Add some flavor to your salads and get some good exercise at the same time by foraging wild plants as you walk along Southern California mountains and hillside trails. There are some rules to picking uncultivated plants, however. Here is a simple guide for beginning foragers:
Foraging Tips
- Stay away from well-traveled roads and paths. This lessens the chance that your morsels will be covered with car exhaust and other human waste.
- Take someone experienced in identifying wild edible plants with you.
- Take a plant identification book with you: One with photographs.
- Do not pick indigenous or native plants. They could be endangered species.
- There are plenty of non-native plants, now naturalized, that are good to eat, growing in our mountains and hillsides.
Naturalized Wild Plants Could Be More Useful
It is actually a good thing to pick the naturalized species, as you find them in the wild. If more experienced people did it, perhaps our indigenous species would have a better chance of reclaiming their habitats, and there would be no need for native plant enthusiasts to go around eradicating “invasive species.” These plants could be very useful.
Some Naturalized Wild Edibles For California
Below is a list of naturalized wild plants that you may find on your walks in Southern California:
- Mallows – cheeseweed
- Lamb’s quarters
- Plantain
- Prickly pear cactus
The first three pictured below are relatively easy to identify and prepare, but watch out for the last one:
- Mustard, wild radish, wild turnip - The three are closely related to broccoli, and although hotter in taste, the flower stalks, when thick and tender, can be eaten in salads or sautéed like broccoli raab. The seeds can be ground to make mustard, and the flowers add a spicey hot bite to slalds or other dishes. The whole plant is edible. Tender young leaves can be eaten cooked like collards (which are related) and some have edible roots that taste like radishes and turnips.
- Dock and Sorrel - Edible greens have a sour taste and can be eaten raw or cooked. They are high in oxalic acid, however, which can interfere with calcium absorption. Other wise, they are full of nutrients, and are healthy when eaten in small quantities.
- Dandelion - Tender leaves can be used in salads. They are bitter like endive. They can be stir fried, steamed or boiled. The roots can make a hot drink like coffee if roasted first, or eaten like carrots or salsify when cooked. The flowers are used to make dandelion wine. The leaves are a rich source of vitamin A, and also contain B,C, and D, and iron, potassium, sodium, and phosphorus.
- Fennel - Regarded as a weed in the United States, Fennel is cultivated as an herb or vegetable crop in many countries. All parts of the plant are edible, The seeds are used in breads and as a seasoning. The leaves are used raw in salads, or cooked as a green vegetable. The large root bulb of some varieties is eaten like celery. The taste is similar to licorice. It is very important, however, to correctly identify this plant because Poisonous Hemlock has a similar flower form, and it is deadly.
Yana Marshall - Yana Ungermann-Marshall is a writer, artist and Information Professional currently working at Altadena Public Library as a Reference ...
