Angie Marie Foraging plants is both fun and exciting, especially if you get the whole family involved. There’s a lot to learn when plant foraging like new knowledge about edible wild plants, identifying native plants to your region, utilizing wild flowers and edible plants for medicinal purposes and so much more. If you’re new to foraging, these plants are easy to find and forage in almost any region of the United States. Check out our foraging section for more fun herbs and plants to forage and use either on or off your homestead.
Spring Plant to Forage: Dandelion
Dandelions are a very common spring plant to forage and they are found all over the United States. These plants are very easy to identify, which makes them popular among foragers. Surprisingly, dandelions are completely edible. These plants are high in minerals like potassium and vitamins such as vitamin A, B, C and D. Most people prefer to remove the leaves from dandelions as they are bitter. Dandelions can be cooked, dry roasted, eaten raw or even turned into other fun foods like dandelion jelly or dandelion wine.
Spring Plant to Forage: Violets
Violets are often found wherever dandelions are because they pop out during the first signs of spring. You’ll find violets in shades of purple and blue. They can be used in soups, jellies, as decorations on cakes or cookies or eaten as is in salads. They are known to be high in Vitamin C. You can eat both the leaves and the blossoms either raw or cooked. Violets are also used medicinally because they have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory uses. Add violets to your list of spring plants to forage as they are very easy to find in many regions.
Spring Plant to Forage: Purple Deadnettle
Another easy spring plant to forage is deadnettle. Deadnettles are purple and green plants that have bright purple flowers on top. Although it is called a deadnettle, the plant actually isn’t a nettle at all. The purple deadnettle belongs to the mint family. The entire plant is edible and very high in nutrients. When you’re ready to harvest purple deadnettle, snip the stems 1/2 inch from the ground and shake off the dirt. This will allow the plant to reproduce because you are leaving the roots intact. These edible spring plants are perfect to add to smoothies, stir fry, casseroles and of course salads. They are full of vitamins A & C.
Spring Plant to Forage: Red & White Clover
Red and white clovers are a popular spring plant to forage each year. All the above ground parts of white and red clovers are edible. This includes the flowers, leaves, stems and seeds. They are delicious and often have a bit of sweetness to them. The leaves of young clovers are more tender and taste better when they are picked just before flowering. Clover flowers and leaves can be used in salads, added to tea, baked in goods like muffins and even turned into a flour. These spring plants are fun to forage with kids.
Spring Plant to Forage: Wild Onion & Wild Garlic
Not to be confused with ramps or leeks, wild onion grass is a bit different. You’ll notice it growing in patches, and it’s easy to spot as they taller than traditional grass. It’s easily identified by its smell. If you aren’t sure, break off a piece of the grass and see if it has a garlic or onion smell to it. The entire plant is edible, which includes the leaves and the bulb. You can use the greens just like you would chives. If you dig up the whole plant, you can clean the bulbs and use them in salads or throw them on the grill. This spring plant is one of our personal favorites to forage every year. Wild onions will have flatter leaves, while wild garlic will have hallow ones.
Once you’ve mastered foraging these easy spring plants, then you can start expanding to other fun plants like chickweed, miner’s lettuce, fiddlehead ferns, cattail shoots, henbit and garlic mustard. Of course, the list is even longer than this. Foraging flowers is both fun and addicting. I suggest that you invest in a few foraging books as well as an app like PictureThis that will allow you to easily identify plants so that you don’t accidentally consume one that can make you sick or even cause death. Do your research and use common sense and you’ll be just fine. What’s your favorite plant to forage?
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