As foraging season is upon us, its a good idea for all adventurers to review basic foraging etiquette. Not only does it keep us safe, it also protects our environment and encourages Mother Earth to continue offering us beautiful gifts of food and medicine for years to come. Here are my basic rules to sustainable harvesting…
1. ALWAYS confirm your plant identification prior to harvesting. And just to be super duper safe, know what the dupes look like too. When in doubt, leave it out.
2. Only harvest what you need. It would be silly to waste precious specimens because you didn’t have a good plan for preserving and consumption.
3. Leave endangered and protected species to continue growing. Then go home and plant some near you. If you aren’t sure what plants may fall into this category, seek out your nearest nature center, natural resources expert, naturalist or herbalist, maybe even a park ranger in your area who may be able to help you out.
4. Avoid harvesting roots and bark of viable and healthy trees and shrubs unless they are growing in wild abundance. Instead, target a species that may have similar benefits and is abundant in your area. Coordinate with local tree removers and or landscaping businesses if possible to harvest what they may be removing.
5. Avoid harvesting roadside and heavily polluted areas. Kinda silly to harvest plants for natural purposes if its been exposed to fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, road treatment products and/or unidentified substances. You won’t want traces of that in your food and medicine. Also, please respect landowners and their property lines. Don’t harvest in protected areas and ask permission if you aren’t sure!
6. Consume slowly. We all react differently to new foods and you won’t know what the source of your problem is if you have eaten the whole buffet. Try new foods and mushrooms one species at a time.
7. Educate others! Knowledge is power and nature heals.
While essential oils, herbalism, foraging and wild food have made an epic return recently to health and wellness routines, I feel it is vitally important that we understand where our plant allies come from and how they grow for us. We need them and they need us to continue thriving in our world. Would you add anything else?
