10 Things I WISH I KNEW When Starting To Forage Wild Edibles & Medicinal Plants

hey guys this is josh here with trillion wild edibles and today i want to bring you a video on the ten different things that I wish I knew whenever I was just learning how to forage I've been foraging for over 10 years now and whenever I first started all those years ago there's a lot of things that I wish I knew so I wouldn't count down with you the ten most important things that I wish I knew when I was just learning how to forage plants for food and for medicine so without further ado let's get right into it number ten how many planets are actually available there are so many plants available in any given local area that it can be kind of mind-boggling at times whenever I first started I had no idea that there are over 150 plants that commonly grow in just my area that are also usable for food and/or medicine I often limited myself by just one or two plants thinking that any plant I found would be the one or the magical one but like love in the real world that is often not the case there is not any one plant that will take care of everything you were wanting from the subject most likely the reason for that is because there are so many plants that are edible and medicinal and many that are just edible or just medicinal if I limited myself to just one or two plants then I'm discounting the large number of plants that are available to me where I live by discounting some of those plans I would have never found out about some of my favorite wild edibles or medicinal plants like nettles for example they are a good example because I could only find wood metal in the areas I usually frequent and not very much stinging nettle that was just because of what was available to me personally if I had discounted wood nettle then I would have never realized that it is one of my favorite plants to eat and I don't like stinging nettle as much because with foraging and wild edibles you hear a lot about stinging nettle but you don't hear or see much on wood metal it turns out in my opinion wood nettle tastes a lot better that could have been extremely tragic because wood nettle is not only very delicious but it's also extremely healthy for you the plants in your garden that you have to be are oftentimes usable for food or medicine or even both and there are probably many different species of them some of which are better than others the same thing goes for plants deep in the wild or deep in the woods other times a plant can provide other resources like firestarter or tender for fire making or even wood for shelter construction so always remember what's available to you and how you can use it in multiple ways number 9 not to believe everything I read or saw this one bothers me a lot because if you have limited resources on the subject there is more likely of a chance that you are going to be missing some important piece or important pieces of information if I believed everything I read or saw I would not be foraging at all because a lot of the sources just repeat the same information and there's also a big stigma when it comes to eating plants from the wild this stigma from my opinion usually comes from those who are less knowledgeable on the subject and or very cautious individuals who just don't trust that plants from the wild can be as useful as they truly are I've been guilty of making mistakes like this as well and we are all capable of making mistakes because let's face it none of us is perfect and neither is any plant from the wild these mistakes can lead us to believing something that may not actually be true or can even lead us to poison ourselves by ingesting the wrong plant or by preparing a plant in the wrong way this information applies to everything including me and my videos I try my best to give accurate information but one thing to remember is that not everyone is right all the time no matter their experience or years of knowledge or degrees on any given subject so definitely take what you see in here with a grain of salt and put some effort into research on the plant that you want to use for food or medicine because the possibility exists that you don't have all of the pertinent information number 8 how to make tincture when it comes to medicinal plants tinctures are extremely invaluable in my opinion I say that because they take way less plant material then T's due which means less effort finding and harvesting and drying those plants that you need to make into a medicine however it's also worth noting that not every use with medicinal plants will require a tincture tinker's make up the majority of my medicine chests but I also try to keep a good supply of dried plants available so that way I can make teas or balms and Sam's because those are just as useful as any other way of preparing a plant for medicine it's all really in the matter of how you plan to use them and what you are using them for that makes the biggest difference making a teacher is in my opinion the easiest way to use plants and it also is the easiest for my personal needs because it's the most effective for me however that may not be the case for you and your personal needs or once whenever I first started foraging I was so focused on making teas and balms because they're so popular and we hear so much about them but once I put into consideration what I was needing from and Desna plants I realized that tinctures fit my personal needs most of the time a whole lot better plus seeing as they usually take only one or two plants just to make several years of medicine whereas teas can easily take five times more than that of plant material especially if you are using that tea all year long two to three times a day it's pretty easy to see why teachers are better for conservation of plants than teas are or can be so just keep in mind that tincture may not be the best way for you but can still be invaluable for you to add to your medicine chest number seven winter months can be just as good as the spring months for some plants and mushrooms when I first started out I oftentimes waited for the spring and summer when I was seeing all of the plants growing I did not realize that a lot of plans are plenty good in the winter time and several are best to be used in that time especially roots for medicine which are usable in the fall to winter months in the winter time you can have temperatures fluctuate between below freezing to above 60 degrees depending on where you live this temperature fluctuation can cause a lot of plants that are usually considered springtime plants to also grow in the winter months also there are plants like your wild onions and garlic's that are best gathered in the winter months because they're so prevalent in their growth at that time other plants like chick weed will require colder temperatures then your dandelions would and therefore can also be found in the middle of winter this point connects a lot with the next point that plants grow because of weather and not month so keep that in mind speaking of which number six plants grow by the weather and not by month and the last point we talked about how winter months can be just as good as spring months indoor gardening proves the fact that wild plants and plants in general grow by weather and not by month because it's possible to grow any plant indoors in a greenhouse just by simulating the climate and soil that that plant prefers the same is true with wild plants because oftentimes in the winter temperatures can fluctuate wildly causing plants to grow or flower that may not be able to if the temps were just a few degrees colder or warmer I have seen plants flowering in winter months that shouldn't be growing but they do because of the temperature and amount of moisture in the soil so just because it's October through February doesn't mean that you can't find anything to forage this is actually a great time to get some really high-quality salad greens especially in the case of things like garlic mustard or chick weed because they can tolerate a very large temperature variation another good example is Easter mushrooms as there are some varieties that grow best in winter and then some varieties of oyster mushrooms that grow better in summer or spring on the other side of that same coin how many times has it been in the middle of summer and you see a lot of plants and you think to yourself man all kinds of things are growing this is a great time to get out there and forage then you go out find a plant do the research only to find out that you are in the wrong season for using that plant or the plant you're after is not growing very well because it's too hot or too cold or too humid or too dry how many times have you seen buds on trees around you in the middle of winter just because it has been over 50 degrees in your area I'm assuming probably a lot this means that every time you have a good weather pattern it's a good idea to go out and take a look around just to see what's available because you might find the climate is perfect for the plant that you're after or more realistically you will learn a plant that is available to you that you never would have thought about before as being available number five mistakes are part of growing in knowledge like everything in life mistakes are a part of learning and foraging is no different here I have made many mistakes and will continue to make mistakes and so will you that is perfectly OK in a subject where many people consider mistakes to be taboo and they should never happen I very much disagree with that mistakes will happen however if you take your time you most likely will not make any deadly mistakes that is what is so taboo in this subject because it is true that one wrong mistake and you're probably going to die or poison yourself very badly but in reality isn't that true with everything if you make a mistake doing one thing like firearms if you make a mistake with a firearm there's a good chance you can easily kill yourself or someone else driving is another good example if done safely you still might make silly little mistakes but not ones that affected your life or endangered your life or someone else's however that doesn't mean making a mistake isn't possible the same thing goes with foraging I have at times in the past avoided a plant because I confused it with another plant that was actually poisonous however the plant that I truly had wasn't poisonous and was perfectly safe for me to use I made a mistake granted it was a safe one but it was still a mistake so you're definitely going to make mistakes while learning this subject because honestly if you aren't making mistakes then you're probably not learning very much hopefully the mistakes that we all make are just silly ones that keep us a bit safer than actually killing us number four just because I gathered from the wild does it mean that it's actually clean or safe to consume oftentimes we want to think that just because I gathered a specific plant from a field or deep in the woods or somewhere that I feel is the wild that it's clean when in fact it may be toxic from pollution of any kind this pollution can come from things like logging mining oil drilling agricultural contaminants or even manufacturing contaminants these things can add toxic chemicals like lead cadmium mercury arsenic and even more to the plant that we are wanting to consume it may not be immediately enough to cause any problems but over time it can very much affect us in negative ways also there are environmental contaminants like human or animal feces or even human or animal urine granted those can be washed off they are still a possibility insects can also contaminate or ruin the plants or mushrooms that were harvesting from the wild plants will oftentimes have spider mites and their living habits do not really produce healthy results for using a plant for food or medicine with mushrooms for example there are bugs that can contaminate the harvest because they live inside the mushroom and their fecal matter is in that mushroom as well as depending on when you got there the mushroom might have already been all the way eaten by bugs rendering most of it unusable for human consumption with acorns for example there are acorn weevils that can destroy the acorns and granite some years are worse than others with acorn weevils but still it is something to keep in mind so just because you got it from the wild doesn't mean that it's clean or safe for you to use number three allergy still exists seeing as how most wild plants have not been subject to very much testing it is very possible for any person to be allergic to a certain plant so just because it came from the wild doesn't mean it's safe for you to eat because you could be very allergic to that plant granted I have so far lucked out and I'm not allergic to very many plants but poison ivy is a good example here because it is a commonly known allergen obviously most people think of consuming or eating poison ivy thankfully however it is a good example another really good example is ragweed ragweed as a known plant allergen and is very common in the Midwestern United States this plant can cause hay fever and rinin itis and those that are terribly allergic to it and its pollen it is also reported to be medicinal but if you are allergic to it it's definitely not a plant to use for medicine especially after it's been pollinated number two how to read the environments that the plants grow in when I first started out I thought I would go outside and find everything I needed and wanted oh how wrong and right I was for example if you're looking for a plant like white pine you wouldn't go to a marshy area where you see cattails growing as pine trees required dry land to grow conversely you wouldn't look for cattails in a pine forest but that's not to say there aren't plenty of awesome plants and marshy environments or even in dry pine forests quite the contrary every environment has its own benefits and plants that are usable in certain seasons this is why reading the environment the plant is growing in is so important this is because it helps us the forager to know what plants that we might find other times we might understand a plant grows in clearings and we might go to large fields thinking of clearings instead of realizing that plant can grow in a small cleared patch and the soil other times we might think just because a plant is a noxious weed that it only grows in lawns or Gardens but things like hikers bikers small-scale logging and more can spread plants in very awkward places it's very common to find an unexpected surprise while foraging and that is part of the magic of this subject but reading the environment will prove to be very useful in helping you to narrow down where to look for any specific plant and the more experience you gain and mistakes you make the more you will know how to read the environments to find the plant that you are after and the number one thing that I wish I knew when I was just learning to forage wild edibles and additional plants is drumroll please there is no magic wand to solve all of the problems that we are experiencing and want to solve with plants when it comes to medicinal plants people often act as if it is some magical thing asking me questions like I have breast cancer which plant will cure me or I have leukemia what plant will cure me or I need to lose weight what plant will take all the weight off those are not only loaded questions but they are not representative of the truths of medicinal plants or even medicine for that matter other plants that can help with those things absolutely but it is not so easy as to take one plant and boom all of the problems are gone I often say to those around me that there are no magic wands and unicorn farts when it comes to medicine that is just a simple truth other times people act like they can go out in their yard and eat everything and not have to pay for groceries or medicine ever again when that is not the case and could be extremely dangerous for a lot of people especially those who want to rid themselves of medication self-diagnosis can be an extremely dangerous thing in SOCAN self-medication however they can also be very helpful if done safely and properly deciding which plant to take for medicine is dependent on many things just like understanding if a plant is going to be safe for you to consume over a long period of time a good example for this would be dandelion greens they can thin the blood and could very well be dangerous to people who already have extremely thin blood I have seen people who have thin blood naturally get light-headed and dizzy after eating dandelion greens or consuming dandelion root tea so while plants are magical in their own way they are not able to provide a fast and permanent solution to everyone or for every problem that we are experiencing so there's the 10 things that I wish I knew when I was just starting to forage wild plants for food and medicine I hope you guys learned something from this video and I hope you all enjoyed it if you want to learn more about wild edibles or additional plants please make sure to subscribe for more videos I thank you all for watching and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Trillium: Wild Edibles

Views: 64,024

Keywords: 10 things i wish i knew when starting to forage wild edibles and medicinal plants, 10 things i wish i knew when starting to forage, 10 things i knew when foraging, 10 things to know when foraging wild edibles and medicinal plants, 10 things to know about foraging medicinal plants, important things to know when foraging wild edibles, wild edibles, Trillium Wild Edibles, medicinal plants, foraging, wildcrafting, 10 things to know about foraging, list video, what to know when foraging

Id: JXXrn7biqGY

Length: 17min 57sec (1077 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018