Herb Gathering- Basic

An herb garden is the most environmentally sound solution for the herbalist, but if you want to collect your own, there are several things to consider.

First, familiarize yourself with the herbs growing in your area and make sure you can generally distinguish the very common ones from those that are rare. Local field guides, botanical gardens or the botany department of a local university can supply you with this basic knowledge. The Internet may also be able to provide some answers.

Knowing your local plant life will serve as your general guide, but nothing in nature is absolute. A plant that is abundant further south could be much rarer in your region. Wildcrafters watch for signs of foraging wildlife because harvesting should be much more restrained in areas where wild animals feed from stands of wild herbs. Watch for local insects that might be dependent on a certain stand of plants. The insects may not just be important for local pollination, but may also support a nearby nest of birds. Even a big stand of herbs may be very vulnerable. A stand of plants with rhizomes, for example, may look large, but may have developed from just one or two original rhizomes. If a harvester damages the parent rhizome, the whole stand of plants may disappear by the next season.

Second, if you plan to collect plants year after year, it is important to bring a notebook and fill in precise records. Records should include the date of harvest, a description of the stand of plants and a description of the area where the plant was found. The presence of deer droppings, of insects and of birds and their nests in the area should also be noted. Record how much was taken and how much was left. Detailed records will help monitor your impact on the site and make sure that the plants are returning unharmed to the area in consecutive years.

Third, certain reasonable rules of harvesting have to be followed, no matter how big a given stand of wild herbs seems to be. Wildcrafters have established the general rule of "take three, leave seven," but this rule should be observed with the caveats mentioned above, and the harvest should be diminished or omitted altogether if the stand seems vulnerable in any way. Another rule established by wildcrafters is reseeding the area, that is, at the right time actually digging up the soil and properly planting the seeds of herbs that were harvested. If plants are taken before seeds are ready to plant, it may be necessary to return later to do some reseeding.

The most problematic harvest is that of plant roots because when the root is taken, the plant itself is gone and has no more chance of propagation. Wildcrafters routinely put the seeds of the plant into the hole from which the roots were taken, thus providing some chance of regeneration. In such cases, a well-kept notebook is especially important to check in future years if reseeding has been successful or if it merely served to appease the harvester's conscience. As far as roots go, responsible wildcrafters usually do not take more than one root from even large stands of plants. Any harvesting should be done around the edges of a stand to avoid trampling plants or unnecessary compact the ground while harvesting.
When harvesting wild plants, there are other things to consider aside from the possible rarity of the species. Plants should not be taken if there is pollution from nearby traffic or possible contamination from spraying by farmers, government agencies or private owners. Signs of other wildcrafters having harvested from a certain area should also be of concern.