Survival Skills: Stay Safe When Foraging For Food

Foraging for wild plant foods is a very rewarding pastime, and it serves as a great back-up to your food security plans. But don’t ever think that foraging for wild edible plants is a risk free endeavor. There are plenty of things that can go wrong. You may misidentify a plant. You may have an unusual reaction to a widely tolerated plant food. You may even get sick from eating the right plant, but it was a specimen that was contaminated somehow. Follow these foraging guidelines and you’ll have much better results than you would without them.

• Have 100% positive identification of the plant and plant parts.

• Learn about the poisonous plants and warnings about plants in your area and abroad.

• Know how to use the plants, what parts to use and when to use them.

• Learn your plants through the different growth stages and seasons to avoid mistakes.

• Wash greens, vegetables and fruit whenever possible to avoid the pathogens in the droppings of birds, insects and other animals.

• Don’t collect near roads, dumps, train tracks, industrial areas or other contaminated areas.

• Eat only small amounts of plants that are new to you, and just one at a time.

• Know which plants should be eaten in moderation.

• Cook all aquatic plants and plant parts to destroy water borne pathogens.

• Finally, if in doubt, DON’T eat it!

One final point to consider. Foraging is a skill that should be learned slowly and practiced often - in different seasons (that’s why we run hands-on foraging classes year round). Be careful and be safe!

By Tim MacWelch - first version published on bugout.com