A walk on the wild side with Rhinebeck foraging expert Peter Dykeman

Heading into the countryside to forage for wild edible foods is a wonderful way to reconnect with nature and a culinary adventure. The art of harvesting wild plants is all about “knowing where they are and when they are ready,” said Dykeman. Some are native and others, like the garlic mustard, dandelion and Japanese knotweed, are invasive. (Japanese knotweed in particular is a harmful invasive, since it produces an inhibitor in the soil that keeps other plants from growing, so the more of this plant that people can harvest, the better.)

Many native plants were integral to the diet of Native Americans (although in the Northeast, most tribes were reliant on agriculture at the time of contact, according to Edible Wild Plants). But Dykeman noted that the early colonists also relied on wild plants, bringing over some of the invasives as food. “The foreigners, particularly the Italians, used a lot of edible wild plants and learned which native ones you could eat,” he said.

One must exercise care in the field, however, since some plants, native or invasive, are toxic. Dykeman and Elias emphasize at the beginning of their book the necessity of adhering to the rule “When in doubt, leave the plant out.” On the other hand, some plants that are toxic are edible in part. Dykeman said that he had gotten some flak from a few readers for including pokeweed in the Field Guide. But the white stalk of the young shoot, which as noted is edible, has a long culinary history, having been collected by the Colonial settlers for use in salads, he noted. The pokeweed stalk should be boiled in several changes of water until tender, then served with butter and seasoning, as you would asparagus or broccoli. Don’t harvest it if it has a purple coloration, and be sure to avoid the root! His book also describes how the shoots can be cultivated by digging up the root in the fall and replanting it in a pot on the windowsill.

The fruit of the May apple, a prolific plant in the woods and shaded roadsides, is lemony-colored, smaller than an egg and practically falls into your hand when ripe. However, the unripe fruit and other parts of the plant contain the poison podophyllin, so one must take care when collecting the fruit, Dykeman said.

He also warns against hunting for edible plants along a busy road, since the residue of rock salt, oil and gas can concentrate in the soil. Dirt roads are okay. “In June along a lightly traveled dirt road, you may want to cut poke or asparagus shoots, or pick common day lily buds,” notes the guidebook. “In fall, you might dig for Jerusalem artichokes or common day lily tubers.”

Areas disturbed by bulldozers or plows, pesticide-free lawns, old fields and forest edges are ideal for foraging. Earlier in the spring, “a field like this” would yield an embarrassment of dandelion riches, Dykeman said: The tender young sour-tasting leaves are delicious in a salad, and the flowers can be pressed into wine or dipped in batter and deep-fried. The delectable fiddleheads of ostrich ferns would likely be found along the forest edge. On our excursion, Dykeman located some cinnamon ferns, whose hairiness makes their fiddleheads less palatable, and noted that the ostrich fern can be identified by the groove in its stalk.

Dykeman also located a clump of broadleaf dock, whose young leaves taste like beet greens when sautéed in butter. The young leaves of chicory – the ubiquitous roadside plant with the blue flowers – are also good in salad, Dykeman said. Plantains – the thin, knotty grass stalks known as “white man’s footprint,” because they sprang up wherever the European settlers went – also have edible leaves, which are thin and oval, though they’re best as filler (and should not be harvested when the stem is stringy).

Other plentiful local wild edible plants are milkweed (after the flowers bloom, boil the small pods, which will become bright green) and day lilies. You can pick the day lily’s tubers from the roots (the plant can be flopped back into the soil) and boil them like potatoes; boil the buds in a couple of changes of water; and drop the flowers, which are gelatinous, into a soup or stew to thicken it. One caution: When eating a new food, go easy at first. Sometimes it takes a little getting used to by the digestive system, Dykeman said, noting that when one neophyte couple collected dozens of day lily buds and cooked them up in a big pot, the food “went right through them.”

Spicebush, a woodland bush with fragrant yellow flowers in early spring and leaves that when crushed smell lemony, produces small red berries that can be chopped up and used as a spice on meat. Jewelweed, whose orange or yellow flowers proliferate along roadsides and waste areas in summer, has edible leaves and stems when boiled. The juice of the stem also helps stop the itching of a poison ivy rash, said Dykeman.

The summer produces a wealth of fruits: Besides raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, consider wineberries, which grow on long, arching amber stalks with tiny salmon-colored bristles, and tiny black elderberries, which are less sweet but delicious when mixed in with other berries or made into jelly or juice (squish them, heat and strain out the juice). The trick is to harvest them before the birds get to them. Dykeman said that he particularly likes black cherries, which are very sweet and pea-sized; they are best harvested by spreading a tarp underneath the tree and shaking the branches.

Also in the fall, look for the red clustered fruits of staghorn or smooth sumac, which make a delicious tea: Pick off the clumps and place in a pitcher, pour boiling water over them and let steep, then add sugar or honey, for a drink that tastes like lemonade.

Another fall delicacy is black walnuts, provided you can pry them out of their tough green pods. When cracking them with a hammer, always hit the nut from above to keep it intact, Dykeman said. Black walnuts are much harder to crack than shagbark hickory nuts, which are also edible, but well worth the effort. Dykeman said that it’s even possible to harvest the acorns from white or chestnut oaks (but not red oaks). Pour boiling water over the acorns until the water runs clear, chop and mix with flour.

His guidebook, which is organized by season, lists the habitat, identifying features, harvest and preparation for each species, as well as any poisonous lookalikes, for more than 200 plants. It continues to be the must-have guide, and the only thing that Dykeman said that he would change is to print the few photos that are in black-and-white in color (it was a cost-saving measure back in the days of the old printing presses that he said was no longer relevant, but he has yet to persuade the publisher). The latest edition is in paperback and published by Sterling Publishers. So pick up a copy and start discovering the new world of flavor found in the weeds, shrubs and trees just beyond your doorstep.