I’ve heard ridiculous sayings, such as “some black berries are edible, and all red berries are edible,” and other useless comments. Color is not a solitary safe way of identifying what you can and cannot eat. If you follow the wrong advice, you’ll consume the wrong berry.
Yes, the plants are from the wild, but that doesn’t mean the dishes you prepare need to be crude, rough and harshly flavored. Just as with any other food you serve and eat, you want it to look good, smell good and taste good, right?
Tim Stetzer reviews two foraging blades from Les Stroud and Chef Paul Rogalski, who have teamed up on PBS’s Wild Harvest series to make amazing meals from ingredients foraged from around North America.
Purslane: Raw, Cooked or Pickled—It’s a Tasty Treat
“When you chew on a fresh purslane stem or a leaf, you’ll find it mildly sour and a bit crunchy. It’s really a great snack, and I like it a lot in salads,” Christopher Nyerges writes. Here's how to forage for it and prepare it.
One way to identify this plant is to crush the leaves, wait a few seconds and then smell them. They’ll have a distinct aroma of bitter almond extract—your clue that the leaf contains cyanide (hydrocyanic acid).
The Remarkable Cattail: Source for Food, Shelter, Other Necessities
The rhizome is a good starchy food. Pull out the long, horizontal roots from the mud, wash them and then peel off the soft outer layer. You could just chew on the inner part of the rhizome if you need the energy from the natural sugar, or you could process it a bit.
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