Wild Harvesting: Dining with a Frisson of Terror

In the days before refrigeration, and in more recent times for a variety of reasons, wild harvesting has been a way of supplementing or adding interest to ordinary diets. While many fruits and vegetables that are both safe and healthy to eat grow in the wild, there are hazards with wild harvesting. Here are a few of the more interesting/dangerous plants.

1. Poke Sallet: Phytolacca Americana may be found along most roadside in the Midwest. Sand Mountain Herbs.com offers seeds for sale. In many farming communities, it is considered a weed because it spreads rapidly by both root and seed. (Don’t let those online websites tell you different, either!) The plant contains a toxic alkaloid, and therefore cannot be eaten without special preparation. Recipes vary, but my grandmother always picked the young shoots in early spring, “wilted” the greens (we picked them by the bushel), poured off the water, cooked them, poured off the water, then fried the resultant gooey mess in bacon grease. Some online sources recommend bringing to a boil and pouring off the water three times before ingesting. Every spring, instances of poke sallet poisoning are reported. The greens are tasty. They bear a superficial resemblance to spinach, but have a stronger flavor, with a considerable “bite”. For a family starved for green stuff, they are a welcome addition to brown beans and cornbread, but they should be prepared with caution.
2. May Apples: Podophyllum peltatum may be found under trees in oak forests. Beds of them look like tiny groves of umbrellas, and the waxy white blooms add a sweet scent to the spring air. Toward mid-summer, the plants will grow one or two fruits. My grandmother said they were too toxic for a little girl to pick, but that my great-grandmother had made jelly of the fruits. The fruits are only safe to eat when they are absolutely dead-ripe. Otherwise they, and all parts of the May Apple are deadly poisonous. May Apples are used in making some medicines, but are unsafe for home preparations.
3. Queen Anne’s Lace: Daucus carota was brought from Europe as a medicinal plant. The seeds were used as a contraceptive. There is a complete article on that usage at sisterzeus if you would like more information. Queen Anne’s lace is the wild stock from which our garden carrots were developed. The roots are edible (although they are rather woody) and the blossoms may be dipped in batter and fried. The leaves and stems are toxic-not at all good for eating. The real problem with Queen Anne’s lace, however, is that water hemlock is very similar in appearance. Good pictures of Water Hemlock, Cicuta maculate, may be found at natureskills.com. It is easy to see how these two plants may be confused. Queen Anne’s lace may be used as an abortifacient; which means it has toxic components. Water Hemlock is deadly. Although I have eaten (and enjoyed) Queen Ann’s lace blossoms dipped in batter, all precautions should be taken before attempting such a thing.
4. Mushrooms: Frankly, unless you are going with a seasoned mushroom hunter or know your fungi really, really well I do NOT recommend harvesting these in the wild. Morels are fairly safe, but they have grown scarce in recent years. The little white button mushrooms (like the ones in the store) are far too much like Death Caps to make harvesting them in the wild a safe activity for the uninitiated. I knew a young woman who used to go mushrooming with her mushroom handbook and a bottle of ipecac, but that is just a little bit too much excitement for me! If you seriously want fresh mushrooms, order a kit from a seed catalog and follow the directions carefully. You will then know exactly what kind of fungus you are growing and be unlikely to ingest something poisonous.

If you wish to go wild harvesting, it is best to go with someone who can identify the plants involved with absolute certainty. Wandering through the forest sticking things in your mouth at random is an excellent way to never wander out again. Despite all the hyperbole about “natural” being better, there are many things in nature that are inimical to humans-especially if ingested.