Spring Foraging in the PNW

As spring arrives to the PNW, we start to look forward to warmer (possibly) dryer weather but it's all that rain that has the first plants peeking their heads out of the earth, coming back to life after their long winter slumber.

For me and my children, spring often means lots and lots of walks through the woods behind our home. There we watch the birds build their nests, take note of what's blooming that wasn't before, watch the creek to see how high or low the water is, and (my favorite) begin our foraging season. Today I want to show four of our favorite edible and medicinal plants that are readily available in early spring. You can find separate posts with more detailed info on each plant. This is just an overview of one of my foraging trips in early spring.

Yesterday I set out with my trusty foraging bag (a macrame jute bag with a long strap), my camera and, most unusually, all alone. Normally my kiddos will join me when I go walking but sometimes the peace of the forest is nice to enjoy on my own and yesterday was just such a day. It was drizzling and cool, the air heavily scented with rain and moss and damp earth.

I gathered three plants to dry and turn into herbal tea and made note of all the stinging nettles. Without gloves though, I wasn't about to harvest those! That's a job for tomorrow when the sun is supposed to be shining and it's supposed to be warmer. 

Stinging Nettle

 A delightful edible and medicinal, stinging nettle has its name for a reason. Always, always use gloves when harvesting and processing. Once this plant is cooked, blanched or dried, the tiny barbs that put the sting in stinging nettle are deactivated, making the leaves safe to touch.

Stinging nettle can be used as a green, made into tea or dried and powdered as a supplement. I like to blanch the leaves and then add them to soups, reusing the water they were cooked in as tea. If I get a large enough harvest (and there is tons near me so chances are, there will be plenty), I will blanch half and dry half. Once dried I can use it to make tea anytime I want. About a tablespoon of dried nettle leaves steeped for 10 minutes and a spoonful of raw honey makes a delicious and super beneficial drink.

The benefits of stinging nettle are so numerous, there's not room to list them all here. I know an herbalist who has a saying, "If in doubt, use nettle!" From asthma and allergies to weight loss and immune system boosts, nettle has you covered.

Dead Nettle

One of the earliest blooms to pop up, dead nettle is beneficial both to humans and animals alike. Being one of the earliest blooming flowers, bees and wild animals alike turn to dead nettle when there is little else available to them. When foraging, it is easy to identify and the leaves and flowers make a tasty green to add to salads raw or cook in place of spinach or kale. The leaves have a similar taste to spinach and can be enjoyed raw, cooked or dried and made into tea.

Dead nettle is an excellent source of fiber, vitamin c, iron and anti-oxidants. As a medicinal herb it is wonderful for wound care as it is antimicrobial and can help slow bleeding. Dried and made into a tea, it can help with seasonal allergies.

Oregon Grape

Later in the summer, this amazing plant will be loaded with grapes that are quite tart but wonderful for making jellies and jams. Right now, it's loaded with tiny yellow flowers that have a delicate, lemony taste. Every single part of this plant is edible, although the sharp leaves once mature are not super fun to ingest. The younger leaves are much more tender and are a lovely addition to stir fry.

Since the flowers are so plentiful right now, they can be gathered and added to salads to lend some flavor and color, dried and made into tea, or even used as an edible garnish. They are especially delicious and lovely on top of baked fish or crab cakes.

Plantain

The first leaves of plantain always make me smile. It's a plentiful yet super beneficial plant and one I've used on numerous occasions while hiking, especially with my children. It is not actually native to America but was brought over from Europe. Natives coined it "where white man walks" because it tends to pop up anywhere people walk due to the tiny seeds that each plant produces in the thousands. These seeds get stuck on the bottoms of shoes and redistributed wherever people walk, thus earning it the nickname from Native Americans.

Plantain can be used to soothe the pain from burns, stings, poison ivy, sore muscles and so much more. When out in the wild, keep an eye out for its leaves and when you see some, pick a few and tuck them into your pack. Should you get stung by a bee, your child scrape his knee or you get a sunburn, take the leaves and chew them to activate. Once they are pulpy, you can spread the pulp on the affected area to calm the pain.

You can also collect plantain leaves and bring them home to harness their power. This medicine plant can be infused into oil, steeped in hot water to make "plantain water", dried, or used in homemade salves for pain relief. It's a wonderful healer for all kinds of skin irritants.

Oh and it's edible too. The leaves can be used in salad or thrown into a soup pot to add extra nutrition and vitamins to your diet. Its leaves are tiny and tender this time of year and will grow into large plants over the summer.