Introduction and About Me

The idea behind this blog is to provide myself an outlet for my notes on edible plants, in a way that also allows other people to read about the various specimens, harvesting methods, preparation techniques, and so on. Normally I would keep this information in my own personal notes, and the thought of having a blog about wild plants isn't overly interesting to me at the moment. But as I am a beginner (relatively speaking) in the world of edible wild foods, the perspective and experiences might just be worth sharing. 

My name is Sam Gallagher, I am 24 years old and I live near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. I first became interested in wild plants about 4-5 years ago, and because I don't know anyone else that's interested in wild edibles, let alone anyone more experienced, I've been very slow to actually try eating different plants. I've got a good grasp of botany (enough to positively ID plants from the flower and/or fruit), and my brother and I are actually amateur botanists of sorts (him more than me). Most often we use (1) Britton and Brown and (2) Gray's Manual of Botany to ID unfamiliar plants. Because of the nature of wild plants, it can take me a year or more to positively identify something to decide if it's edible. Most of that time is spent waiting for the plant to develop, then waiting for the plant to come back into season for edibility. 

Basically, eating wild is a long-game type of affair, and even then I haven't rushed into anything. The wild plants I've actually eaten is a fairly short list:

• Dandelion, wood nettle, purple deadnettle, garlic mustard, hairy bittercress (spring greens/weeds)
• Wild onion (hard to identify but probably A. canadense), ramps (A. tricoccum)
• Spring beauty roots
• Raspberries, may apples
• Black walnuts
• Cattail rhizome and lateral shoots

Plants I've seen but never prepared for eating:

• Chickweed, henbit deadnettle, chicory, wood sorrel
• Evening primrose
• Wapato (Saggitaria latifolia)
• Toothwort (Dentaria spp.), trout lily
• Wild carrots
• Milkweed
• Dock, burdock, thistle roots
• Amaranth seeds
• Acorns

The reasons I haven't eaten these (yet) vary: 

• I don't think it's worth the effort
• I haven't seen enough that was worth eating
• I didn't have time or means to collect it
• I always miss the season
• I don't know how/when to harvest and/or prepare

The references I use for edibility and preparation include Samuel Thayer's The Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden; Euell Gibbons's Stalking the Wild Asparagus; and Plants for a Future (PFAF). I've also been meaning to get a hold of John Kallas's Edible Wild Plants, which I think will be a valuable reference as well. Honestly, there aren't many other references I trust to give first-hand accounts or proper citations. 

Anyway, here's to the start of a new website.