SPRINGTIME WILD EDIBLES

and ·
FeaturesFoodSurvival Cooking/Food Prep
·

TAKE THE MYSTERY OUT OF WILD EDIBLES BEFORE IT’S A MATTER OF SURVIVAL

Wild edibles are all around us, especially in the springtime. You could barely walk a few feet from your front door without tripping over some. Perhaps it can be overwhelming at first, but foraging is highly addictive—and fun. Here are some suggestions on a few wild edibles to help you to get started:

 

The finished meal with beavertail cactus, eggs, and spicy sausages. The author roasted the second piece of cactus on hot coals.

YUCCA

Growing up in the Southwest, it was hard to ignore the inviting bright whitish-yellow flowers at the tops of yucca plant stalks. What most people don’t realize is how tasty these little gems are. These wild edibles flowers themselves must be picked at precisely the right time for optimal flavor.

During a survival class, the instructor shows how easy yucca blooms are to identify at their optimum time of the year. Green stalk and very bright, vibrant flowers are sure signs of freshness. These are easy to see standing tall over the desert brush in the distance.

Taste is very subjective, but I feel the petals taste like a starchy potato, while the green inside tastes like a pistachio nut. These wild edibles can be harvested in late spring and early summer. Eating straight off the stalks, roasting, or sauteing them works equally well. Just about all of the yucca plant can be used as food (stems, leaf bases, flowers, emerging stalks). The fruit of most types of yucca are edible as well.

Yucca flowers, called yucca blooms, are an easy food source requiring no preparation when eaten off the plant. Mix them into trail mix or toss them into most foods you may be cooking.

Flower stalks need to be removed from the plant well before they bloom, or they become fibrous and tasteless. When newly emerged, they can be eaten raw while still tender and resembling large asparagus stalks.

CORDAGE TOO

Locating a yucca not only gets you a snack, but the tough leaves (as a fiber source) have also been used for weaving, mats, and cordage. Additionally, the leaves can be pounded into soap. Archeological sites have yielded traps, snares, and baskets made from yucca components.

“Just about all of the yucca plant can be used as food…”

Yucca is one of the most versatile and useful wild edibles found in the South. The yucca blossom is an annual food source that is both beautiful and a tasty treat to those who are more culinarily adventurous and can be a lifesaver if need be in survival situations.

BEAVERTAIL CACTUS (OPUNTIA BASILARIS)

Who in his right mind would think of putting something sharp and spiny in his mouth? That being said, the pads and fruits are an essential source of vitamins A and C. As menacing as the cactus looks and feels, there is a nice reward waiting beyond the spines.

Beavertail cactus in the Southwest is easily spotted by its palm to hand-sized pads known as nopales with bright reddish-purple fruit in the springtime called tunas.

The best time for harvesting the pads (nopales) is late spring to early summer. During this time, take only the young green pads about 5-7 inches long. Dig out the spines and rinse. Cut them into strips and boil for about 15-20 min and strain. At this point, they will be ready to eat or mix with eggs and sausage. Be prepared for lemony flavored green beans. The pads can also be roasted directly on hot coals.

The author cooking beavertail cactus pads called nopales. This type of cactus is very abundant in the southwest and requires minimal preparation. Removal of spines and boiling are the first step before slicing and frying.
A thicket of beavertail cactus, also known as prickly pear cactus, in early spring as the new pads (nopales) are growing from older ones. This type of cactus is found in the southwestern states, Mexico, parts of the Caribbean, Australia, Greece, and Spain.

It occurs mainly in the Mojave, Anza-Borrego, Colorado Deserts, Colorado Plateau, and Northwest Mexico.

FUNGI

More care needs to go into identifying fungi, so let this serve as a start, but remember to get three different sources of confirmation (experienced person, spore print, reference materials) before trying these.

CHICKEN OF THE WOODS

Bright as can be and hard to miss in the summer through autumn is laetiporus sulphureus. Sometimes they persist through the winter and can continue fruiting during the following year. The most distinguishing features of chicken of the woods are fan-shaped, irregular, smooth to finely wrinkled with suede-like textured pads.

A young chicken of the woods seen here is about 4 inches wide but will grow much more significantly in the coming days.

Fruitbodies are bracket-form, broadly attached with yellow, round pores. The cap measures from 2 to 12-inches across and up to 8-inches deep. They can get up to 1-inch thick. It is a bright yellow to bright orange when young (sometimes it can develop a reddish tinge), and it often fades when mature. The flesh is soft, thick, and very watery when young. It becomes tough, eventually crumbling away. This fungi does not have a stem.

This bunch of chicken of the woods was found on a dead oak log and weighed about 5 pounds for the smaller bunch at the top. These vibrant mushrooms can be seen far away in a forest, as they have a natural contrast.

Chicken of the woods grows on or at the base of dead or dying hardwood trees, most commonly on oak and cherry. It can also be found on dead stumps of conifer trees. Chicken of the woods has been known to fruit on living trees. These bracket fungi are found throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia.

The spore print is white, but it isn’t easy to obtain as the caps aren’t distinct. There are no gills underneath the brackets. The pores are light yellow and sometimes can be white.

MORELS

If you were to try buying them in a store, possibly the best-tasting mushrooms and definitely the most expensive are morels. Quite possibly the most elusive of all fungi, morels blend all too well.

There are yellow morels (morchella esculentoides)—the common morel—and black morels (morchella angusticeps). The cap color varies from pale cream to ochre to yellowish-brown, sometimes slightly darkening with age. The ribs along the ridges between pits are usually somewhat paler than the interior of the pits. Caps are tightly attached to the stem.

A young morel grows from under the forest litter. Morels often have a brain-like appearance and blend all too well into their environment.
A small knife is all that’s needed to slice through the stem cleanly. The hollow stem shows it is a true morel.

Cut lengthwise, it will be hollow from the bottom of the stem to the top of the cap. It has a rubber mold look to it. The cap is longer than the stem. Most caps are rounded with denser ridges, yet some may have a more pointed cap appearance.

Yellow Morels have a distinctive honeycomb-like upper portion with a network of ridges and pits, giving it a sponge-like appearance. The base is white or sandy-colored, sometimes marked with brown blotches near the bottom; the flesh is tough and hollow. Their height can vary due to growing conditions and at what stage of growth they are at when you find them. Typically they grow to about 5 inches.

The author had a lucky day while foraging for these elusive gems, 36 morels in a few hours.

Morels can be found all over the Northern Hemisphere, especially in North America. They grow in Asia, Europe and are seen as far south as Central America. Morels are most commonly found in forested areas around elm, poplar, and ash trees. Still, they can also be found in other regions, especially in sandy woodlands. They tend to grow under objects such as decomposing leaves because of the dampness.

A quick woods saute while out foraging. Morels can be added to a dish or eaten as a stand-alone meal.
A morel omelet with wild ramps and cheese. The author used garlic mustard for garnish but can be cooked and added to existing dishes or as a side dish.

Their spore print is creamy white or pale ochre. Black Morels generally appear two weeks before the yellow morels. In warmer climates, morels can appear as early as March and in colder climates grow until June.

IMPORTANT: There are false morels that are NOT wild edibles – those caps are wrinkled, not pitted, and the cap hangs freely over the stem. There are recorded deaths from people eating false morels.

BERRIES

On the subject of berries, blueberries (Vaccinium genes) and salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) are plentiful around the later days of July. Black Velvet Gooseberries (Ribes) are good but not as common.

The berry has a raspberry-like shape and is very common in northern forests. Salmonberries are usually orange to deep, bright red in color when ripe.

Salmonberries are often found on the sides of trails, roads, walkways, moist coastal forests, streamsides, bogs, and shorelines. They form large thickets in open areas and thrive in open spaces. The berry resembles a large, shiny yellow to orange-red blackberry, easy to identify by its flower with five pinkish-purple petals. Even when not completely ripe, they taste good.

The author found blueberries in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Easy to spot and always tasty, blueberries are used for jams and added to cereals or eaten straight off the plant.

Blueberries are low-growing shrubs that grow in the tundra, open woods, old burn areas, above timberline, and low-lying bogs. The Northern Forest berry picking season is anywhere from July to late September. Salmon and blueberries are safe and easy to identify, in my opinion. A few more berries to mention are black velvet gooseberries, cloudberries, bunchberries, currant, and wild raspberries. However, the fore-mentioned are just more plentiful and easier to identify.

SAFE FORAGING

Knowing every little edible out there is a lifelong study. Sticking to the more desirable, less risky things, with very few to no poisonous lookalikes, is not only safer but easier to find what you want. Happy hunting!

RECIPE: CHICKEN NUGGETS OF THE WOODS

Perhaps the most appealing way to cook chicken of the woods is to fry it and make nuggets. I remember roaming the night markets in Taiwan and seeing many stalls offering chicken nuggets with a special seasoning that had people drawn back to them like a zombie in a trance—wanting more. Their double-fry technique made them so good, which resulted in a crispier, less greasy nugget. Also, chicken thigh was used, as it is tastier and more forgiving. The seasoning was made from chili powder (not Mexican), salt, white pepper, cinnamon, and msg.

Chicken of the woods nuggets made after harvesting in the summer months. With the consistency and taste of chicken, it’s hard to convince people sometimes that it is not chicken.

Ingredients

  • Vegetable, canola, or corn oil
  • 1 pound chicken of the woods (cleaned)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup of Panko bread crumbs
  • Seasoning of your choice (Old Bay, Red Eyed Hog, Cajun, etc.)

Prep Steps

In a wok or cast-iron skillet, raise oil (low smoke point) to 350-degrees Fahrenheit (176.6 Celsius) using a thermometer or a bamboo chopstick to check for bubbles forming when put into oil.

  1. Cut or tear chicken of the woods into desired size pieces.
  2. Dunk chicken of the woods into egg evenly.
  3. Put chicken of the woods into Panko bread crumbs coating each side evenly.
  4. Place the first piece at a 12 o’clock position using a slotted utensil, chopsticks, or tongs.
  5. Place the next piece at a 1 or 2 o’clock postion to track which order they need to be turned over and repeat the clockwise order.
  6. When golden brown, remove nuggets and place them on a metal cooling rack or a plate with a napkin.
  7. Repeat the frying process for an even crispier texture.
  8. Season to taste and enjoy.

SOURCES

Peterson First Guides to Trees by George A. Petrides

50 Common Edible & Useful Plants of the Southwest by David Yetman

Editor’s Note:

A version of this article first appeared in the April 2022 issue of American Outdoor Guide Boundless.

© 2024 - American Outdoor Guide // Engaged Media LLC.