By Nicholas Tippins

Wild edible plants are healthy, fun, and free. If you live in an area where plants are not treated with chemicals, there’s no reason not to get started today.

Don’t I need to be an expert at plant identification before I can forage and eat wild foods?

The short answer: no. Chances are you already know and can identify wild edible plants. Can you recognize a dandelion? If so, you’re already on your way to becoming an expert forager.

As I write this, I have only a working knowledge of about twenty wild edible plants. However, the great scale of what I can do with knowledge of only these few plants has amazed me. I will continue my journey with wild edibles, but I encourage you to discover for yourself that it doesn’t take much time at all to experience the joy and rewards of the forager’s harvest.

Here are the first steps to take to begin foraging and eating wild edible plants:

1. Find a book. Choose one that’s easy to use, has detailed drawings or photos of plants, and complete lists of identifying characteristics. The local library will probably have some that you can try out before buying one. I use the Peterson Field Guide.

2.Find out what you already know. Look through the index and make a list of the names that you recognize. You may be surprised how many plants you are familiar with are edible. By the time you get from A to Z, you may have quite a list of edible plants you already know!

3. Get out in nature. This is obviously the most important step. See if you can find some of the plants on your list. Also, allow curiosity and intuition to guide you. If you think a plant might be edible, look it up! The most important part of this step is to take it in the spirit of play. Doing this allows you to connect to yourself and the plants on a deeper level.

4. Connect with the plants. As you take what each plant offers, try to feel the life within it. Feel the spirit of the plant, and the feeling of what it is you are being offered. You may find yourself doing this naturally, or it might take some practice. As you sit with the plant, shift your attention from your thoughts to your body and the space around it. In a place of silence, open to the plant. Does a sensation, image, or intuition arise?

5. Harvest respectfully. When I asked herbalist Linda Conroy how much it was okay to harvest she said, “I try to make it look like I was never there.” Be respectful of the plant’s needs, and treat it (him, her) as a friend who is offering you a gift.

6. Cook with the plants. Gather a few, and add them to whatever meal you’re making, as a part or a side dish. You will probably be able to tell how each food should be prepared, and your guidebook may have information about that, too.

7. Keep practicing. Try to learn one new wild plant every day, or however often works for you.

One of the oldest tasks the human brain—or any brain—has had is the identification of wild foods. Long before we learned how to cultivate food ourselves, we were wandering the forest (or savannah), looking for roots to dig up, leaves to chomp on, and even flowers to devour. That is to say, even if you’ve never eaten a wild edible plant in your life, your brain is already an expert at learning how to find and identify them.

That said, don’t get discouraged if it takes you a while to learn the names and properties of each plant. It may take a while to reawaken the latent tendencies in your brain to look for food everywhere. The most important thing, of course, is to have fun doing it.

Trust yourself and the plants.

More than anything else, learning to forage for wild edible plants is a cultivation of relationship. It is a discovery of your relationship with the world. It is also a building of trust in your most personal relationship: the one with yourself.

What is essential in coming into these relationships is trust. Without trusting what the plants are telling you, you will relegate your practice to merely eating what you find, and miss the deeper experiences that come with gathering wild foods. Eating wild foods is important, but it is only a part of the web of relationship you create.

Without trusting yourself, you will not even be able to hear what the plants have to say. Nor will you experience the great oneness that you have with the natural world.

Trust your instinct-wisdom to know what multifaceted properties a plant has, for all beings have many layers. Trust your body to know which plants to look for, and what nourishment you need. Trust your intuition regarding where to look.

Trusting does not mean that you don’t use a book to get started. It is important that you learn to positively identify all plants as edible before eating them. But try to wean yourself off the book, using it for reference, to satiate curiosity, and to double-check. Don’t make it the home of your plant-wisdom. That home lies deep within you. It’s in your DNA.