The Outdoor Apothecary is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
Wild Plants that You Can Eat
Many people would believe that there isn’t much to forage in the Northeast during the winter months, but this isn’t true at all. While there aren’t as many options of wild plants that you can eat during this time, there are at least 9 plants that I’ve had good success in foraging during a long New England winter.
It’s true that even in the morthernmost parts of the Northeast, there are still some wild edible plants to collect. There are a few hardy greens such as wintercress and henbit that hang on even in the snow. It might be harder to find them, but with a bit of persistance, it’s possible to find these little treasures.
Sadly for me, I don’t have maple trees on my property (I live in an oak forest), but if you’re lucky enough to have maple trees, you could take advantage of our region’s most famous product – maple syrup – which can only be harvested in late winter.
Below I’m going to share some of the wild plants that you can eat that I’ve had sucess wildcrafting in Connecticut during the winter months.
I’ve broken them down by geography and environmental conditions of where those particular plants typically grow.
If you live in the Northeast, you should have good luck with these plants as well.
Open Meadows, Disturbed Soils, Sunny Areas & at the Edges of Sunny Areas
Chickweed
Stellaria media
Chickweed is one of those stalwart herbs that carry on through late fall and even into winter.
How to Identify
Chickweed is a sprawling perennial that grows from about 6 inches to as tall as 2 feet. It has hairy stems, oval leaves, and starlike white flowers.
How to Gather
Simply grab a fistful in your hand and with a pair of sharp scissors snip off the top 2-3 inches of the plant. Essentialy what you are doing is pruning the plant and encouraging it’s regrowth for future harvesting.
How to Eat
All of the aerial parts of chickweed are edible, including the flowers, and are best eaten raw. Chickweed is one of the wild plants that you can eat and enjoy best without cooking. I like to add it to a sandwich like you would do with sprouts or make a nice pesto with it by adding garlic, walnuts, olive oil, and salt and pepper and pureeing it in a blender.
Warnings
Chickweed resembles Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata) which is a poisonous plant. The easiest way to tell the difference is by breaking a stem. If it oozes a milky white sap, leave it be…it’s not chickweed. If taken in excessive doses, chickweed may cause diarrhea and vomiting. Do not take during pregnancy.
Chickweed Identification: Wild Edible Weed For Culinary and Medicinal Uses
Juniper
Juniperus species
Juniper trees and berries, like most conifers, are great for fall and winter foraging.
Gin gets its famous flavor from this little gem, but that’s not all you can do with Juniper. The “berries” have traditionally been used to season sauerkraut, but also lend an interesting flavor for sauces and to season wild game. I recommend experimenting with this uniquely flavored herb.
How to Identify
Juniper is an evergreen that can take the form of a shrub or a small tree. It has thin, reddish-brown fibrous bark that comes off in strips. You’ll notice that there are two different leaf types often found on the same plant. One has short, sharp needle-like leaves that are actually the young leaves of the tree. The other, more mature leaves are flatter, with scale-like leaves. The “berries”, which are the edible part of the tree are not actually berries at all but are cones that grow only on the female plants.
The berries are round and when ripe are blue-black in color. You’ll often see under-ripe berries on the same tree. These are green and should not be collected, but left to ripen on the tree.
How to Gather
When harvesting juniper berries, it’s best to wear long sleeves unless you’re okay with scratched-up arms…this is one prickly plant! Then, simply pick the ripe berries. I like to use a container rather than a bag to reduce damaging the berries, as they can be soft and crush easily.
How to Eat
As previously stated, the ripe “berries” are the parts to harvest.
Warnings
I really don’t know who would want to eat large quantities of this as it’s best as an accompaniment to other foods, but it’s worth pointing out that Juniper has been reported to be toxic in large amounts. In other words, treat Juniper as you would a seasoning and not the main course.
Rose hips
Rosa species
Rose hips, to put it simply, are what rose flowers eventually grow up to be. They’re not only tasty when prepared properly, but they also bring a needed dose of vitamin C to the table during the winter months. In fact, they contain a whopping 2000 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit.
How to Identify
Rose hips are red to orange in color, oblong, or round in shape, depending on what type of rose bush they’re growing on. The rose hips themselves often appear to have small wisps of “hair” protruding from the bottom. The ones pictured above are rosa rugosa or more commonly called beach roses.
How to Gather
Harvest rose hips by snipping off the stems with the hips attached. Keep in mind that we must share the bounty with the other creatures around us, so even though some rose species are invasive, we should endeavor to leave some for the birds to eat, especially in winter when food is scarce.
How to Eat
Rose hips are at their best and most flavorful after the first few winter touches of frost have descended upon us. I believe Rose hips are at their best when they are brightly colored but also slightly wrinkled and soft. These can be used to make a variety of yummy treats such as jam, wine, tea, and syrup. You never want to eat rose hips whole as found. Their insides contain a hairy, seedy core that must be removed. You can either scoop out this center before use or strain the contents after processing.
Warnings
The biggest warning of rose hips is to either remove the hairy core or force through a very fine mesh strainer before eating. You wouldn’t want the tiny hairs stuck in your throat, which we know wouldn’t be pleasant.
Staghorn Sumac
Rhus typhina
Staghorn Sumac is a deciduous shrub in the cashew family. It is a flowering North American plant that is primarily found in southeastern Canada, the northeastern and midwestern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains.
How to Identify
You will often see sumac shrubs in open sunny places, on the sides of highways, at the edges of meadows, and in other open areas. They are shrubs or trees that grow up to 25 feet tall that boast beautiful rust-colored berry clusters that grow in a cone shape.
The leaves of this shrub are pointy, alternate, compound, with toothed margins.
The stems are fuzzy like that of a stag’s antlers and are green when young and turn brown with age. There is no question why this plant got its name.
How to Gather
The berries, also called drupes, are ready to be harvested when they have turned rust-colored. This usually happens between midsummer to early fall. To tell if they are ripe, I give them a taste test right in the field. If the berries taste lemony and sour, then they are ready for harvesting. Just be sure not to harvest right after a rain shower, as this washes away the desired acids that give this plant its delicious tartness.
Sumac can be harvested throughout the whole winter, although the flavor probably won’t be as intense as when gathered in the summer. So, give them a taste, if they’re deliciously lemony and sour, go ahead and collect. If not, don’t bother.
To harvest sumac, simply break off a few cones (red fuzzy flower clusters) on a dry day and collect them in a pail or other sturdy container. You can also use shears but I have found them unnecessary since they break off easily at the base of the cone. Strip the cones of its tiny velvety seeds by rolling them off the stem with your thumb and forefinger.
Use shears to snip off young shoots and leaves, or to snip off a branch or two for its inner and outer bark.
How to Eat
You can eat both the young shoots and the berries of staghorn sumac.
Sumac berries are tart and tangy, like sour lemon, and make for a wonderful wild substitute for lemon in culinary recipes.
Warnings
A small percentage of people are emergency-room allergic to what we consider “safe sumacs”. Anyone who has experienced severe allergic reactions (requiring medical intervention) to poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, cashews, or mangoes should stay clear of the edible, red-druped sumacs as well since they all belong to the same family.
Learn more about Staghorn Sumac: Staghorn Sumac: How To Identify, Harvest, And Use This Wild Plant
Wintercress a.k.a. Yellow Rocket
Barbarea vulgaris
As its name suggests, this lovely green often keeps growing all winter season, especially in the milder weather regions of the Northeast. However, even in the coldest spots, this hardy plant is often the first to appear when the snow gives way. Wintercress is a member of the mustard family and is high in vitamin C and contains reasonable amounts of beta-carotene.
How to Identify
Wintercress is a very nutritious wild plant that you can eat and most closely resembles arugula leaves. All leaves of the first-year plant are usually pretty uniform in shape. They have end lobes that are larger than all the other lobes. The leaves grow alternately on branching stems with little or very few hairs.
How to Gather
The leaves are the part that you’ll want to harvest. You can do this by pinching off individual leaves, or by using small scissors to cut off individual leaves.
How to Eat
Wintercress will be eaten much the same way you would arugula. Personally, I like to cook them up in a quiche the way I would spinach.
Read more at Gardening Know How: Is Wintercress Edible: Wintercress Uses Straight From The Garden
Woodlands and Partially Shaded Areas
Pine Needles
Pinus Strobus
In winter, one of my favorite things to forage for is pine for pine needle tea. In the quiet corner of Connecticut where I live, Eastern White Pine is plentiful and makes for a delicious tea that’s packed with vitamin C and is also high in vitamin A. In fact, it contains 4-5 times the amount found in orange juice.
How to Identify
This type of pine is also a great choice because it is so easy to identify. You can see from the photo above that the needles on the twigs grow in clusters of five
How to Gather
Simply grab a fistful in your hand or snip off pine clusters with a pair of sharp scissors.
How to Eat
As you may have gathered, the most common way to use these conifer needles medicinally is to make a “pine needle tea” out of them.
Warnings
Although most pine trees can be used for pine needle tea, some are not safe for consumption. There are some that are poisonous or toxic, so it’s extremely important to know which pines are safe and to be able to positively identify the tree before collecting.
Those you want to avoid include Lodgepole Pine, Monterey Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Norfolk Pine (Australian Pine), Loblolly Pine, Common Juniper, and although not a pine, Yew. A good rule of thumb is to avoid flat needles.
As stated in my bio, I’m a collector of field guides. I highly recommend the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees.
Wintergreen Leaves & Berries a.k.a Teaberry
Gaultheria procumbens
Wintergreen was popular with our country’s Indigenous populations here in the Northeast, who used it for treating back pain, rheumatism, fever, headaches, sore throats, and other conditions.
Methyl salicylate, a mild form of aspirin, can be created by brewing and fermenting the leaves for a few days and is likely why wintergreen was used so extensively for the treatment of so many ailments.
How to Identify
You can first identify wintergreen by its smell. It’s highly aromatic and smells like fresh wintergreen gum…only better. It’s a very low-lying shrub growing only about 6″ tall with leathery oval-shaped leaves, small white or pale pink bell-shaped flowers, and brilliant red fruit.
How to Gather
For the harvesting of wintergreen, you’ll want to pick the leaves individually, only gathering one leaf from each stem. I will typically dry the leaves by placing them in a paper bag in a dark place for a week and use them later for tea. The wintergreen flavor is very refreshing.
How to Eat
Use the harvested leaves to brew into a delicious, aromatic “tea”. This is perfect for sipping near a winter’s fire. The berries make a nice nibble while on your foraging adventure and also serve as a breath freshener. The berries can be added to a smoothie at home. I often add this wild edible plant to other herbs and plants that I make herbal teas or tisanes from.
Warnings
People who are sensitive to aspirin should not take wintergreen internally. Oil of wintergreen should never be taken internally, nor applied to children’s skin under the age of 12 unless under professional supervision.
Field Garlic
Allium vineale
I can always count on foraging field garlic even during the coldest months of winter, which is fortunate since I believe it to be a culinary necessity. In my opinion, this is one of the tastiest wild plants that you can eat.
How to Identify
Field garlic is easy to overlook since, from a distance, it merely looks like a clump of grass. On closer inspection, however, you’ll notice that the leaves of this plant are tubular and hollow and not blade-like and flat like grass leaves. In fact, the look of the leaves is similar to that of wild chive and can be eaten as such, but the part you really want is underground. When dug up, there is no mistaking the garlicky smell of the little bulbs that can be used the same way you’d use commercial garlic.
How to Gather
Pinch or snip off the thinnest and tenderest leaves if you’re using like you would chives. If you desire the garlic bulbs, then look for clumps with leaves with the largest diameter as these will yield the biggest bulbs, albeit they will still be small.
How to Eat
Eat the same way that you would eat commercially grown garlic. The big difference is that it’s harder to clean the wild variety. Once you snip off the wiry roots at the bottom of the roots, you can soak the bulbs in water to remove any dirt and to remove the papery sheath that covers the bulbs. Alternately you can simply use a garlic press and bypass all the hassle of messing with the papery covering.
Wetlands, Riverbanks, Lakesides & Bogs
Cattail Rhizomes
Typha angustifolia
Cattails are not my favorite thing to winter harvest, mostly because they grow in wetlands and I’m not a fan of being cold and wet, but when I have harvested them and have been rewarded with tender young rhizomes, it was totally worth it.
How to Identify
Cattails are fairly easy to identify and in my opinion, cattails more resemble a large corndog than they do a cat’s tail. In the winter, the brown seed head that is visible far above any water it’s growing in will have lost its color and will be more of an off-white.
How to Gather
Cattail are wetland plants that grow rooted in the mud at the bottom of shallow water. In the winter, you’ll want to harvest the root, or rhizome where all the starch is being stored for their next growth cycle.
To harvest the immature lateral rhizome, you’ll have to reach down into the mud and feel your way along the rhizome to its end. If it does not curve upward, then it is ready to be harvested. When you find the first stringy root, bend it upward and snap it off.
For mature rhizomes, you can reach into the mud and lift them up and out. Then use a sharp knife to cut them away from the plant.
How to Eat
The younger lateral rhizomes can be eaten raw or sauteed with a bit of butter and are tender and delicious.
For the larger rhizomes, you can grill, bake or boil the root until it’s tender. Once cooked, eating a cattail root is similar to eating the leaves of an artichoke – strip the starch away from the fibers with your teeth. The older mature rhizome is fibrous and difficult to eat, however, when you separate the starch from the fibers, you can use this as a thickener for soups or make into a kind of flour.
To make flour: You can also use the roots to make flour, used as a thickening agent in cooking. Scrape and clean several cattail roots. Place roots on a lightly greased cookie sheet in a 200º F oven to dry overnight. Skin roots and remove fibers. Pound roots until fine. Let stand overnight to dry. Sift, and it’s ready to use. The young immature lateral rhizomes are tender, delicious, and can be eaten raw, or sauteed with a bit of butter
Watercress
Nasturtium officinale
Watercress has long been valued as a wild plant that you can eat as well as for its medicinal properties. This aquatic, perennial plant with a peppery flavor grows naturally along the edges of spring-fed streams. Watercress tops the list as the most nutrient-dense of all powerhouse fruits or vegetables according to researchers at William Paterson University in NJ. Watercress ranks number one with a score of 100. It is rich in vitamins C, A, B, and K. It contains more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach. It also contains magnesium, potassium, and phytonutrients.
So. don’t pass this one up if you’re lucky enough to find it.
How to Identify
Watercress is a low-growing plant that’s not usually over a foot tall and grows in very shallow moving water. The plant itself has 1 1/2 inch to 6-inch-long leaves that are deeply lobed, with the rounded lobes lined up in pairs along the midrib and a large single lobe at the end.
How to Gather
Simply snap off the leaf stalks by hand.
How to Eat
Watercress is lovely in salads or paired with strong cheeses. Watercress leaves are wonderful in sandwiches or sauteed and added to quiches, omelets, or soups.
Warning
Watercress is only as clean as the water where it’s growing. To eliminate the risk of ingesting bacteria, watercress should be boiled for ten minutes to be sure all bacteria have been eliminated.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Hi Barbi ,
I live in Connecticut do you know if there is a course or a class in our state that offers edible mushroom forging,
If you do can you send me any information,
Thank you
Jim Pagliaro
If you are on Facebook, there are a few foraging groups in CT that offer mushroom foraging meet-ups. Look up the FB group Foraging Southern New England