What is Wildcrafting & How to do it Right

Wildcrafting means gathering plants and mushrooms for food and medicine from the wild. This is also referred to as foraging.

Wildcrafting is a good choice for obtaining herbs that grow in your region if these herbs have a healthy native population. In the case of threatened herbs, it is best to attempt to grow them yourself or to obtain them from a reputable grower.

Some herbs are invasive species that cause damage to the native plant populations by competing for local resources. If the herb you wish to have on hand is considered an invasive species, it is always better to wildcraft that herb, rather than to attempt to grow it in your garden and potentially add to the problem, though growing the herb in a pot indoors is often a safe option.

What is wildcrafting, and why do it?

Lands are rich in natural treasures, especially in countries where the flora and fauna are among the most varied. Thanks to the enchanting beauty of Mother Earth and the climatic variety that characterizes it, nature boasts many wild plants and edible herbs, often underestimated and sometimes considered “weeds”.

However, they represent a great resource for nutrition and health, as well as the centerpiece of many traditional recipes. What is beautiful about these plants is their link with the past, since in different historical periods they constituted the basis of nutrition, today these plants – considered natural medicines – are always present in healthy and traditional diets.

Spontaneous field plants and herbs are a veritable treasure trove of beneficial properties for our body. When grown naturally, in environments suited to their characteristics, these plants are stronger and more resistant than their cultivated variants.

In particular, many of these wild herbs are edible and can be used as ingredients in numerous recipes, offering a greater supply of vitamins and minerals than cultivated herbs.

Furthermore, their spontaneous nature allows us to find a greater variety of benefits in them, often used in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. Collecting wild herbs is therefore a healthy and conscious choice.

Responsible Wildcrafting

• Always ask permission before you harvest anything on land that does not belong to you. Some public lands are reserved and carry steep fines for removing anything from them and wildharvesting on private property could get you a trespassing charge.
• Only take the part you need. If you only need the flower, there’s no point in uprooting the whole plant. Bring sharp scissors so this doesn’t happen by accident.
• Learn about the life cycle of the plant you are harvesting so that you can harvest it the safest and kindest manner.
• Never harvest an entire stand of plants. Never even harvest half of a stand of plants. Always leave the majority to grow and reproduce.
• Reseed if possible. Gather seeds as you go, so you can replant. You may have to return later, but it’s worth it. (It’s also worth it to take some seed home and plant it in your yard.) Never take all the available seeds.

When to collect edible wild herbs?

If you are passionate about edible herbs, we recommend picking them early in the morning, when the night dew still wets them and they have maximum vitality. In fact, the sun tends to weaken them, dehydrating leaves and flowers and making them less nutritious and tasty.

Furthermore, you can consider the lunar cycles to harvest wild herbs at their maximum potential: during the waxing moon phase, it is preferable to harvest the parts of the plant that go upwards, while during the waning moon phase, you need to concentrate on parts that go downwards, like stems and roots.

Remember to respect the environment around you, ask for permission if necessary and follow the regulations for collecting herbs when necessary, depending on the region you are in.

Learn More

• The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
• Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson’s Field Guides) by Steven Foster and James A. Duke (There are guides for other areas as well, you just have to look for them.)
• Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild and Not So Wild Places by Steve Brill and Evelyn Dean
• US Invasive Species
• Wildcrafting Online Database

Buy Sustainable Herbs Online

• Mountain Rose Herbs
• Strictly Medicinal Seeds (Seeds, rootstocks and plants to grow your own)