Edible Wild Plants

Edible wild plants can make ultralight backpacking even lighter, and can add enjoyment to a trip in the wilderness. You can pack lighter if you eat wild berries every morning for breakfast, for example, and leave your oatmeal behind. So push the bears out of the way and gorge yourself on blueberries.

You'll also enjoy your backpacking more when you know that you won't be completely helpless the moment you lose your pack, or a raccoon empties it for you.

Berries We Ate On A Day Hike In Glacier National Park: Blueberries Service Berries Rose Hips Blackberries High Bush Cranberries Strawberries Raspberries Thimbleberries Currants

I eat dandelions, wild currants, pine nuts and other edible wild plants regularly. I have eaten hundreds of calories in wild raspberries during a break, while hiking in the Colorado Rockies. Once, during a kayak trip on Lake Superior, a friend and I spent half a day stopping at every little island, to fill our stomachs with wild blueberries. We were almost out of food, so our foraging helped us get through the rest of the trip.

Edible Wild Plants and Survival

If you travel in isolated areas, you may want to learn to identify a few edible wild plants just to be safe also. You never know when you might be lost or injured. You may have planned the meals poorly, or maybe a bear will push you out of the way to gorge himself on all of your freeze-dried meals.

In an emergency survival situation, food isn't usually a priority (warmth and water are). Nonetheless, a pile of roasted cattail hearts sure will cheer you up and warm you up, and they even taste good. There is a confidence and comfort that comes from knowing how to provide for yourself in the wilderness.

Stay away from protected plants, of course, unless you are in a true life-or-death situation. And don't eat all the beautiful flowers, or kill off the lilies by eating all the bulbs. Use common sense. If you aren't sure if you're doing harm, stick to eating wild berries.

Check out a few books on harvesting wild food. You don't need to become a wilderness survival fanatic. You really only need to learn to recognize a dozen high-calorie, abundant wild edible plants to be a lot safer in the wilderness, and to enjoy it more.

New!

For more survival topics visit the newest addition to the site: The Wilderness Survival Guide.

Also, there are now 50 pages of information (with photos) on Edible Plants and Useful Plants.

Every chapter has tips for lightweight backpacking and wilderness survival.