Hello there :). I did not find any thread to say hi to this community. Anyway I'm a newbie, so please please tell me if I'm choosing a correct section etc! I'm French-Slovak and now based near Québec (guess why :D ). I am looking for any tips for my new but small garden. Anyway, recently I am more and more interested in edible plants growing nearby. As I am new in Canada (I previously lived in central Europe), I would like to know if edible wild plants "are a thing" also here. I am a zero-waste person and try to live ecologically, so a possibility to eat something that grows free is perfect for me. In my hometown I used to go to the fields and pick some dandelions and add them into my salad (ofc I know that they are here as well). What else can I pick them? Is it safe? I'm looking forward to your answers! Have a good day!
There are many eastern Canadian plants that are edible. The term of the moment for people who harvest wild edibles is "foragers", so seek out the foraging community (either via Meet-Up or perhaps posters at local organic farms / gardens). Of course, please do your foraging ethically -- biodiversity is under enough stress as it is from urban & agricultural displacement and habitat loss / shifting. One example locally is people overharvesting stinging nettles, which is an important larval (caterpillar) host plant for many local butterflies.
Thank you for that. I will try my best to do my foraging (I had no idea that it was called like this) responsibly.
The information on this website is a good place to start. Foraging - Eat The Weeds and other things, too I also tend to check Plants for a Future (PFAF) https://www.pfaf.org/user/Default.aspx to learn about edibility and other plant uses.
There are so many edible plants that people do not recognize and throw them away.. I also wasn't aware about it, since I read a post on a blog about wildflowers. I also found that sweet violet is edible (both flower and leaves) and also carnelian (leaves). Have you ever eaten some of them?
I grew up on a farm. I think people who grow up in the country tend to eat at least a few of the local weeds. We were growing and harvesting food, which is a lot of work. If something was tasty and grew on its own, it kind of made sense to eat it. On the other side of the issue is the fact that garden crops are tried and true. We used to consume comfrey and pennyroyal as tea. These are traditional teas now known to be carcinogenic. Thank goodness I never drank a lot of it. It is important to study up a bit. It's good to start with the commonly eaten stuff and always start with a small amount to be sure it sits well with you. In this region wild and invasive blackberries are very abundant. It is the source of most of my jelly for the year. I have eaten violets.
