Interested in Foraging? Here Are 6 Places to Start
Foraging helps travelers connect with nature—and discover surprisingly delicious, locally sourced foods. To get a taste of your destination on your next trip, you could book a table at a locavore restaurant, or you could go foraging for wild foods.
Whether you’re hunting for mushrooms in Sweden’s forests or harvesting leek-like wild ramps in America’s mid-Atlantic region, such experiences reveal a territory’s unique climate, topography, and soil. "It gives you a deeper understanding of a place by understanding its flavors—from wild blueberries in Maine to porcini mushrooms in the Rocky Mountains," says Ellen Zachos, an expert forager and author of How to Forage for Wild Foods Without Dying.
Some wild foods can be lethal, trigger long-term health issues, or cause severe gastric distress, so travelers should book experiences with professional foragers to be safe. When tasting any new ingredient, only eat a small portion to ensure it agrees with you, since even non-toxic foods may cause internal discomfort.
Here are six ways to get your hands dirty—and fill your belly—on foraging tours across the United States.
1. Gather Dandelion Greens in Asheville
"The reputation of foragers is that we’re secretive, but that’s not the case," says Alan Muskat, who leads guests on seasonal hunts to harvest mushrooms, berries, nuts, greens, ramps, and persimmons in and around Asheville, North Carolina. The discovered ingredients are then delivered to a local restaurant and cooked into a bespoke "forest to table" meal. This might mean brown butter seared mushrooms over congee at Tastee Diner or a punchy salad of chickweed and dandelion greens at the Bull & Beggar.
2. Pluck Medicinal Plants in Philadelphia
Most people walking through Philadelphia’s public parks and community gardens don’t understand the potential health benefits of the plants surrounding them. On her small group tours, master herbalist Lady Danni Morinich identifies native plants with reputed wellness benefits. Depending on the time of year, she may find dead nettle, which can be brewed into a tea to treat allergies, or mock strawberries, which can soothe burns and boils. "There’s a little tweak in your head when you realize something is useful and not just a weed," says Morinich. "It might have been something growing through a crack in the sidewalk you’ve stepped over a thousand times."
3. Dig for Truffles in Oregon
"Truffle hunting is like an Easter egg hunt on steroids," says Amico Roma’s Kevin McFarland, who breeds fungi-sniffing dogs just outside of Portland, Oregon, with his partner, Carly Luzader. From November through March, the couple takes guests on expeditions to find white Oregon winter truffles with a little help from their Lagotto Romagnolos, dogs which have been following their snouts to the rare delicacies for centuries in Italy. After a one- to two-hour foray into the woods, guests return to McFarland and Luzader’s home for a cooking class that includes tips on cleaning truffles and infusing them into cheese and almonds. For dessert, there’s chocolate-chip banana bread slathered with—what else?—truffle butter.
4. Forage in the Wilds of Central Park
In 1986, Steve "Wildman" Brill was arrested in New York City’s Central Park for harvesting and eating dandelion greens. The charge was dropped, and ever since, the naturalist and forager has been leading walking tours around the 843-acre greenway. He points out dozens of edible uncultivated plants, from mustard greens and wisteria in spring to black walnuts and spicebush berries in the fall. Along the way, he talks about how to cook and eat the wild ingredients as well as the park’s environmental diversity. "First you’re on a lawn; a one-minute walk, you’re at the edge of a thicket; another minute, you’re in the woods," he says.
5. Search for Shrooms in Santa Fe
The high desert surrounding Santa Fe, New Mexico, is surprisingly rich with edible plants, including mustard greens and wintercress in spring, summertime chokecherries, and oyster and honey mushrooms come autumn. Travelers can harvest them during tours in and around the city led by wild food expert Ellen Zachos. After hunting for ingredients, tours end with a class on incorporating wild ingredients into cocktails and cooking. Garlic mustard martini, anyone? "I find most people learn better, and knowledge sticks with them longer, if they can put their hands on the food, eat it, and say, ‘I made this and it’s delicious,’" she says.
6. Harvest Seaweed in California
Travelers can get their hands—and nets—on the fish and seaweed of Northern California’s coastline during Sea Foragers’ 3-4-hour guided tours of Half Moon Bay, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kirk Lombard, a one-time commercial fisherman and author of The Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast, teaches participants about identifying edible seaweeds, harvesting clams, and wielding a poke pole to catch eel and rockfish in the cracks and crevices of the intertidal zone. "I'm trying to impart that [foraging] is something they can do and for them to see how beautiful it all is," he says.
