Gather food

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Gather food, or foraging involves searching for wild, edible plants, such as mushrooms, berries or greens, we can do this in both rural and urban areas.

Foraging, or searching for food can boost your nutrient intake as well as help you try new and interesting foods and being self sufficient all at the same time.

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Gather food in the wild

Gather food in the wild

I first became interested in foraging as a young child.

It was a big part of my child hood in Sweden, foraging for mushrooms and berries. I loved it! We mainly searched for blueberries, lingon berries and cloud berries. I remember clearly the excitement when finding a good area with a large amount of mushrooms or berries. We brought picnic and spent hours in the forest. It is a good, fun and healthy family tradition that I have passed on to my own family now.

In most countries and places there is a lot of wild food to gather and prepare when you know what to look for and it's a great option if interested in eating more sustainably.

Do research and find out how to find food in the wild and what's available where you live.

Be sure to only pick edible foods. There are many different books on foraging and how to identify wild plants that can help you.

Gathering fruit

A large green crates full of green and red apples

I often see wild apple trees around where we live. We often stop on the side of the road and gather apple from them when its apple season.

There is often a lot of fruit on each tree. They store well and can be prepared and frozen easily so it's really worth doing if you don't have your own apple tree.

See my apple sauce recipe

Applesauce compote cooking in a large square sauce pan. A wooden spoon stirring the sauce

Gather green plants

There are many edible greens that we can find in the wild including wild lettuce, spinach, watercress, chicory and herbs. Wild greens are rich in many nutrients and I love incorporating them into delicious meals.

Listed below are the main ones that I use, mainly because they are easily available in my area.

Stinging nettles

Stinging nettle is a common weed. It grows wild in gardens, parks, paddocks, forest edges and around old farmsteads in spring and summer that can be made into tea, delicious soups, tarts or sauces.

Stinging nettles are an excellent food source and one of the most nutritional wild plants available

They can also be blanched and frozen. Then it's easy to add them to a soup or pasta dish. Stinging nettle is not only extremely nutritious but also very tasty, so I love using them.

stinging nettles cooking in a pot of water — Cooking nettles

cooked stinging nettles. Leaves picked from the stalks. Cooked leaves in a glass bowl and stalks on a chopping board — Blanched nettles

Use gardening cloves when you pick them and they wont sting you. Then blanch the nettles in hot water for 1-2 minutes and refresh in cold water. Now you can touch them and eat them and they wont sting.

Nettle soup with egg halves on top and drizzle os olive oil

Try this fresh, simple Nettle soup recipe. It's a light dish, quick to make and has just a few ingredients.

This crumbed fish with nettles is another great dish using wild stinging nettles.

Stinging nettle has many health benefits and they taste delicious so it's worth making the effort.

Nettle tea

Making tea out of wild stinging nettles is a good way to get all the nutrition from the plant.

To make tea you need to dry the stinging nettles first and pick the leaves off the steam.

Preparation:

Pour 250ml hot water over two teaspoons of dried nettle leaves.

Allow the tea to brew for about ten minutes.

When brewing nettles into a tea it can have a mild bitter taste. You can add other herbs like peppermint or lemon balm to make it more palatable.

The brewed nettle tea can be chilled overnight and enjoyed the next day over ice as an iced tea.

Watercress

Watercress can be found in many freshwater creeks in New Zealand. When you find a watercress creek there is usually a good amount of it so it can be really worth stopping to harvest some.

The bright green leaves are lovely to eat raw in a mixed salad, made in to pesto or cooked in soups or stews. It has a peppery flavor and will add a nice flavor burst to the meal as well as a nutrition boost. Watercress is classified as a super food. It is high in antioxidant and pairs well with any wild meat or seafood.

Gather mushrooms

In autumn there can be an abundant of wild mushrooms in the paddocks, garden and parks if the weather allows.

When foraging for mushrooms, bring along a mushroom hunting guide that includes edible mushrooms that grow in your area. It will help you properly identify safe varieties.

Field mushrooms are best picked and cooked while fresh while porcini (birch bolete) mushrooms that mainly grow in the garden and parks, I prefer to slice thin, dry and then store in zip lock bags in the cupboard.

freshly picked porcini mushrooms on a white kitchen bench

sliced porcini mushrooms on a chopping board

They store really well for at least one year if dried properly. Once dried I can easily add them to soups, stews and sauces. Read more about storing and preserving food here

I prefer the flavor and texture when dried first. The flavor tends to intensify and the texture are firmer.

sliced porcini mushrooms drying on news paper

dried, sliced porcini mushrooms in a zip lock bag

That’s the only two wild mushrooms I pick in New Zealand. There are a few more edible ones but it’s the only two types that I feel confident to identify, and they are delicious.

I have tried pine bollet before, a similar mushroom to the porcini (birch bollet) but I don’t like them as much and they don’t dry and store as easily as they have more moisture content in them.

fruit and berries

Blackberries is a scrub weed and can be found growing wild in paddocks, gardens and forests in many parts of New Zealand.

It’s probably the most delicious weed you can eat. I’m lucky to have a few scrubs growing on my property.

Blackberries are great to pick in late summer and autumn.

Delicious on their own and can easily be made in to excellent desserts and baking.

They freeze really well too.

Rose hip can often be found in the wild.

These vitamin rich berries can be made in to jellies, jams or beverages.

In Sweden we drink a rosehip beverage called Nypon soppa. It's commonly served as snack with crisp bread or as a dessert with whipped cream

Strawberry dogwood tree

This is a decorative tree found in the wild as well as in many gardens.

Many people has it in their garden without knowing that the red berry like fruits are edible.

The berries are sweetest and best consumed when bright red and very ripe. They can be eaten straight off the tree or be made in to a delicious jam/jelly

Its very easy to make jam out of the strawberry dogwood tree because there is no peeling or cutting involved. The fruit goes straight in the pot as they are straight from the tree