GATHERING HERBS

Fireweed is a perennial wildflower, best known for its breathtaking pink-purple flowers to be found growing in abundant patches. It gets its name because it is one of the first “weeds” to come back after a forest fire. Thanks to its beautiful magenta blooms fireweed is a very easy plant to identify. The flowers can be harvested to make jelly, but the young shoots of fireweed can also be foraged for food because they make a great substitute for asparagus. You will want to pick

Although not a native plant, I find hops that have escaped from cultivation quite often here in Newfoundland. Early European settlers to the island often planted hops to replace yeast for baking bread, rather than thinking of them as a staple flavouring for brewing beer. Hops can be found growing around old homesteads, climbing up old apple trees or taking over pin cherry or other stands of trees. I am more interested in harvesting the delicious spring shoots rather than the

As its name suggests, river mint can be found growing along the edges of rivers, ponds, streams and wetlands. We have a few different species of wild mint here, although all of them have been introduced to Newfoundland. Mint quickly spreads if it finds a river or wet area where it will thrive. These plants can be easily identified by their strong minty smell, square stems, and oval shaped dark to light green paired leaves. They create tight clusters of pink flowers at the top

Even though it is considered a complete nuisance by many vegetable gardeners due to its spreading nature, love for nitrogen rich soil and a tendency to entangle itself in leafy green cultivated crops, chickweed is actually a valuable salad green. It happens to be one of the best of the wild salad greens with a super long harvesting season. Chickweed is an annual plant that self-sows, so it will be found growing in the same areas each year. When growing in rich soil, chickweed

Stonecrop or Sedum is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in many gardens but is also an edible green that is actually quite tasty. Sedum is not a native plant but an imported plant that escaped cultivation very easily and is often found at old homesteads or compost piles where garden materials have been disposed. There are many types of sedums and most are safe, but the tiny creeping varieties that are often used in rock gardens should be avoided. Stonecrop has a very fres

Sorrel is a perennial plant with a very lemony bite. It is best identified by its glossy, narrow, arrow-shaped leaves with pointed lobes at the base. There are three varieties of Wild Sorrel that can be found all over Newfoundland. Sorrel should be eaten in small quantities due to the fact that it contains oxalic acid. But small amounts are perfectly fine to eat, so I regularly use sheep and garden sorrel in my salads for a nice lemony flavour. Sheep Sorrel:  the much smaller

Lamb’s Quarters is also known as Wild Spinach, Pigweed and Goose Foot. It is a wild perennial green found in gardens, compost piles or areas with rich soil. Lamb’s Quarters can be harvested and used as a salad green. It has a spinach-like flavour with a very pleasant nutty aftertaste. It is one of my favourite salad greens and I use it very frequently in my mixed wild salad greens. Like spinach, it contains oxalic acid and should be consumed in moderation. The seeds it produc

A very tedious harvest but so worth the work! For such a tiny little berry, it is packed with big flavour. Wild strawberries are a low growing perennial found in meadows, yards, and other grassy areas. Berries grow much better in places where the grass around it isn’t growing too tall so it doesn't choke them out. These plans like to grow beside woodland trails and in grassy areas mixed with moss. The plants look like cultivated strawberries, but they are much smaller, with s

Probably the most hated of all the “weeds” by gardeners and homeowners, Japanese knotweed is extremely invasive. As we know, from the way...

Fiddleheads are the immature curled shoots of a fern found early in the spring. There are many different types of ferns, but only the...