edges of streams, floodplain forests, alluvial thickets, and old home sites
  • Basal leaves are linear with parallel venation, tapering gradually to a sword-like point; they have a tendency to bend down and outward around the middle, and are somewhat floppy in appearance
  • One or more stout leafless flowering stalks emerge from center of leaves and are usually much taller than the leaves; each stalk has 10-20 flowers with individual flowers opening successively and each lasting only one day

Common Elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis) = individual flowers removed from flowerhead

Common Elderberry
  • Where Found: Marshes, thickets, and stream banks
  • Deciduous shrub about 4-12′ tall that is usually multistemmed and arching, creating a relatively loose broad crown
  • On larger and older woody stems, the bark is light grayish brown and warty in appearance from scattered short lenticels (air pores)
  • Pairs of opposite compound leaves are about 6-12″ long and a little less across comprised of 5-9 leaflets (2-4 pairs of opposite leaflets and one terminal leaflet) whose upper surface is medium to dark green and smooth, while the lower leaflet surface is light green and smooth or either slightly hairy along the major veins or short-haired throughout
  • Upper stems terminate in umbel-like panicles of flowers that span 3-10″ across with each individual white flower up to ¼” across

Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) = ripened fruit

Hawthorn fruit
  • Where Found:  Open woods and hillsides
  • Shrubs or small trees, most of which grow 15 to 50 feet tall, with alternate branches often with thorns typically ~1-2” long and whose most common type of bark is smooth grey in young individuals, developing shallow longitudinal fissures with narrow ridges in older trees
  • Leaves grow spirally arranged on long shoots, and in clusters on spur shoots on the branches or twigs; most species have lobed or serrated margins and are somewhat variable in shape
  • Fruit is smooth and round (up to 1” diameter) resembling an apple with the color ranging from yellow to red (most common) to dark purple; texture and flavor of fruit also highly variable

American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) and Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) = nuts; Fully ripened when shell (not outside husk) is brown in color; each hazelnut kernel is 50-75% oil and a rich source of mono- and polyunsaturated fats that contain a good amount of omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids, such as oleic acid – View Foraging for Wild Edibles:  Hazelnuts for info about foraging for these nuts.

Hazelnut harvest (American on left, Beaked on right)

American Hazelnut:

  • Where Found:  Woods borders and thickets
  • Deciduous, rounded, multi-stemmed, thicket-forming shrub that typically grows 6-16′ tall
  • Tips of twigs are hairy and leaves have double-toothed margins
    • Nut enclosed in a pair of hairy leaf-like bracts (involucres) with ragged edges

Beaked Hazelnut:

  • Where Found:  Woods borders and thickets
  • Deciduous, rounded, multi-stemmed, thicket-forming shrub that typically grows 6-16′ tall
  • Tips of twigs are hairless or few hairs and leaves have double-toothed margins
    • Nut enclosed in a pair of hairy bracts (involucres) that join together to form a long narrow beak

Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) = newest needles

Photo Credit: https://leafyplace.com/hemlock-trees/
  • Where Found: Cool forests with moderate soil moisture often occurring with hardwoods and Eastern White Pine
  • Coniferous tree usually with single trunk up to 5′ across and up to 120′ tall with conical crown and lateral branches having a tendency to arrange themselves in horizontal layers
  • Trunk bark is gray or gray-brown consisting of broad flat plates and shallow longitudinal furrows
  • Needle-like evergreen flattened leaves are ½-¾” long with blunt tips and arranged primarily in opposite pairs along lateral sides of twigs

Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), Bell’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera × bella), Japanese Honeysuckle, (Lonicera japonica), Morrow’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii), and Tatarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) = blossoms

Amur Honeysuckle – harvest the white flowers before they become cream-colored

Amur Honeysuckle:

  • Where Found: Roadsides, deciduous forests, and thickets
  • Shrub up to 20′ tall, 15′ across, and abundantly branched with gray bark that has flat scaly ridges and narrow grooves
  • Opposite lanceolate-ovate to ovate leaves are 2–3½” long and 1–1½” across with smooth margins; upper surfaces are medium green and hairless, while their lower surfaces are pale green and hairless to slightly pubescent
  • Pairs of nearly stemless flowers develop from the axils of the leaves, each of which is about ¾–1″ long and consisting of a tubular corolla with 5 widely spreading lobes
Bell’s Honeysuckle – harvest the pink blooms, not the yellow ones

Bell’s Honeysuckle:

  • Where Found: Typically disturbed areas that may include woodlands, woodland openings and borders, powerline rights-of-way through wooded areas, banks of streams and rivers, thickets, roadsides, areas along railroads, and abandoned or fallow fields
  • Multistemmed shrub that becomes 3-12′ tall and often as wide as it is tall, being well-rounded overall, whose abundant branches are somewhat arching to spreading
  • Older coarse rough bark is brownish gray, often peels into narrow strips
  • Opposite lanceolate-ovate, lanceolate-oblong, or elliptic leaves are 1–2½” long with smooth margins and whose upper surface is medium green and hairless, while lower leaf surface is whitish green and short-haired, especially along the larger veins
  • Pairs of flowers about ¾–1″ across develop from the axils of leaves on short stems, each consisting of a light pink corolla with spreading lobes
Photo Credit: Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Harvest the white blooms, not the yellow ones

Japanese Honeysuckle:

  • Where Found: Railroad banks, roadsides, forest edges, thickets, forests, and disturbed soils
  • Perennial vine that becomes woody with age and up to 60′ in length, often with a tendency to sprawl across the ground in disorderly heaps
  • Young stems are green and pubescent, becoming purplish brown and more smooth with age
  • Opposite oval or ovate leaves are up to 3″ long and 2″ across with smooth margins
  • Flowers about 1–1½” long develop from axils of the leaves, either individually or usually in pairs with short stems and consisting of a corolla with well-defined upper and lower lips
Morrow’s Honeysuckle – harvest the white blooms, not the yellow ones

Morrow’s Honeysuckle:

  • Where Found: Bottomland forests and thickets, deciduous forests, successional fields and shrublands, roadsides, and disturbed areas – a very common and highly invasive shrub forming dense thickets in forest understories
  • Shrub is about 6-10′ tall and much branched whose greyish brown bark that develops shallow longitudinal fissures
  • Opposite oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate leaves about 2-3″ long and ¾–1″ across with blunt tips, rounded bottoms, and smooth margins; upper surfaces are initially dull greyish green, becoming medium green later while lower surfaces are greenish white from a dense short-pubescence
  • Pairs of fragrant flowers develop from the axils of the leaves with white corollas that span about ¾–1″ long and across, divided into 5 widely spreading slender lobes from a narrow tubular base
Tatarian Honeysuckle – harvest the young, opened blooms, not those that have withered

Tatarian Honeysuckle:

  • Where Found: Thickets, roadsides, and edges of fields
  • Multibranched shrub is 5-12′ tall with long arching branches (often hollow and fragile) that divide occasionally into smaller leafy branches, creating an irregular rounded crown
  • Bark is gray to grayish brown with narrow longitudinal ridges that becomes shaggy from shredded strips of bark
  • Opposite leaves occur along the branches that are oval-ovate in shape and 1½-2½” long and ¾-1½” across with smooth margins; upper hairless surface is dull medium green, while the lower hairless surface is pale green
  • Pairs of rosy pink flowers develop from the upper axils of the leaves with each flower being about ¾” long and ¾” across and consisting of a corolla with 5 lobes that are long and narrow

Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) = young shoots (without leaves) up to 6” tall; Excellent source of vitamins A and C, iodine, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, and resveratrol (same substance as that found in the skin of red grapes and which is part of a group of compounds called polyphenols that are thought to help reduce inflammation, lower LDL or “bad” cholesterol)

Japanese Knotweed young shoots
  • Where Found:  Waste places and roadsides
  • Hollow stems with distinct raised nodes that make it resemble bamboo
  • Shoots may be harvested up to 12” tall, but must remove fibrous outer shell before cooking or eating – View How to Harvest and Eat Japanese Knotweed (beginning @ 0:34) for info about foraging.

American Wild Mint (Mentha canadensis) = young leaves

Wild Mint
  • Where Found: Marshes, wet thickets, and stream banks, often in somewhat weedy thickets
  • Perennial herbaceous plant that grows to a height of about 18 inches (460 mm) with a hairy stem bearing opposite pairs of lanceolate or ovate leaves with wedge-shaped bases, toothed margin, and a hairy surface
  • Flowers are borne in spiral spikes at the tips of the shoots with each bluish, pink or white flower having four petals

Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) = ripe fruit

Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago)
  • Where Found:  Swamps, marshes, roadside ditches, and wet successional fields
  • Multi-stemmed shrub generally 9-18’ tall with ascending branches that have a tendency to arch
  • Pairs of opposite leaves serrated along their margins; leaf bases rounded to broadly wedge-shaped, while leaf tips taper abruptly, becoming long and slender
  • Mature drupes ovoid in shape, dark blue-violet color, and each containing single flattened ovoid seed; fleshy interior somewhat juicy and sweet, tasting like a date – View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Nannyberry for info about foraging.

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) and Norway Pine (AKA Red Pine) (Pinus resinosa) and Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) = needles

Photo Credit: https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/treedetail.cfm?itemID=903

Eastern White Pine:

  • Where Found:  Wide variety of wet to dry habitats including forests, successional fields and shrublands, lake edges, and hummocks or rises in swamps and bogs
  • Coniferous tree typically 80-120′ at maturity with unbranched central trunk up to 4′ in diameter and whorls of lateral branches that are more or less horizontal forming a conical crown that becomes more flat-topped and irregular with age
  • Trunk bark is dark gray and rough, fissured into irregular square plates
  • Two types of needles that are arranged in clusters of five: new growth on the tips of twigs have green needles up to 1″ long and green to blue-green needles 3-5″ long on mature twigs
Photo Credit: https://www.confederationcollege.ca/trees/red-pine

Norway Pine:

  • Where Found:  Deep sandy soils or in pine barrens, often in plantations
  • Coniferous tree up to 100 feet high with straight trunk of 30 to 40 inches in diameter and an open rounded crown on older trees after the lower branches fall away (young trees have pyramidal shape) and whose upper branches usually ascending while lower branches may be descending
  • Trunk bark divided into cross-checked reddish-brown plates with resinous pitch frequently encountered on the bark
  • Needles found at outer tips of branches (interior section of branches often devoid of needles) in clusters of two about 4 to 6 inches long
Photo Credit: https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/images/Pinus%20rigida/twig1.jpg

Pitch Pine:

  • Where Found:  Common in pine barrens on deep sandy soils and also on dry rocky soils or thin soils over bedrock on hilltops, bluffs, crests, and steep south and west facing slopes
  • Coniferous tree of an irregular shape typically 20-100′ at maturity whose trunk usually straight with a slight curve and covered in large, thick, irregular plates of bark and whose branches are usually twisted
  • Needles are clusters of three about 2-1⁄4 to 5 inches in length, stout, and often slightly twisted

Pineapple Weed (Matricaria discoidea) = flowers and leaves

Pineapple Weed
  • Where Found: Barnyards and corrals, pastures, cultivated ground, successional fields, disturbed areas, waste places, and roadsides
  • Annual herbaceous plant about 3-12″ tall, branching frequently and having the appearance of a miniature bush
  • Fern-like leaves up to 2″ long and ¾” across alternate along the hairless stems
  • Flowerheads form from the axils of the upper leaves, each about 1/3″ across and shaped like a dome and consists of numerous greenish yellow disk florets and no ray florets
  • Foliage and flowerheads have pineapple-like odor when they are bruised or crushed

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) = stems

Purslane stems
  • Where Found: Highly disturbed areas especially in urban settings
  • Plant forms a spreading mat up to 6″ tall and 2′ across, branching frequently at the base
  • Smooth, reddish, mostly prostrate stems with leaves clustered at stem joints and ends of stems – View Urban Foraging Wild Super Food Purslane for tips about harvesting.

Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) = ripened fruit

Credit: Photo by Leo Michels. Usage: Public Domain
  • Where found:  Logged forests, forest openings, tip-up mounds at bases of fallen trees, roadsides, disturbed sites, and rocky openings
  • Shrub grows to height of 5–8 feet, bearing large pinnately compound leaves with five or seven leaflets
  • Berries are ready for picking when they are deep red in color, look quite plump and easily pull away from a pithy central core

Pature Rose (Rosa carolina) and Rugosa Rose (Rosa rugosa) and Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris) = fruit (hips) – View Foraging Rose Hips & Wild Rose: Identification, Harvesting, & Uses for info about harvesting rose hips.

Pasture Rose hips
Photo Credit: https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/pasture_rosex.htm

Pasture Rose:

  • Where Found:  Generally dry soils at edges of forests, woodlands, edges of paths and dirt roads through forests, successional fields, and forests openings
  • Shrub grows about ½-3′ tall, branching occasionally; usually erect, but taller plants sometimes sprawl
  • Prickles on the woody stems are slender and straight, and pairs of prickles often occur on opposite sides of the stems
  • Alternate compound leaves usually consist of 5-7 leaflets (oddly pinnate) with each ovate leaflet about 2″ long and 1″ across with strongly serrated margins and two prominent stipules at the base of each compound leaf that terminate in a single pointed tip; underside of each leaflet is smooth or only sparsely hairy
  • Bright red fruits often slightly flattened when compared to other wild roses, although not always
Rugosa Rose hips
Photo Credit: W.carter, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rugosa Rose:

  • Where Found:  Maritime dunes and thickets, successional fields, and disturbed soils
  • Shrub grows about 2-6′ tall
  • Branches covered with straight prickles of varying lengths
  • Alternate compound leaves are widely spreading, thick-textured, and consist of 5-9 leaflets (oddly pinnate) with each oblong-ovate leaflet about 1-2½” long and about one-half as much across with rounded teeth along their margins; upper surfaces of the leaflets are dark green, hairless, shiny, and conspicuously wrinkled along their veins, while their lower surfaces are more whitish green from dense hairs
  • Bright orange-red or red subgloboid fruits about ¾-1¼” across that have persistent sepals
Swamp Rose hips
Photo Credit: R. W. Smith, https://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=32275

Swamp Rose:

  • Where Found:  Swamps, edges of streams and lakes, and marshes
  • Shrub grows about 3-8′ tall with branching woody stems that may be erect, ascending, or arching, and they are often crooked
  • Prickles are about ¼” long, curved, and rather enlarged at the base and are widely spaced, occurring individually or in pairs, with paired prickles occuring either on opposite sides of the stems, or they form a 90º angle from each other
  • Alternate compound leaves consist of 5-9 leaflets (usually 7; oddly pinnate) with each broadly elliptic or ovate leaflets about 1¼-2½” long and ½-1″ across and with serrated margins; upper surfaces of the leaflets are medium to dark green and smooth, while the lower surface is pale green and either smooth or short-haired
  • Red globoid fruits about 1/3″ across whose surface is glandular-hairy, although it may become smooth with age

Sheep Sorrel (AKA Field Sorrel) (Rumex acetosella ssp. pyrenaicus) = leaves

Photo Credit: https://www.ediblewildfood.com/sheep-sorrel.aspx
  • Where Found: Cultivated ground, disturbed sites, waste places, lawns and successional fields with thin or sandy soils, bedrock outcrops in forests openings, and rocky summits; often forms vegetative colonies
  • Herbaceous perennial plant consists of a rosette of basal leaves, from which occasional flowering stalks are produced
  • Basal leaves typically span 4-6″ across, while the flowering stalks are about ¾–1½’ tall and more or less erect; each arrow-shaped hairless basal leaf is about 3″ long and 1″ across with smooth margins and a stem that is about as long as the leaf blade

Norway Spruce (Picea abies) and Red Spruce (Picea rubens) = needles, young twig tips – View How to eat a spruce tree: picking and using spruce tips (beginning @ 1:20) for tips on harvesting spruce twig tips.

Norway Spruce tips
Photo Credit: https://www.fourseasonforaging.com/blog/2018/6/9/spruce-tip-infusions

Norway Spruce:

  • Where Found:  Naturalized in woods, but far more common in cultivation, where it used as a landscape tree, a windbreak tree, and a plantation tree
  • Coniferous tree 50-120′ tall, forming an unbranched straight bole and a crown that is conical to oblongoid in outline
  • Lateral branches slightly incurved and ascending along which several drooping branchlets divide into divergently branched twigs
Photo Credit: https://wildadirondacks.org/trees-of-the-adirondacks-red-spruce-picea-rubens.html

Red Spruce:

  • Where Found:  Mixed coniferous forests with eastern white pine, balsam fir, or black spruce
  • Coniferous tree 60-130′ tall with a narrowly conical crown
  • Branches horizontally spreading; twigs not pendent (like Norway Spruce), but rather stout

Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) = petals only – remove all green parts

  • Where Found:  Valley bottoms and lower slopes of hardwood forests, forest edges, lawns, disturbed soils, roadsides, thickets, and waste places
  • Short-stemmed herbaceous perennial plant that grows 6″ across and 4″ high
  • Glossy, heart-shaped leaves
  • Purple flowers with white throats; lower three petals are hairy and the stem of the flower droops slightly

Eastern Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) = unripened nuts

Black Walnut unripened nuts in late July
  • Where Found:  Floodplain forests, low hardwood forests, and successional forests
  • Grows to height of 100–130 feet tall, but in open areas it has a short trunk and broad crown
  • Leaves are pinnately compound and alternately arranged on branches
  • Bark typically grey-black and deeply furrowed into thin ridges that gives it a diamond shaped pattern
  • Fruit is spherical – harvest when semi-fleshy husk is firm and bright green

Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta) = flowers and leaves

Yellow Wood Sorrel
  • Where Found: Cultivated ground, fields, pastures, disturbed soils in forests, stream banks, gravel and sand bars in streams, roadsides, and disturbed soils; becomes a weedy species of disturbed soils in open habitats
  • Herbaceous perennial plant typically 3-8″ tall that often branches abundantly, particularly toward its base
  • Alternate trifoliate leaves occur along the stems; in the absence of sunlight, the leaflets will droop downward and fold along their central veins – this process reverses itself when sunlight reappears
  • Individual leaflets are ¼-½” long and similarly across; both surfaces are pale green with the upper surface smooth or nearly so, while the lower surface is covered with short flattened hairs
  • Small umbels of 2-6 yellow flowers are produced from the axils of leaves, each about ¼” or a little more across

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) = destemmed flower clusters

Common Yarrow
  • Where Found: Fields, waste places, disturbed areas, and rocky open areas
  • Perennial unbranched herbaceous plant about 1-2′ tall whose central stem is pale green and more or less covered with white cobwebby hairs and topped with a flattened cluster of flowers
  • Alternate fern-like leaves are up to 6″ long and 1″ across, becoming slightly smaller as they ascend the stems and are either upward-angled or curled, crinkled, or flat
  • Each individual flower about ¼” across, consisting of 5 white ray florets and a similar number of disk florets that are cream or pale yellow

Happy foraging and cheers!

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