For those in the know, foraging for food in the wild places of the Four Corners region can be both a filling and fulfilling adventure. Of course, foraging was how the Indigenous people and later colonizers found food before they started growing their own food. They learned, by trial and error or watching wild animals, which foods were safe to eat and which should be avoided.
Fortunately, today’s foragers have numerous resources to help them learn about foods that can be safely harvested from nature and added to their dinner plates. Let’s explore some of the plants that can be foraged in this region and resources that can help guide your experience.
Foraging Basics
First, though, let’s talk about some important foraging basics.
- Be absolutely sure that the plant you intend to forage is really what you think it is. Some plants have look-alikes that are inedible and can be poisonous.
- Don’t forage on private land without permission. Likewise, be aware of the rules and regulations for foraging on public lands. National and state parks may be home to many edible plants, but you may not be able to harvest them. Recently, some national parks have changed their rules and allow limited foraging for certain items. Check before you forage!
- Once you have found a plant that is safe to forage someplace where it is legal to harvest, make sure you are not taking too much. Generally, not taking more than 10 percent of the local plant material will help ensure there is enough of the plants for wildlife and future foraging.
- Be safe! Whether that means having tongs and gloves to harvest from spiny plants or making sure bears aren’t also looking to enjoy berries from the same plants as you, be aware and use caution.
- Do not harvest in areas that have been sprayed with pesticides or where toxins can accumulate. Roadsides and railroad beds are areas to avoid foraging due to toxic chemicals.
- Be sure to find out how to safely consume foraged foods, including any required rinsing, cooking, drying, or consumption limits. That can make the difference between a food being safe to eat or making you sick.
Why Foraging?
For many of us, our first — and perhaps only — foraging experience was popping sun-ripened berries straight from the bush into our juice-stained mouths. Delicious! The price we paid was often scratched arms from reaching for just one more berry, but the dividend was well worth it. Besides being eaten fresh, the berries could be made into jams, cobblers, muffins, or syrup. That is the essence of foraging: Finding something edible out in nature and using it in a variety of delicious and nutritious ways.
Those of a certain age may also remember television commercials where Euell Gibbons became a viral sensation by asking if people had ever eaten a pine tree as many parts are edible. While he was promoting cereal, his question sparked interest in eating plants from nature. He began foraging as a youngster to help supplement his family’s meals and later published several books on foraging, including some of his favorite items such as lamb’s quarters, cattails, and dandelion shoots.
Foraging is an opportunity to enjoy time outdoors while searching for food that may be more nutritious and certainly fresher than what you can get at the grocery store.
Some plants also have medicinal benefits. The Native Americans didn’t have drug stores or pharmacists, but they did have tribe members who became experts in which plants had helpful properties. There are books on foraging medicinal plants if that is of interest to you.
What to Forage
Depending on where in the Four Corners region you are, you’ll find a different assortment of plants that are edible. For example, in desert areas, foragers may be harvesting ripe, red tuna fruits or nopalitos from cactus, cholla fruit, desert willow blossoms, or mesquite pods.
In riparian areas, foragers may find bracken ferns, cattail, and lamb’s quarters. Like Euell’s pine trees, many parts of other trees and shrubs are also edible, including berries, nuts, and leaves. In the low mountains, piñon nuts are so desirable they are harvested and often sold at roadside stands.
Almost anywhere you go, you may find dandelions, often considered the bane of a lawn gardener’s existence. However, the young leaves, roots, and even the flowers of this “weed” are edible. You just need to know how and when to harvest them (for sure before a child plucks the mature wispy, white seed head and blows them away to make a wish!).
Amaranth grows in a variety of places and the seeds are a nutritious food as are the cooked greens. You may have heard it called pigweed.
Mushrooms are a very popular food item to forage. They are most commonly found in forested areas where it is cooler and there is plenty of plant matter for the mushrooms to draw nutrition from as they continue the decomposition process.
Rayne Grant of the Four Corners Mycological Society headquartered in Durango, Colorado, explained in a video that mushrooms that may be found at the right time in the mountains of Southern Colorado include varieties of morrell, porcini, chanterelle, oyster, puffball, and others. She warns “That it is very important to know your mushrooms. Do not ever consume a mushroom that you are not 100 percent positive of the identification of.” She says first-time mushroom foragers should join a group and learn from experienced foragers.
Foraging on Public Land
As mentioned above, some national parks now allow limited foraging, but the rules are up to the park’s superintendent and can be changed annually. Generally, those parks that allow foraging limit the items and quantities that can be foraged and require that they be consumed at the park. You can check each park’s online compendium for specific rules or give the park a call.
For example, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah allows harvesting fruit from the park’s orchards, planted by Mormon settlers, as well as non-native wild asparagus, grapes, and mulberries (up to one pound per person per week). Fruit gathered and eaten in the orchards is free but there is a charge for quantities removed from the orchards for personal use.
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado allows harvesting of up to one quart per person per day of blueberries, chokecherries, red elderberries, raspberries, strawberries, and rose hips, although mushroom foraging is prohibited.
Foraging Essentials
Like any other activity, having the right tools will make it more successful and enjoyable. For foraging, you’ll want to have a backpack, water, work gloves, bags or buckets to carry what you forage, and, depending on what you’ll be gathering, tools such as a sharp knife, pruners, folding saw, a folding shovel, or a pickax. Having guide books to help you identify plants is also essential if you’re not familiar with the plants you plan to harvest.
Foraging Resources
Before you head out into nature with a basket to gather dinner, you need to take time to educate yourself. Fortunately, there are books, videos, native plant groups, and even classes that can help you start building your wild plant knowledge.
Some books that can help guide your Four Corners foraging adventures include Southwest Foraging by John Slattery (which covers Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah, along with other states outside the Four Corners), Foraging the Rocky Mountains, and the Rocky Mountain Berry Book, both by Falcon Guides. There are also books focused on mushroom foraging, to help ensure you are harvesting safe ‘shrooms.
Organizations, such as the Four Corners Mycological Society mentioned above, are also valuable resources for beginning foragers and those who like to enjoy their hobbies with others.
Foraging can be quite enjoyable and add some fascinating new foods to your table, as long as you follow the important safety procedures and ensure you only harvest and eat foods you can identify with 100 percent accuracy. Bon appetit!