Foraging for food in the wild is a fantastic way to bulk out your meals for free.
The elusive but tasty Morell
It’s also great exercise, great for connecting with nature and great for boosting your self-esteem as you start to discover the wealth of free food that’s just poking out of the ground, or dangling off a tree in your local area… if you only know what to look for!
Below is a short list of the kinds of foods that are ready to find and pick in March. As the weather gets warmer, there is a little more to be found for the eager forager.
Each item in the list is a link that will show you a description on Wikipedia, so that you may identify the food correctly before you pick and eat it.
If you haven’t tried foraging before, why not just go for a walk around your local park or woodland, see if you recognise any of the plants or fungi that appear on this blog.
Take a tub or bag with you, and make sure that you wash your foraged finds before you eat them.
Get Foraging in March!
| Birch Sap Bulrush Cleavers Dandelion Root Gorse Flowers Ground elder Hairy bittercress Hop Shoots Jack-by-the-hedge Morel Nettle Sweet Violet Velvet shank Wild Garlic |
Be safe when foraging, make sure that you are picking something edible and not something poisonous! It is a good idea to use a guide book or to research online before you go foraging. For example, try looking up each of the above on Wikipedia to find an accurate image and description.
I recommend the following books about foraging for free food – they help you to identify, harvest, prepare and preserve your findings:
My favourite is ‘Food for Free‘, because it is a pocket-sized guide that you can take out foraging.
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A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!
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