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Category: Wild Edibles

Early April Leaves – A Non-Native Calling Card

Early April Leaves – A Non-Native Calling Card

I took a quick walk at Wareham Land Trust‘s Agawam River Trail after work today, enjoying the abundant late-day sunshine. Although signs of spring were seemingly everywhere, from the red-winged blackbirds calling in the nearby wetlands to the red maple flowers bursting in vibrant color, I did notice an interesting trend. At least five different plant species were pushing out new green leaves, but none of these were native.  Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) 2. Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) 3. Shrub…

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Blue Mussels: Hanging on by a Thread

Blue Mussels: Hanging on by a Thread

Most people are relatively familiar with blue mussels (Mytilus edulis), even if only from a menu at a seafood restaurant. This popular edible bivalve (a shellfish with a hinged pair of shells) is circumpolar in its range, and in the western Atlantic Ocean extends as far south as South Carolina. Unlike the ribbed mussel that is commonly found in salt marshes and brackish water areas, the blue mussel is more common along rocky saltwater shorelines.  These rocky areas in which…

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Winter Oyster Mushrooms

Winter Oyster Mushrooms

The fall is typically mushrooms’ time to shine. It is a time of year when my lawn is typically bursting with a variety of mushroom species, and I see a whole palette of colors on my forest walks (my favorites: the lovely purple Viscid Violet Cort and the bright orange edible Chicken of the Woods). But last summer’s drought made for an underwhelming fall mushroom season.  I figured I’d be out of luck with finding interesting new mushrooms until next…

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American Toad
Gratitude: 10 Nature-Related Things I’m Thankful For

Gratitude: 10 Nature-Related Things I’m Thankful For

2020 has been hard for everyone. From canceled activities to isolation from friends and family, to record setting hurricane and fire seasons across the country. Despite all of this year’s COVID-, environmental- and political-craziness, there are still many things I am thankful for. In addition to the Thanksgiving toad I came across on my rainy walk this morning (see cover photo above), below are just ten of the nature-related things I’m grateful for this year.  1. Abundant and beautiful local…

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Wild Edible Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto

Wild Edible Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto

This past weekend my boyfriend and I went for a walk to gather stinging nettle for dinner, and came across a large patch of young garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) as well. One of best parts about picking garlic mustard as a wild edible is that it’s also incredibly invasive, like Japanese knotweed and autumn olive. So you’re doing the ecosystem a favor when you harvest it. In fact, one of my wild edible books describes garlic mustard as “universally despised…

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Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) is an introduced wildflower from Europe, likely from early settlers that cultivated it for its medicinal value. It had been one of the most popular European remedies for a wide range of chest complaints. In fact, the root of the genus name Tussilago comes from the Lain word tussis, which means ”cough” – a reference to the supposed curative powers of coltsfoot. The flower buds, young flowers, and young leaves are also edible raw or cooked. Some caution…

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Wild Edible: Staghorn Sumac

Wild Edible: Staghorn Sumac

The name “sumac” often evokes thoughts of poison sumac and general itchiness. But poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is actually more closely related to poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) than staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) despite the shared common name.  Staghorn sumac can be differentiated from poison sumac through a variety of characteristics. Both can grow fairly tall (~20 feet) and have pointy, alternate, compound leaves, however, they have very different habitat needs. You’ve most certainly seen large stands of staghorn sumac with…

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Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta)

Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta)

The diminutive flowers produced by many tree and shrub species in the spring are often overlooked relative to the showiness of flowering plants like trailing arbutus, purple deadnettle, and pink lady slippers, but the delicate details are worth taking a moment to slow down and notice. The female flowers of beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), for instance, are little more than a cluster of fine red “hairs”, which are actually the flower’s pistils.  Beaked hazelnuts are native to most of North…

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Orache (Atriplex prostrata?)

Orache (Atriplex prostrata?)

Orache is a many-branched annual plant, common on coastal beaches, and along the upper edges of salt and brackish marshes. It can also be found in saline inland soils. Its weak stems produce a somewhat floppy, sprawling form. In my mind, however, this particular species of orache (Atriplex prostrata) is fairly confusing. It has numerous common names, including spearscale, hastate-leaved orache, triangle orache, spear-leaved orache, and many others, and it belongs to a fairly large genus, Atriplex, which contains between…

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Wild Edible: Chicken-of-the-woods

Wild Edible: Chicken-of-the-woods

One of the easiest mushrooms to identify in our forests is the chicken-of-the-woods mushroom, also known as sulphur shelf, or more simply: chicken mushroom. Although they have similar names, chicken-of-the-woods and hen-of-the-woods are two entirely different mushrooms (although both are edible). Hen-of-the-woods was so named because someone thought the ruffled brown cluster of caps (usually growing at the base of a tree) resembled the fanned out tail feathers of a portly hen. Chicken-of-the-woods, on the other hand, was given its…

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