1 Rules
The rules that keep foragers alive
Wild food is a supplement, not a diet. Most poisonings come from people who were "fairly sure". Written for Europe; check local species anywhere else.
100% identification, or you do not eat it
Check every feature: leaf shape and arrangement, stem, smell, flower, habitat, season. Use two independent field guides (see Library). "Looks like the picture" is not identification.
Know the deadly look-alike of everything you pick
For each edible plant, learn what it can be confused with and the one feature that tells them apart. Look-alikes
Start with a small amount
A new food, even a correctly identified one, can cause allergy or upset. One new species at a time, a small portion, wait 24 hours.
Clean places only
Not along busy roads (lead, oil), sprayed fields and verges, dog-walking paths, below fields with livestock (liver fluke on watercress), or polluted water.
Wash or cook anything low-growing
In much of central Europe the fox tapeworm (Echinococcus multilocularis) can be on berries and greens near the ground. Cooking kills it; washing reduces it.
Take a little from many places
Leave most of each patch so it grows back. Roots kill the plant; leaves and fruit do not.
Rubbing a plant on your skin and lips and waiting hours does not detect the poisons that kill: hemlock, autumn crocus, yew, foxglove and deadly fungi act late or at doses too small to notice at first. Never use it for fungi. If you cannot identify it, do not eat it.
- Every plant with umbrella-shaped flower heads (carrot family: cow parsley, wild carrot, hemlock). The deadliest plants in Europe are in this family.
- White or all-white mushrooms with gills, and anything with a ring and a cup at the base.
- Bulbs and plants with lily-like leaves except wild garlic that smells of garlic.
2 Reality
Where the calories are: nuts, not greens
An adult needs about 2,000–2,800 kcal a day. Greens supply vitamins and minerals, not energy. Nuts and starchy roots are what feed you.
| Food | kcal per 100 g | To reach 2,000 kcal | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walnuts, hazelnuts (shelled) | 630–650 | ~320 g | Sep–Oct, store for a year |
| Beechnuts (shelled, roasted) | ~570 | ~350 g | Sep–Oct, mast years only |
| Acorns (leached, dried) | ~390–500 | ~450 g | Sep–Nov, plentiful |
| Sweet chestnuts (fresh) | ~200 | ~1 kg | Oct–Nov |
| Cattail rhizome starch | ~250–300 (dry) | much work | Autumn–winter |
| Burdock root | ~70 | ~3 kg | Autumn, first-year plants |
| Blackberries | ~45 | ~4.5 kg | Aug–Sep |
| Nettle, dandelion leaves | ~40–45 | ~5 kg (impossible) | Mar–Jun |
Forage for vitamins (nettle, rosehip, berries) and gather nuts in autumn in bulk. For calories grow potatoes, grain and beans (Farming), and fish or trap (Animals). Preserve surplus by drying (Preserving).
3 Greens
Beginner plants: common, easy, hard to confuse
Learn these ten first. Each is widespread across Europe and each has a clear identifying feature.
Stinging nettle Mar–Jun
- Take
- Top 4–6 leaves of young plants, with gloves. Autumn: seeds.
- Use
- Cook like spinach, soup, tea, dried powder. Cooking or drying removes the sting. High in protein, iron, vitamin C. Stem fibres make cord.
- Danger
- Old plants after flowering irritate kidneys. Dead-nettles look similar, do not sting and are also edible.
Dandelion All year
- Take
- Young leaves, flowers, roots (autumn).
- Use
- Leaves raw or cooked (bitter; blanch), flowers in fritters, roots roasted as coffee substitute.
- Danger
- Hard to confuse. Look-alikes (cat's ear, hawkbits) are also edible. Only one flower per hollow, milky stem.
Wild garlic / ramsons Check
- Take
- Leaves Mar–May in damp woods, flowers, seed pods.
- Use
- Raw or cooked like garlic and spinach, pesto, preserved in salt or oil (refrigerate).
- Danger
- Lily of the valley and autumn crocus are deadly and grow in the same places. Crush each leaf: it must smell strongly of garlic. See look-alikes.
Chickweed All year
- Take
- Tender stems and leaves, even in mild winters.
- Use
- Raw in salads, mild taste.
- Danger
- Scarlet pimpernel (mildly toxic) looks similar: chickweed has a single line of hairs along the stem, small white star flowers with deeply split petals.
Ribwort and greater plantain Apr–Oct
- Take
- Young leaves, seeds.
- Use
- Leaves cooked (stringy raw). Crushed leaf on insect stings and small cuts.
- Danger
- Parallel ribs from base to tip, stretchy threads when torn: distinctive.
Fat hen May–Sep
- Take
- Young leaves and tips, seeds in autumn.
- Use
- Cooked like spinach. Seeds are a grain (rinse off saponins).
- Danger
- Contains oxalates and nitrates: cook, eat in moderation, avoid plants on heavily manured ground.
Cleavers (sticky willy) Mar–May
- Take
- Young shoot tips before seeds form.
- Use
- Cooked greens, cold infusion. Roasted seeds as coffee substitute.
- Danger
- Hard to confuse: clings to clothing with tiny hooks.
Common sorrel Mar–Oct
- Take
- Arrow-shaped leaves with backward-pointing lobes, lemony sour taste.
- Use
- Raw in small amounts, sauces, soups.
- Danger
- High in oxalic acid: small amounts, avoid with kidney stones. Young lords-and-ladies leaves are also arrow-shaped but have net veins and burn the mouth.
Lime (linden) and hawthorn leaves Apr–May
- Take
- Fresh, soft young leaves from the trees.
- Use
- Raw salad greens in quantity. Lime flowers for tea in June.
- Danger
- Know the tree from bark and shape first.
Cattail / bulrush (Typha) Care
- Take
- Young shoots in spring, green flower heads in early summer, rhizomes autumn to spring.
- Use
- Shoots raw or cooked. Rhizomes: crush in water, let the starch settle, dry it as flour.
- Danger
- Only from clean water. Before the brown "sausage" head is visible it can be confused with poisonous yellow flag iris: find last year's heads on the same plant.
4 Nuts
Nuts: the wild calorie store
Gather in autumn, dry, store in the shell in mouse-proof containers. A good hazel or walnut tree gives several kilograms.
| Nut | Identify | Prepare | Danger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hazel | Multi-stemmed shrub, round toothed leaves, nuts in a leafy husk | Raw or roasted. Pick when husk browns; squirrels are faster than you. | None. |
| Walnut | Big tree, compound leaves, green fleshy husk that stains black | Remove husk, dry in shell for 2–3 weeks. | Mouldy nuts: throw away. |
| Sweet chestnut | Long saw-toothed leaves. Husk covered in dense, fine, sharp needles, 2–3 flat nuts with a pointed tassel | Slit shell, roast or boil. Dry and grind as flour. | Horse chestnut (below) is toxic. |
| Beech | Smooth grey bark, small triangular nuts in a bristly four-part husk | Roast and peel. Pressed for oil. | Raw in quantity causes nausea: roast. |
| Acorn (oak) | Any oak | Must be leached of tannin (below). | Raw: bitter, stomach upset, kidney strain in quantity. |
Horse chestnut (conker): leaves like a hand with 5–7 large fingers, husk with few thick spikes, usually one round, shiny nut with no point. Sweet chestnut: single long leaves, husk densely covered in fine needles like a hedgehog, flat nuts with a tassel on top.
Leaching acorns
From bitter acorn to flour
- Shell the acorns. Throw away any with holes, mould or that float in water.
- Chop or coarsely grind them. The finer, the faster the tannin comes out.
- Cold leach: soak in lots of cold water, change it once or twice a day for 3–10 days. Hot leach: boil, pour off, refill with boiling water, repeat for 1–3 hours.
- Done when the water stays pale and a piece tastes bland, not bitter. Dry in a low oven or the sun, grind to flour. Mix with wheat flour for bread, or use for porridge.
Cold-leached acorn flour keeps its starch and binds in bread. Hot leaching is fast but gives a crumbly flour better for porridge and pancakes. Bundle chopped acorns in a cloth bag in a clean stream for a hands-off cold leach.
5 Fruit
Berries: safe ones and deadly ones
Berries give vitamin C and sugar, and dry well. A handful of the wrong berries can kill a child. Teach children never to eat any berry without asking.
| Edible | Identify | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blackberry, raspberry, dewberry | Thorny canes, fruit made of many little drupelets | Raw. No poisonous look-alike in Europe. Wash low-hanging ones. |
| Wild strawberry | Three-part toothed leaves, runners | Raw. |
| Bilberry (blueberry) | Low shrub in acid woods and heath, blue-black berry with a crown on top, purple flesh | Raw, dried. |
| Elder | Woody shrub, bark with corky dots, flat heads of drooping black berries | Cook before eating; raw berries, stems and leaves cause vomiting. Flowers in June for cordial. Dwarf elder (poisonous) is a non-woody plant with berry clusters pointing up. |
| Rosehip (wild rose) | Red oval hips on thorny rose | Very high in vitamin C. Remove seeds and hairs (itchy): strain syrup through a cloth. |
| Rowan | Tree with feathery leaves, clusters of orange-red berries | Raw ones are toxic in quantity: cook as jelly, or after frost. |
| Sloe, hawthorn haws | Thorny shrubs; sloe blue-black with bloom, haw dark red | Sloes after frost; flesh only. Never crush the stones or seeds (cyanide compounds). |
| Crab apple, wild plum, cherry | As cultivated ones, smaller | Cooked, jam. Spit out stones and pips. |
Deadly and poisonous berries
| Colour | Plant | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Deadly nightshade (Atropa) | Single shiny black cherry-sized berry sitting in a green star, bell flowers purple-brown. 2–5 berries can kill a child. |
| Black | Privet, ivy, dogwood, buckthorn, herb paris | Vomiting, diarrhoea; herb paris has one berry on four leaves. |
| Red | Yew | Dark flat needles, red cup with the seed visible. The red flesh is the only part that is not poisonous; seeds and needles stop the heart. |
| Red / orange | Lords-and-ladies (Arum) | Dense spike of berries on a bare stalk at ground level, late summer. Burns the mouth, swelling of throat. |
| Red | Bittersweet (woody nightshade), white bryony, honeysuckle, daphne, holly, lily of the valley, guelder rose (raw) | From stomach upset to serious poisoning. Bittersweet: purple flowers with yellow centre, egg-shaped berries. |
| Pink / orange | Spindle | Four-lobed pink capsule with an orange seed. Toxic. |
| White | Mistletoe, snowberry | Toxic. No white berry in Europe is a safe food. |
6 Danger
Deadly look-alikes: learn these pairs by heart
Each pair has killed people who picked the right-hand plant by mistake.
Wild garlic vs lily of the valley, autumn crocus Deadly
- Edible
- Wild garlic: each leaf on its own stalk from the ground, strong garlic smell when crushed.
- Deadly
- Lily of the valley: two or three leaves wrapped around each other on one stem, no smell. Autumn crocus: leaves in spring in a bundle from a bulb, no stalk, no smell; flowers in autumn without leaves.
- Trap
- Your hands smell of garlic after the first leaf. Crush each leaf separately and smell it, pick leaf by leaf, not by handful.
Wild carrot, cow parsley vs hemlock, water dropwort Deadly
- Edible
- Wild carrot: hairy stem, carrot smell, often one dark red floret in the centre of the flower head.
- Deadly
- Hemlock: smooth stem with purple blotches, unpleasant mousy smell. Hemlock water dropwort and cowbane: wet places, roots like pale fingers, one mouthful can kill within hours.
- Rule
- Beginners do not eat any plant with umbrella-shaped flower heads.
Comfrey, borage vs foxglove Deadly
- Edible?
- Comfrey leaves are bristly and run down onto the stem. Comfrey itself harms the liver if eaten often: use externally only.
- Deadly
- Foxglove leaves in the first year are a soft, velvety rosette without flowers. Contains heart poisons.
Sweet chestnut vs horse chestnut Toxic
- Edible
- Sweet chestnut: dense fine needles, flat pointed nuts, long single leaves.
- Toxic
- Horse chestnut: few thick spikes, round nut, hand-shaped leaves.
Elder vs dwarf elder Toxic
- Edible
- Elder: woody shrub or tree, berry clusters hang down.
- Toxic
- Dwarf elder: dies back in winter, green stems, berry clusters stand upright, unpleasant smell.
Hogweed, giant hogweed Burns
- What
- Huge umbellifers along rivers and roadsides, giant hogweed up to 4 m with purple spotted stems.
- Danger
- Sap on skin plus sunlight causes severe blistering burns and scars for years. Cover skin, wash sap off at once, keep the area out of sun for days.
7 Fungi
Mushrooms: deadly rules, few safe species
Mushrooms are mostly water and give few calories. The deadliest ones taste good and make you ill only when it is too late. Only pick what you can identify beyond any doubt.
No test works
Silver spoons, onions turning black, peeling the cap, "animals eat it", pleasant smell or taste: all myths. Slugs and rabbits eat death caps. Only full species identification counts.
Avoid white gills with a ring or volva
That is the Amanita pattern: death cap, destroying angel (pure white), panther cap, fly agaric.
Avoid little brown mushrooms
Hundreds of small brown species, some deadly (funeral bell on wood, deadly webcaps). Not worth the risk.
Check every single mushroom
Deadly ones grow among edible ones. One wrong specimen in the basket poisons the whole pan.
Always cook, eat a little the first time
Many edible species are toxic raw (morels, honey fungus). Keep one uncooked specimen in the fridge in case someone falls ill.
Young, firm, fresh
Old, soggy or maggoty mushrooms cause food poisoning even if the species is edible. Carry them in a basket, not plastic.
Beginner species
Chanterelle Jul–Oct
- ID
- Egg-yolk yellow, funnel-shaped, fruity apricot smell. Underside with blunt, forked ridges running down the stem, not sharp gills. Flesh white and firm, tears like string cheese. On the ground in woods.
- Not
- False chanterelle: orange, true thin gills. Jack-o'-lantern: orange clusters on wood, true gills, toxic. Deadly webcap: orange-brown, gills, rusty brown spores, a thin fibrous veil.
Cep / porcini and other boletes Jul–Oct
- ID
- A sponge of tubes under the cap instead of gills, thick stem. Cep: brown bun-like cap, white net pattern on the upper stem, white to yellowish pores.
- Not
- Avoid boletes with red or orange pores, or that turn blue quickly when cut. Bitter bolete (pink pores, bitter) spoils a meal. Few European boletes are seriously dangerous (Satan's bolete causes violent vomiting), which makes them a safer group, not a safe one.
Giant puffball Jul–Oct
- ID
- White ball larger than a fist, often football size, in grass. Cut through top to bottom: pure white throughout, firm like marshmallow.
- Not
- Any yellow, brown or green inside: too old. The outline of a small mushroom (cap, gills, stem) inside: a young Amanita in its egg, deadly. Earthballs: hard, warty, black-purple inside, poisonous.
Hedgehog fungus Aug–Nov
- ID
- Pale buff cap, underside covered in small soft spines instead of gills.
- Not
- No dangerous look-alike in Europe. Cook well; can be bitter when old.
Chicken of the woods Cook well
- ID
- Bright sulphur-yellow and orange shelves on oak, willow, cherry, chestnut.
- Not
- Never from yew, conifers or locust tree. Some people react even to good ones: eat a little first, cook thoroughly, only young soft edges.
- Death cap, destroying angel (Amanita): symptoms start 6–24 hours later, then an apparent recovery, then liver failure on day 3–5.
- Deadly webcaps (Cortinarius rubellus, orellanus): orange-brown, rusty spores. Kidney failure 2–20 days after eating.
- Funeral bell (Galerina marginata): small brown, in clusters on wood, same poison as the death cap.
- False morel (Gyromitra): brain-like wrinkled cap. Poisonous even when cooked, and the fumes when cooking.
8 Help
If someone ate something wrong
Find out what, how much, when
Keep leftovers, the plant, a specimen from the same spot, even vomit. Write down the time. If poison control or a doctor is reachable, call now.
Treat everyone who ate it
Even people who feel fine. With deadly fungi, feeling well for the first hours is typical.
Do not make them vomit
It rarely helps and can cause choking. Rinse the mouth, remove plant remains.
Activated charcoal
If available and the person is fully awake, within about an hour of eating: medical activated charcoal, around 50 g for an adult (1 g per kg for a child), stirred into water. Not with corrosive substances or when drowsy.
Fluids and watch
Vomiting and diarrhoea dehydrate fast: oral rehydration solution in small, frequent sips (see Medical). Watch breathing, heart rate, confusion, yellow skin, dark or no urine.
Stomach symptoms starting within 1–2 hours of a mushroom meal are usually the less dangerous kind. Symptoms starting 6 hours or later suggest amatoxins or orellanine and need hospital treatment urgently, even if the person later seems to recover.
9 Seasons
Foraging calendar
Central and northern Europe. Shift a few weeks earlier in the south and later in the mountains.
| Months | Greens and flowers | Fruit and nuts | Roots and fungi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar–May | Nettle, wild garlic, dandelion, cleavers, chickweed, sorrel, lime and hawthorn leaves | – | Cattail shoots, morels (cook, experts only) |
| Jun–Jul | Elderflower, lime flowers, fat hen, plantain | Wild strawberries, raspberries, bilberries, cherries | Chanterelles start, ceps after rain |
| Aug–Sep | Fat hen seeds, nettle seeds | Blackberries, elderberries (cook), rowan (cook), hazelnuts, crab apples | Chanterelles, ceps, giant puffball, hedgehog |
| Oct–Nov | Second flush of nettle and chickweed | Sweet chestnuts, walnuts, beechnuts, acorns, rosehips, sloes and haws after frost | Dandelion and burdock roots, late boletes |
| Dec–Feb | Chickweed, dandelion leaves in mild spells | Remaining rosehips | Cattail rhizomes, roots where the ground is not frozen |