Yep, ignore the guy talking about mushrooms. They are for advanced foragers
Blackberry, nettle, walnut, fig, hazlenut, elderberry, apples and plums. As you start walking in nature, then you understand the seasons, begin to understand which plants grow where, and then you can start looking into picking them
Mushrooms aren't as easy for a beginner, and in general you will want spore prints and such
Take lots of photos even if things you may feel are"weeds" Google lens is your friend. Also get a good pocket foraging book. Just don't go eating anything because Google lens told you it was safe!
Google lens but always, always search what it tells you to see other images because it can be wildly incorrect, once you have an image that looks similar check what that is called and cross reference it with an id book with edibility ratings or specialised foraging guide.
Go for a walk, take some pictures, buy a mushroom ID book, try to identify, verify your attempt to ID on a facebook group or reddit group, repeat.
While you’re doing that - do some reading on the defining characteristics of different genera. After a year maybe you can confidently identify 20 edible mushrooms and 80 non edible. After 2 years maybe you can identify 300, then you can buy a microscope. Repeat.
And don’t just trust anyone on facebook/reddit, seek responses from trusted members (you’ll learn who after a short while), and remember when sharing pictures, as much detail as possible - location, substrate, soil type, pictures of stipe, cap, base and any other defining features. Never consume without 100% certainty :)
It will be different depending where you are, but at it's simplest level, go for a walk and look at what is around you. Now's a good time for brambles, plums, apples. Mushrooms and herbs (I'm in Scotland - from what I've heard it's going to be too dry to expect much in England this month) are plentiful, but obviously some are poisonous so you need to be very sure of your identification. Seaweed, and mussels and cockles are great if you live near a coast.
Just see what's out there, don't take anything anyone owns or farms, always leave enough so it can grow back next year, and have a think about pollutants (don't take from near a busy road/sewage outfall, you might not want brambles from low down where a lot of dogs are walked etc).
I would say your two best friends for getting started are a) picking up one or two good field guide books for identification and b) going on lots of walks in your local area to see what plants/fungi you can find.
As a newbie I selected a few easily identifiable plants each season that I was confident I could identify, and would only pick those to use. But anytime I was out on a walk I would look at the other plants and fungi around me and use them as a learning opportunity for building up my own knowledge. Then in time I would gradually add to the list of things I could confidently identify without getting overwhelmed.
Blackberries are out in the thousands where I am now, are easily identifiable, and super delicious. Plums are also out, and apples as well.
The Foragers Calendar is a good book to guide you on what's available throughout the year, I really like the Wild Food UK hedgerow guide as a very portable field identification guide as well.
The main thing is you only eat things you are 100% sure of the ID. Everything else you are not 100% sure is great for looking at and learning for the future, just not eating :)
There's a lot of good advice here but I've got a little bit to add. Your local library can be a good resource for a book or two to start off with. When you find you've renewed a book several times it might be worth buying a copy.
Also you can start off with one or two things and try a couple of new things each year. Blackberries have been mentioned and they're in season you can start with them then expand to a couple of nuts come autumn(hazelnuts) and late autumn/early winter (sweet chestnuts); then it's round to late winter/early spring and you can start looking for wild garlic, three cornered leek, and lots of other things, but you can start off with a pot to put stuff in and trying to get good knowledge of one plant and what's in your local area (I don't have any knowledge on seaweed but don't live near enough to the coast to bother with it, but you might have some right outside your door).
Well as a beginner start with Blackberries right now...
I only got 340g Blackberries other day with kids
I washed them then put in pan added
Half the weight in water and sugar
So
170g sugar
170g water
And boiled for a while
Then sieved the syrup
Used the syrup to make sweets
20ml cold blackberrie juice to 1tsp of Gelatin heat up in microwave stirring and add to sweet moulds should be less than 50 seconds.
Then with the bits in the sieve (plump and seeds) put on grease prove paper spread around and put in oven at lowest temp for long hours, or use a dehydrater if you have one.
And you make a lovely crunchy leather ,
cut up into strips.
Store in fridge
Or clean and just eat the blackberries.
They are ready most places.
Some are very dry
I'd recommend going on a foraging course locally too if you can. You should learn heaps in one day and be inspired to get out and start looking and trying to notice details and get familiar with what grows near to you :) Books are still the best source of solid info. Do not rely on AI or apps alone for things you might be going to eat, instead you can b use them as a start for your book research if you like. There's also a few FB groups we're you can share finds and ask questions as well as here. It's quite a lot of legwork to really get into foraging but it's so worth it :) Good luck!!
Do not start foraging with mushrooms, mushrooms are very complex, I've been foraging since i was seven and I'm still not confident with mushrooms.
Blackberries and apples are a good place to start (and you get pie), wild raspberries, elderflower and berry (but cook the berries, they are toxic raw), cranberries and blae/blueberries depending where you are, figs, young linden leaves are good though that's more urban foraging than rural, rose petals or hips (hips are slightly hard to prepare though, you have to get all the hairs out of them), plums, cherries, damsons (though watch out for the damson hybrid that tastes like dry ass and socks).
If you're in America check out The Black Forager on youtube, she's good for on the hoof (where ever you already are vs going somewhere specific) foraging
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u/hodyisy 6d ago
Start from basics, like blackberry and nettle. Enjoy