Edible Wild Plants in Northwestern Ontario: A Primer

Did you know many wild plants growing in northwestern Ontario are edible? While berries are the most popular wild edibles, tubers, leaves, flowers, and stems of many plants found in northern forests and freshwaters are edible. Some can be eaten raw, others need to be boiled or roasted. Both Aboriginal and settler communities have long traditions of harvesting these plants. They are an important part of our forest and freshwater food system.

Basic Rules of Edible Wild Plant Collection

• Be sure you know what you are picking, and eat only plants you can positively identify as edible. It’s best to spend time with a local expert, but many books and even local courses or workshops can be helpful. • Harvest plants in areas where you know there is low risk of contamination from industrial and other pollution. • Try eating small quantities of any plants you haven’t eaten before. • Foraging edible plants is permitted on most public land in Ontario, however, make sure you have the property owners’ permission before collecting plants on private property. Also, part of best practices includes contacting the local First Nation community. • Most importantly, take only what you can use and use what you take. Edible wild plants are a shared resource. We need to make sure they will return year after year.

Marsh marigold is is found Labrador Tea grows Goldenrod found in wet areas across throughout North in wet, acidic areas Canada and into the America except in throughout Canada. The southern United States. southeastern portions leaves can be chewed Marsh marigolds contain a of the United States. or steeped in boiling toxic compound called Goldenrod can be water to make tea. glycoside protoanemanin cooked like spinach and There is evidence that which is why it is added to dishes. Herbal large doses can be recommended to boil the teas are also made toxic as Labrador tea plant twice before from goldenrod. The contains toxic alkaloids. consumption. The plant flowers can be added Use sparingly. can be pickled and the as an edible garnish to greens can be cooked as a a dish. The seeds can potherb. Do not eat raw. also be used to thicken stews/gravies, or used as a survival food. Mountain fly honeysuckle is Cloudberries are found found from Alberta across Canada, Europe east to Newfoundland. and Asia. The berries are The honeysuckle Cattails can be found highly regarded in berries can be made in almost any wet area Norway and are referred into a tea, juice, or of North America and to as ‘highland gold’. The preserve. Nectar can are an incredibly berries can be eaten raw, be sucked from the versatile food source. added to baking, or flower, hence the In fact, no green plant preserved as a jelly. name ‘honeysuckle’. produces more edible starch per acre - not potatoes, rice, or yams! Hazelnuts are found in Young shoots in spring can be peeled and woodlands and forest edges Chanterelles are found eaten raw or as from the southern portions of throughout the world. asparagus, immature Canada south to Georgia. They are especially flower spikes can be Hazelnuts come in both the prized in North America boiled for a few European commercial variety and Europe. The minutes and eaten like and the smaller American chanterelle mushroom corn on the cob, pollen and beaked varieties. The can be used in any dish can be gathered as nut can be opened and eaten that calls for mushrooms. flour and mixed with raw, roasted, ground into Chanterelles can be eaten wheat flour, root buds flour, or candied. Only use raw, cut into slices and can be cooked or eaten nuts without boreholes as sautéed in butter, pickled, in late summer, and bugs like to burrow in and dried, or canned. Be sure root stalks can be eat the nut. The nut should to have a good mushroom pounded to make flour be picked when the outside identification book or in fall and winter. is green and the shell inside consult a local expert. is brown. Wild rice is found from British Columbia to Newfoundland (excluding Saskatchewan) and Ostrich fern is a throughout the southern United States to Florida. Wild gourmet wild vegetable rice has a long history of use by Aboriginal Peoples as found across much of a valuable food staple. Processing wild rice has many North America in the steps. First the rice is collected in a boat by hitting the springtime. Unfurled stalks with a stick, which causes the rice to drop. Next fiddleheads, simply the rice is dried or cured and then thrashed by boiled or steamed and trampling or dancing. Lastly, the rice is winnowed to served with butter are remove the chaff. Wild rice is eaten plain or in any rice superb. Be sure to dish. Wild rice can also be ground into flour. Wild rice check for brown scales, is highly nutritious since it is high in protein and fibre not fuzz. while low in fat.

Wild chives are found across Black spruce is found across Canada in Canada and the northern United the boreal forest. Black spruce has been States. The leaves, bulbs and used to prevent scurvy due to its high flower heads can be eaten as a vitamin C content. The inner bark can be cooked vegetable or pickled. The harvested in spring and eaten fresh or herb is used the same as domestic dried. The inner bark can also be ground varieties for flavouring. into a meal in order to extend flour in hard times. The young tips can be boiled as an emergency food. A tea can be made from the branches.

Birch is found across Canada and into the northern United States. The sap is Wild ginger grows in average, boiled down to produce medium to wet, well-drained soil, in syrup. The process requires part shade to full shade. Wild ginger 80 litres of sap to produce 1 prefers constantly moist, acidic soils litre of syrup. Birch syrup is in heavy shade. The rhizomes are sometimes mixed with maple dried and eaten as a spice or syrup to give it a sweeter simmer as a ginger substitute. Fresh taste. The birch twigs and roots are used in stir-fry. The roots bark can also be used for a can also be boiled with sugar water tea. to form a syrup that can be used to flavour desserts. Yellow water lilies are Yarrow is found Plantain is found found from Manitoba to throughout North America throughout North Nova Scotia in wetlands. on mildly disturbed soil of America. Plantain The root can be eaten as both grasslands and open leaves can be eaten a root vegetable or forests. The leaves of raw in salads or potatoes, but is yarrow can be added to cooked in any dish. considered bitter by some, mixed salads, either cooked, The seeds can be even after boiling in or raw. Young leaves are made into a meal or multiple changes of water. less bitter. The flowers and flour. Plantain is rich The seeds can ground into leaves can also be made into in vitamin A, C and K. a flour or winnowed and a tea. Yarrow has also been cooked like popcorn. used as flavouring for beer.

Wintergreen is found from southeastern Manitoba Juniper is found throughout Canada. to Newfoundland and south The crushed berries can be added to to Alabama. The leaves can baking, eaten raw, added as a spice to be steeped to create a tea cooking, or drank as a tea. Young twigs that has a minty flavour. can also be chewed. Eating excessive The leaves and fruit can be amounts can be toxic, use with caution. eaten on the trailside or used in baking to impart a mint flavour.

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