How to Improve Your Diet with Wild Plants - and Save Money

We called them fiddleheads-a kind of fern found in swampy areas. For years, I paid them no special attention, but one spring my mushroom buyer started offering me $2 a pound for them. In the part of California I was in at the time, the sword fern is most familiar. Their broad, deep green fronds can be seen covering entire hillsides, especially in damp shady areas. But the fiddlehead, while it does grown along small feeder streams under the timber, is much more abundant in open areas with standing water. The fronds easily attain a length of 6 feet or more, making them easy to spot from a distance. Their coloring is more of a yellow-green, and they are a softer, more delicate fern than the waxy, sawtoothed, sword fern.

These items were then transported to the Bay Area to be sold and consumed at fine restaurants. I decided to try them for myself, and discovered that they could be prepared in a variety of ways, usually beginning with a little parboiling to soften the crisp flesh, once it had been rinsed in cold water to remove the papery covering. Only small, firm fiddleheads are used as food-once they have unfolded they are not fit to eat. So I left anything longer than a few inches to develop into the same magnificent fronds I was crouching under to find them.

The same broker also offered cash for the tops of stinging nettles, which I was familiar with from long experience. In the spring, they are easily, but carefully gathered. If the stems or the undersides of the leaves touch bare skin, they produce a mild stinging sensation. However, using tongs with rubber gloves, it's a simple matter to pluck the top leaves from the plants, which typically grow in dense patches on silty, wet soil.

They can be prepared-again, with appropriate caution-by dropping them in simmering water for a few moments, then using as you would spinach or other garden greens. My favorite recipe is to fold them into a batch of mashed potatoes, form little patties, and fry them in butter. This produces a light golden crust around a creamy interior, with a pleasant nutty flavor from the nettles.

A third item being harvested in the north coast woods and sold in the Bay Area was miner's lettuce, an abundant plant found along trails and streams almost everywhere. I find this growing in downtown Sacramento all the time. Perfectly round leaves about the size of a quarter, with a round stem. They produce a small, purple, bell-shaped flower late in the spring. Usually, I just pick these and eat them raw as I'm out walking.

I could only guess how the chefs in those fancy restaurants were treating these foods, but when I think about it I imagine they could turn out some pretty special dishes.

The health benefits of eating local wild plants seem obvious: they are all rich in vitamins. Another thing which I suspect but can't document, except from experience, is that they improve the immune system. While just about everyone in Sacramento weeps, sneezes and complains of other effects of allergies when the local trees start blooming, I walk the streets unaffected.

There may be other factors involved, and maybe I've just spent a lot more time listening to hippies than most people, but, after all, the native peoples of California survived pretty comfortably, without ever lifting a spade, for at least 10,000 years. Their harvesting technique usually involved probing at the roots and bulbs with a sharp stick, which had the benefit of cultivating the next year's crop while they selectively gathered choice herbs, leaves and bulbs for ready consumption or storage.

Novice wild-food gatherers need to consult local experts before they start gathering plants, but with modern technology it's a simple matter to do some initial homework by looking at images of target plants on websites, and reading summaries which describe their appearances and habitats. I focus on plants that are easily distinguished from toxic relatives, to reduce the risk of a fatal mistake.

Once you become familiar with a particular plant, such as the ubiquitous wild onion or wild garlic, you've provided yourself with a reliable, free source of food. Given the prices of organic vegetables at the local market, and the risks involved with eating pesticide-laden foods, eating wild plants from your area becomes a bargain you really can't afford to ignore.