Foraging and Wild Crafting

I've been foraging in the wild to harvest edible plants and medicinal herbs for many years. It's not my area of most expertise but I'm always learning and never miss a chance to improve my identification and preparation skills. It's a critical life and survival skill to be ecologically literate able about to turn that literacy into food and medicine when your life depends on it. For anyone even remotely interested in the outdoors, from camping to hiking, it's worthwhile to have a practice of exploring and foraging whenever possible.

It's best to have a seasoned mentor to help ensure you're not making potentially life threatening mistakes in either or both identification or preparation. Some plants have close analogs that appear similar but have deadly differences, others may be edible or medicinal if prepared properly but many required very precise processes to remove toxins. With the right guidance and careful practice, you can build confidence and start to more easily recognize youre new plant friends out of the corner of your eye. Sometimes you discover treasure troves of edibles and medicinals that you never noticed before, but they've always been there.

It's very reward to integrate these practices into your lifestyle, it makes relating with wild nature far more engaging and meaningful. It's also a great way to build bonds with other people as you can all share a sense of pride and accomplishment in your adventures.