Day camp teaches safe foraging

MARENGO — Whether foraging in the wild for recreation, economy or survival, knowing what is and is not edible can save our lives.

That’s what Iowa County Conservation taught children during a day camp at Lake Iowa Park last week.

Foraging means gathering, said Gage Hazen-Fabor, park ranger and naturalist for Iowa County Conservation. Sometimes people harvest wild plants because they like them. “Things are tasty,” said Hazen-Fabor.

  Buy Photo

Foraging is also cost effective, Hazen-Fabor said. “Food’s expensive.

“There’s a lot of things in nature that you can find and substitute,” said Hazen-Fabor. It’s “free food,” if you can find it and have permission to harvest it.

In some situations, harvesting is a survival skill. If you’re lost in a wilderness, knowing what plants are edible can keep you alive until help arrives.

“One of the first things is … we’ve got to understand positive identification,” said Hazen-Fabor.

Campers were given books that identify plants and trees by their leaves, flowers, seeds and habitats. Information is available online and apps that identify plants are available for smartphones. “That’s a huge help too,” said Hazen-Fabor.

While foraging, people should cross reference as many sources as possible. “There are a lot of people who have been doing this for along time.” If the sources agree, “you’re probably on the right track,” said Hazen-Fabor.

  Buy Photo

People need to know common poisonous plants as well so they can avoid them. Foragers should also avoid harvesting from high-contaminated areas — areas that are consistently polluted, such as roadways or ditches, and areas near farm fields that are sprayed with chemicals.

Beware of look-alikes, said Hazen-Fabor. Wild carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s lace, has edible parts. But poison hemlock, which looks similar, is poisonous to humans.

Wild carrot root, which smells like a carrot, is edible and can be eaten raw. The plant flowers later than the hemlock which is going to seed this time of year.

Hazen-Fabor told campers to notice trends and patterns, where each plant prefers to grow and how they vary during different seasons. Some of them are edible during one stage of growth but not another.

Start small, said Hazen-Fabor. Harvest small quantities. Harvest a few plants that are easy to identify and add other plants gradually.

  Buy Photo

Be ethical. “We want to make sure we’re respecting the area we’re in,” said Hazen-Fabor. “Basically, just gather what you need.”

A good rule is to take a third and leave 2/3 for wildlife and for seeds, Hazen-Fabor said.

Respect the property you are harvesting from, said Hazen-Fabor. At Lake Iowa you can harvest for free as long as you aren’t damaging the plants surrounding what you’re harvesting.

Some public spaces have rules about what you can harvest and how much.

Harvesting on private land requires the permission of the property owner.

After learning how to harvest plants, day-camp students went on a hike behind the nature center to pick blackberries with which they made pudgy pies using cast iron pie irons over a campfire.

First stop on the trail was near a milkweed plant. They are edible, said Hazen-Fabor. The flowers, when young, can be cooked and eaten. The seed pods, when young, can be eaten after they’ve been boiled a couple of times.

Don’t eat them raw, said Hazen-Fabor.

When harvesting milkweed, people should understand that monarch butterflies also need the plants. The butterflies lay eggs on milkweed, and the young feed on the leaves.

  Buy Photo

The black walnut tree has edible nuts, said Hazen-Fabor, stopping near a black walnut tree to show its compound leaf and nuts encased in a hard green shell.

Wait until the nuts fall to the ground and the shell is dry, suggested Hazen-Fabor. It’s easier to crack open the shell to harvest the meat then.

“We have a lot of mulberries,” said Hazen-Fabor. They taste pretty good, he said, and he encouraged the campers to harvest some for their pudgy pies.

Blackberries just started fruiting and will be gone the first or second week of August, while mulberries start fruiting in late May “and they’re still here in late July,” said Hazen-Fabor.

The bright purple ones taste best, and the leaves are also edible and can be used to make tea.

Naturalist Mary Blair showed the campers some wild bergamot. The leaves can be used to make tea, and there are recipes for shortbread cookies using the blossoms. The bergamot gives them a nice sweet taste, said Blair.

The flowers can also be used to make essential oils and potpourri.

  Buy Photo

The acorns of the oak tree are edible, said Hazen-Fabor, but they are bitter because of tannins in them. You can boil it out or soak the acorns in water and let it leach out. Some people grind them into acorn flour.

Autumn Olive is an invasive species, but the red berries are edible, said Hazen-Fabor. Birds like them, which is why the species is spreading.

If campers harvest the Autumn Olive berries, they should dispose of the seeds in a way that won’t allow them to grow and spread the species.

“But if we have them around, we might as well enjoy their fruit,” said Hazen-Fabor.

Many campers were already able to identify the sumac on the trail. Iowa is home to smooth sumac and staghorn sumac but not the poisonous sumac, said Hazen-Fabor.

The edible sumac fruit is packed tightly in a cone shape and stands upright. Smooth sumac and staghorn sumac both have edible fruit, said Hazen-Fabor. They are ripe when bright red.

The fruit contains have malic acid, which makes it sour, like the candy Warheads.

People make sumac-aid and sumac tea, said Hazen-Fabor. Because of its sourness, most people add sugar.

Some cultures use the red outer coating of the sumac fruit as a seasoning.

The Wild Foraging camp was the sixth day-camp hosted by Iowa County Conservation this summer, said Blair. That includes the in-person camps as well as the take-home kits provided to children who have busy schedules that won’t allow them to attend in person.

Summer intern and naturalist Emma Edelen helped with the wild foraging camp.