Lyle - The complete guide to edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts: finding, identifying, and cooking

You will find foraging an affordable hobby. One needs very little to gather wild food. Jeans or khakis, a long-sleeved shirt, hiking boots or supportive walking shoes (high-top is better than lowtop for ankle support and peace of mind near snakes) with good socks, and bug repellent are the only real essentials. All your clothes should be washable. (If your jacket brushes against poison ivy, the urushiol will stay on the jacket until its washed, creating a hazard for anyone who picks it up, handles it, or wears it.) You need to protect your skin not only from insects of all kinds but also from injury that can result from scraping against something thorny, so tuck your jeans into your socks and make sure your neckline is high. Wear your hair up and covered with a cap or hat, and see that your shirtsleeves protect your arms all the way down to your hands. In buggy weather, spray or slather repellent generously on all parts of your body that are still exposed.

I carry year-round in my car trunk several field guides to identify wild greens, wildflowers, fruits, ferns, and fungi. I also keep a supply of paper and plastic bags there, scissors, a sharp knife, a trowel, and heavy garden gloves (the last item for gathering stinging nettles, which are delicious and chock-full of vitamins), so that at any moment I am ready to pull over and gather anything good I spy by the roadside. If I walk through fields or woods, I carry necessities in a cheap, light nylon backpack to leave my hands free. And I wear a watch because time is fluid, and when Im gathering morels or blackberries, ginseng or chanterelles, I may go on far beyond time to go home.

A white or very light hat is good to wear because gnats go for the lightest, highest thing around, which is why they like your face instead of, say, your kneecaps. Spraying the hat with insect repellent will help keep them away from your eyes. One of those miracle fabric windbreaker/rain jackets sold by sporting equipment companies is good to own; it adds almost no weight to your supplies, but in the event of a sudden weather change youll be grateful to have it. Should you sometimes feel uncomfortably hot in all this gear, remember this: If you ever step into ground hornets, as I have twice, youll be glad youre all covered up.

In summer, its good to shake flowers of sulfur (powdered sulfur, still available at any pharmacy) down inside your socks, and to wear long-sleeved garments tight at the neck and wrists to repel chiggers and all ticks. You can also dot yourself with oil of citronella, which smells marvelous and is safe. Bugs apparently dont like sulfur and citrusy things. Some people swear by Avons Skin So Soft bath oil. Avon now puts out a product called Avons Skin So Soft Moisturizing Suncare Plus, which contains the bath oil, an SPF of 15, and oil of citronella. Ive found another product called T.O.P., total outdoor protection, that includes citronella and SPF 15 by Biopharm of Bellport, New York. I could write a discourse on all the insect repellents Ive tried, including the crushed leaves of a citrus geranium known as mosquito plant (never mind; it doesnt work) and a battery-operated mosquito repellent that whined until I thought Id go madthough the mosquitoes were unfazed by itand crushed mint and pennyroyal leaves, plain garlic, boiled orange or lemon rinds, kerosene (my grandfathers favorite), and so on.

My husband loved to spend the night in the woods in a sleeping bag, and he never got a bite of any sort. But being a fair and tender lady, I go for Cutter, 6-12, Deep Woods Off! or some other heavy-duty brand of commercial repellent. An insect-repelling product called Repel (Permanone) that can be sprayed on your clothes and let to dry is also available, and it will continue to be effective through four or five washings. Whatever you do, you dont want to spend your time in the woods miserably batting at gnats, or come home covered with mosquito or spider bites (and any walk in the woods is sooner or later going to take you through a spiderweb). I once got a spider bite that took a year to heal. Now Im more careful. And these days, a tick bite can be life threatening. So dont take chances.

I had it years ago on the somewhat questionable authority of my grandfather that snakes detest whistling because it hurts their ears (I know they dont have ears, but they do have ear-like organs that are very sensitive). My fellow mushroom hunter, biologist Dr. Burwell Wingfield of the Virginia Military Institute, confirms that snakes hear vibrations, whether they be musical or sensed through the ground. So just to be on the safe side, I whistle and stomp my way through the woods in summerand hardly ever encounter a snake. If you give them half a chance, they will try to get out of your way.

Rabid animals are a possible threat, but an unlikely one: Most people would never get bitten if they would only remember to stay far away from any wild animal that doesnt act wild. Bands of frothing squirrels attacking and killing unwary humans is a good scenario for a horror film, but it hasnt happened yet that I know of.

There are a few rules that foragers need to bear in mind:

If the land youre hunting on isnt yours, first ask permission. If a stranger came into your yard and began picking your flowers, youd be incensed.

Carefully identify the things you plan to eat. Learning to identify the wild things that grow in your area is a great pleasure, and not difficult. Peruse your local bookstore or library for field guides to wild plants and mushrooms. In the case of plants, compare not only field characteristics but also the season of growth and the locale. Learn what poisonous plants in your region look like in all seasons. A salad of poison ivy would not sit well. Plant, mammal, insect, and bird identification increases the pleasure of walking, even if you never forage. Walking increases your joy in life. The dramatic reduction in walking since the advent of automobiles probably has as much to do with contemporary health problems as air pollution and high-fat diets. Forming a habit of walking every day may be the best possible assurance of a long and healthy lifeand a long life doesnt seem desirable to me unless it is healthy.

Then you get to gather. Take what you need, recalling that a lot of wild products freeze well. Treat your produce with care; a flat gathering basket keeps delicate berries, greens, and fungi from crushing those on the bottom, even if its not as convenient to carry as plastic bags are.

Clean wild food well. Nothing ruins the appetite so much as biting down on grit or finding a stinkbug crawling around in your salad. Worse than that would be getting liver flukes from polluted water. The method for cleaning watercress (see page 35) is necessary because the plants grow in running water, and any running water these days might be polluted. For all other greens, multiple rinses in fresh, clean tap water are sufficient. Mushrooms need to be scrupulously cleaned, as they all grow up through soil (and often manure) and may thus retain some clinging bits of bacteria and undesirable fungi. Berries need gentle washing to float out any critters, which seem to enjoy them as much as we do. Other fruits just need rinsing off.

When you get home, clean yourself well also. Search diligently for ticks, both the big ones (dog ticks) and those the size of poppy seeds (deer ticks). Both now carry, in addition to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease and a bacterial disease, HGE (human granulocytic ehrlichiosis), which may be even more deadly. Inspect your entire body, shower well, soaping thoroughly in case youve brushed against poison oak or ivy, and inspect your body again after bathing. Wash your clothes before wearing them again as a final precaution against poison oak or ivy.