Foraging as a family is a great way to get more outdoors time, learn about your local ecosystem and improve your health! Many foraged foods and medicines are readily available across the country in the fall and are easy to find even in your backyard.

Here’s a few simple to find and easy to identify plants you can use for a variety of culinary and household applications. Make sure you only forage items that you are clearly able to identify and that are away from roadsides and any pesticide use or pet debris. Consider grabbing a beginners field guide for your region to help you correctly ID local plants and learn their uses

Tree Nuts: Acorns, walnuts and hickory nuts are plentiful and easy to ID with a field guide. Finding hickory nuts is a treat as they require none of the processing of acorns and are easier shelled than walnuts. You can eat them raw or roasted. All hickory nuts are edible but the tastiest is the the shagbark. Look for tall mature shaggy barked trees on the edge of fields where they receive lots of sun and will produce more nuts. Shagbark hickory nuts have golf ball sized greenish yellow outer husks with a smaller nut inside. The outer husk darkens and splits into 4 pieces as it ripens and will often breakopen on handling for when falling from the tree. Use like pecans or walnuts in cooking.

Dandelion: Dandelion is a perennial herb found worldwide. You can identify dandelions by their hollow stem with a milky sap. They have distinctive basal leaves (grown from the bottom of the stem) with spiky lobes. Yellow flowers and puffball seed heads are commonly recognized and easy to spot from a distance making these plants easy to find everywhere! Check out our resource article for benefits of dandelion and some great recipes.

White Pine: Eastern White Pine is easily identified by its long floppy needles. They have 5 needles per bunch or fascicle which are grouped into a larger bundle at the ends of stems. While all pines are edible, pregnant women should avoid Ponderosa Pine. Firs, hemlocks and spruce can also be used for similar medicinal properties. White pine needles are high in vitamin C and have some antibacterial properties and are good expectorants. Add pine needles to tea blends. Infuse vinegar with pine and use in a salad or add to a homemade cleaning solution. Make pine needle syrup with pine tea and honey for a soothing cough remedy or do a quick fermented pine soda with pine needles, honey and water!

Plantain: Plantain is found everywhere from urban streets to wild parks. Broadleaf plantain has large oval shaped leaves that grow in a rosette pattern with central flower bearing stalks. The leaves have prominent parallel veining. Narrowleaf plantain has thinner leaves with a pointy end. Apply partially chewed or crushed leaves directly to skin for bee stings or bug bites. Leaves are edible but older ones are tough and bitter. Seeds from the flower stalk can be used as a garnish or ground into flours. Consider making oil from the leaves and using in salves or lotion bars.

Rosehips: Rosehips form when rose flowers are not pruned after bloom. They are high in vitamin C and a great antioxidant source. Collect rosehips after the first frost for sweeter flavor. They should be firm and smooth and are typically red/orange in color but can be purple or yellow. Rosehips are great in tea, jelly or syrups. The small hairs on the seeds inside can be irritating so when adding to tea they should be first halved and seeds removed or strained well through cheesecloth to remove them. Use fresh rose hips or dehydrate them for use all winter.

Goldenrod: The beautiful golden flowers on tall woody stalks are found along roadsides and in meadows across the US and bloom thru early fall. A member of the daisy family, these plants have been used to treat wounds by applying directly to the skin as a poultice. Use in flowers and leaves in tea for allergies and urinary tract infections, add the gently curving stems to a bouquet or dye natural fibers with the flowers.