Foragers, get ready – Your season is here. Whether your interest is food, natural medicine or the thrill of a good hunt, our state is home to many wild treasures. Here are five:
1. Ramps
They look like green onions when you pull them out of the soil, but the upper leaves are broader and flat, vaguely like a sprouting hosta (which by the way has edible shoots!). You can use ramps as an onion substitute, and you can even make a pesto out
of them.
Be Careful! Before foraging, it is important that you learn to identify all plants and fungi/mushrooms. There are many look-alikes, and the consequences of misidentifying or selecting a wrong mushroom or plant can be severe – some plants and fungi are poisonous, even deadly.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
2. Ostrich Fern Fiddleheads
Cut these shoots shortly after they’ve poked up from the ground, before they’ve uncoiled and become woody. Good in omelets or by themselves, they taste a bit like asparagus or green beans. Don’t pick all of them in a clump or you’ll lose a fern.
3. Wild Asparagus
It grows in sunny places with moist, sandy soil along the edges of fields. Cut it close to the ground when the tips are still tightly closed. This vegetable is best cooked simply – steamed, grilled, roasted or sautéed.
4. Stinging Nettles
Harvest this plant before it flowers, and be sure to use gloves (they are true to their name). Cook away the sting. Fresh young leaves work well in soups and curries, but they can also be dried to make a tea purported to help with arthritis and hay fever.
5. Pheasant Back Mushrooms (Dryad’s Saddle)
These grow on trees and if harvested when they are still about 4 inches across, they are tender and delicious in a stir-fry. They can also be dried and pulverized to make a soup stock powder or even pickled.
Quick Foraging Tips
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Inexperienced mushroom foragers should search for these foods alongside an experienced and trusted mycologist.
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Only eat something you have 100% positively identified.
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Don’t forage on private property without permission, or on public lands that don’t allow it (such as Milwaukee County Parks).
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Take only what you’ll use; leave some for the next person and roots for next season.
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Don’t harvest from areas targeted with pesticides or herbicides. Roadsides or parking lot cracks aren’t great, either.
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Know land rules and don’t take rare or endangered plants. Many, not all, state parks allow collection of fruits, nuts and mushrooms but forbid taking seeds, stems and whole plants, including ramps.
Where to Go
The funny thing about foraging is you can find things in green spaces anywhere. While Milwaukee County Parks forbid foraging, state parks and forests and the undeveloped and wild state natural areas allow foraging in small amounts for personal use. But you are not allowed to dig up any plants, such as fiddleheads or ramps. For those, consider Waukesha’s Minooka Park. For wild asparagus, give Havenwoods State Forest a try. Pheasant backs grow on dying trees, especially elms or box elder, while morels like the ground around hardwoods. Hunt for both while on a hike in the Kettle Moraine State Forest.
