10 Wild Edible Greens to Harvest- Foraging Plants

Rob: Hey everyone, I am here with my
friend, Eric.

We met two years ago in Florida, and I was

blown away by his knowledge of the plants

that he has been foraging for about a
decade.

He is a plant wizard with really seemingly

infinite knowledge.

I know there are things that he does not

know, but it seems like he knows pretty

much every plant that we cross.

I have been blessed to get to learn from
him.

I've been with him for the last day in

Maryland and have learned so much.

I am excited that he is going to share

some of his favorite plants to help you

get foraging, and first he is going to

introduce himself a bit.

Eric: My name is Eric, I am a plant-lover.

permaculturist, and an avid forager,

and I am just really grateful to be here

with you all today and share my top ten

wild edible greens for the mid Atlantic.

There is such an abundance of food in

these fields and forests, so let us go

see what we can find!

(Music playing)

My number one all time favorite wild

edible green has to be Urtica dioica, or

the mighty stinging nettle.

There is a native North American species

as well, Urtica gracilis, and also
Laportea canadensis.

I love it for so many reasons, it offers

all kinds of amazing medicine, its flavor

is incredible, it can be absolutely

prolific in the wild, and it is very easy

to cultivate for those of us that are
gardeners.

Not to mention that it will grow in full

shade underneath black walnuts for the

permaculturists out there.

It can be made into dried green powders or

blended up into pesto, or it can also be

steamed and sautéed.

Any kind of heat will deactivate the

stinging hairs and make it edible.

Definitely my number one all time favorite

has to be stinging nettle.

Number 2 on my list of wild edible greens

has got to be chickweed.

This is another great friend to really

connect with and bring in to the kitchen.

This is Stellaria media, the common name
is chickweed.

I love this one because it is pretty easy

to identify, it has these really cute

little star shaped flowers on it, and

opposite leaves.

It is really cool and juicy and the flavor

is really awesome.

It is one that I do like to cook because

it is a little higher in the oxalic acid

department. but it also makes a great

pesto and can be dried into powders.

I would definitely say that number 2 on

the list is chickweed.

Keep an eye out for this one in the spring
and fall.

It will disappear in the summer.

Number 3 on my list is lambsquarters.

This is one of the first friends that I

really got tuned into when I was first

starting to eat something wild every day.

The Latin name is Chenopodium album, and

is just an absolute super star from the
spinach family.

It is one of the most nutritious plants
on earth.

It is also one of the highest wild greens

in oxalic acid.

This is one that I definitely like to cook

up, I like to steam it, boil it, pan fry

it, anything to help cook out and denature
those oxalates.

But after that, it is an absolutely flavor

packed, incredible edible.

This is one that should be in all of the

4 star restaurants, and it should

definitely be on everyone's plate.

So, Chenopodium album. Lambsquarters.

Number 3.

Number 4 on my list is definitely

dandelions, Taraxacum officinale.

This is one that most everybody is

probably already familiar with.

It is an absolute incredible edible.

The leaves are great in salad, but they

can also be boiled to remove some of the

bitterness if you are not into that.

They are loaded with all kinds of

nutrients, tons of vitamin A, and they are

the second highest source of boron of any

of the wild greens, which is cool because

boron helps to detoxify the body of
fluoride.

It is definitely an important one for us

to bring into our diets, and it is also a

great one for helping to support the

liver health, and helping our body to

detoxify in multiple different ways.

Dandelion is definitely one for everybody

to tune into, and bring home to the dinner
plate.

Coming in at number 5 is Alliaria

petiolata, the garlic mustard.

So this is a biennial plant in the

brassicaceae family, the mustard family.

Like the first 4 on our list, it is a

European import that is very weedy and
prolific.

This one in fact is allelopathic, so it

competes against other plants in the
area.

For that reason I really love encouraging

people to consume these kinds of plants

that are exotic to our region, so that we

can help native habitats to thrive a

little bit more, take some of the

pressure off of the native plants in that
way.

This one was brought over from Europe

because it is very highly nutritious.

There are 190 milligrams of vitamin C

per a 100 gram serving, which is very easy

to consume in a batch of pesto.

That is definitely one of my favorite ways

to bring garlic mustard into the kitchen

is in pesto form.

It also makes a great cooked green,

sautéed or even steamed up, or you can

boil it when it gets older to take some of

the bitterness out.

Definitely number 5 on the list, is
Alliaria petiolata.

Garlic mustard.

Number 6 on our list is basswood.

This is the American basswood, Tilia
americana.

This is a native tree in the mallow
family.

I love this one because we do not get to

eat a whole lot of tree leaves and this

one is so mild and has such a nice flavor

that it can actually be the basis for a
salad.

I love greens that we can eat raw.

It also makes an excellent green powder,

makes a fantastic sautéed greens, steamed,

anyway that you prepare it, basswood is
absolutely incredible.

And the leaves also have this nice kind

of mucilaginous quality to it that I think

really helps to keep us hydrated in the

summer time, and also makes for a

wonderful tea when we have got a
sore throat.

Definitely number 6 on the list is

basswood, Tilia americana.

For number 7 on our list we have another

tree leaf, and this is one that I bet a

lot of you are already familiar with

because it is world famous for its
berries.

And of course we are talking about the
mighty mulberry.

In the mid Atlantic, that would be either

Morus alba, which is the Asian species, or

Morus rubra, which is the native one.

They both have edible leaves.

There is an introduced species,

Broussonetia papyrifera, that is a

lookalike that is worth looking into, it

is called the paper mulberry and it is in

the same family but not as edible.

This one is not as ... some of them are

acceptable as a salad crop but more so I

think of mulberries as being great for

green powders or cooked greens, either

steamed, sautéed, or otherwise kind of

cooked down a little bit.

Yeah, I love mulberries because they are

so easy to identify and they are so

prolific, and they have these deep roots.

They are just beautiful, amazing, awesome
trees.

Number 7 is the mighty mulberry.

Morus alba, Morus rubra.

Coming in at number 8 on our list is

purslane, Portulaca oleracea.

This is a really great cooking green.

It can also be added raw to salads, the

flavor is great.

It is kind of high in oxalic acid so I do

prefer to cook it myself personally, but I

have heard of people adding it to
smoothies.

It has got a little bit of a sliminess to

it that adds a great mucilaginous kind of

throat coating quality to it.

One of the other things that is amazing

about this plant is its remarkably high

omega-3 fat content.

This is a great source of omega-3 fats

from a local, wild, plant based source.

Definitely let us say number 8 is

Portulaca oleracea, purslane.

Number 9 on our list is Asclepias syriaca.

This is a native perennial that grows in

open fields all throughout the country.

This one is absolutely, incredibly
delicious.

It is important to boil this one twice

because it does have cardiac glycosides

known as cardenolides in it that are
pretty toxic.

So I like to boil it in 2 changes of
water.

Another thing to be aware of with this

plant is that it looks very similar to

another native that is poisonous and that
is dogbane.

This is the dogbane right here and you

can see that they obviously grow in the

exact same habitat and so superficially

it can be difficult to tell the two of

them apart, but when you get into the

core of it you can see that the inside of

the milkweed is hollow, where the inside

of the dogbane is solid.

And so that is a very key distinguishing

feature that makes it easy to tell the two
apart.

Asclepias syriaca, number 9.

Coming in at number 10 on our list is the
mighty Bidens.

Beggar's ticks, Spanish needles, and with

this one we will go ahead and say the
entire genus.

As far as I know, every species is edible.

Some are definitely better than others I
have noticed.

This one in particular is Bidens frondosa,

and this one is a great weedy summer
superstar.

It is in the aster family and has a little

bit of a kind of bitter sappiness to it so

I do prefer to either boil or steam it

before using it for pesto, but an

absolutely incredible cooking green.

It is loaded with nutrition and also has

a medicinal component to it as well being

very popular as a gentle but effective
antibiotic.

The common names beggars ticks and Spanish

needles are a reference to the seed, and

that make these very easy to identify, and

you will see these all over the place

once you start looking for them.

Number 10, Bidens.

Thank you so much for taking the time to

get to know my top 10 wild edibles for the
mid atlantic.

I wanted to give a special shout out to

definitely Rob Greenfield and your team.

Thank you so much.

I definitely want to give a lot of love

to the folks at Meta Creative for helping

me with all of this filming and putting

together all of the shots and scenes and

just making this whole process so much

more approachable for me.

Thank you for your help and patience.

I wanted to give thanks to The REED Center

in Middletown, Maryland,

Chesapeake Bounty in Saint Leonard,

Maryland, and Plant Path Nursery in

Knoxville, Maryland for hosting some of

these video segments.

Thank you so much.
Peace!

Rob: I hope you got a lot out of this

video and can now implement these things

into your life.

Eric is a plant educator, an earth lover,

and a permaculturist with so much

knowledge to share with us.

Check the links in this description to
follow him.

And make sure to subscribe to this channel

there are many more inspirational and

educational videos to come.

I love you all very much, and I will see

you all again real soon.