NatureBoost Episode 69: Foraging
October 2025
SMA
[Intro music ♫]
>> Hey there, and welcome back to NatureBoost! The podcast where we explore the outdoors in Missouri, one adventure at a time. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation. I hope you enjoyed our September episode with Kaylee Woelful from the Missouri River Bird Observatory. Maybe it inspired you to get outside this fall and give birdwatching a try! But if birding isn't your thing, we're discussing another outdoor hobby this episode that can help you discover nature. Not only this fall season, but every season!
We're headed outside to learn about foraging. Identifying and gathering food sourced straight from nature. And I was so excited to speak with conservation educator Ginger Miller on this topic. You may remember Ginger from our episode on edible insects we did a few years ago. But don't worry, this recording focuses strictly on edible plants, nuts, berries and seeds. Ginger is a fantastic resource on foraging. She actually leads many wild edible workshops for MDC, so I knew she was the perfect person to learn from. Also joining us on this episode is MDC naturalist Pat Whalen. I met up with both of them last month at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City.
[Birds chirping.]
>> Is that a passionfruit?
>> It is a passionfruit! This one is not ripe yet.
>> [Laughing.]
>> It'll turn yellow and wrinkle, and then it'll have a sweet, custardy flavor on the inside.
>> I never claimed to know a lot about native plant and fruit ID. Nature newbie, remember! So, Ginger and Pat had their work cut out for them. But, something I want to mention before we go on is this was recorded on the trails outside of the discovery center, which is in the heart of downtown Kansas City.
[2:00.]
It is this beautiful little nature oasis in the middle of the bustling KC urban jungle. If you're a Kansas City local and you've never visited, or if you ever find yourself in the city, I strongly encourage you to stop in and check it out. They host amazing free programs. The staff are so helpful and friendly, and the location is the perfect place to get a nature boost! And because the Discovery Center has numerous native plants and trees as part of its landscape, it allowed Ginger and Pat to give me a foraging tour, pointing out wild edibles growing on the property.
>> Right now, we're at kind of an in-between season. Because you can still capture some of what you can eat in the summer, that's still producing. And your fall plants and fruits are coming into full swing. Fruits and nuts . . . and you also, as the weather cools, you get a little brief burst of all of the greens that you could get in the springtime, that are tender again. They've started growing again as the weather cools. So, the hot weather kind of slows them down and makes them really tough and fibery. In the fall, you'll get some young green growth and sprouts to make a nice green salad in the fall before everything freezes.
[Music ♪]
This is one of our bee balms, monardas. They have a spicy oregano flavor, and a spicy oregano smell. If you like some spices, you can add that to your lasagna and it gives you part of the spice that you'd get from peppers, just out of your oregano flavor.
>> I love the smell of it. I smell it now on these leaves.
>> They make the best vinegar. You can drop the leaves and the stems into some vinegar, to infuse. Then use that for a spicy vinaigrette. It's amazing.
>> Ooh.
>> Mix it with elderberry, some elderberry juice. Mmmm.
>> I'll need some recipes whenever we're done. [Laughing.] Is it weird? Like, this is a perfume.
[4:00.]
It smells so good! See, it's so funny that as we're just walking out here, you're able to be like "oh, and you can put this in salad, and you can put this in a drink . . ."
>> This is one of our young pawpaw leaves. It smells like strong green pepper. Strong green pepper.
>> It really does!
>> The leaves contain some components that will help repel ticks and flies and stuff. If I've forgotten a spray and I go outside, and there is a pawpaw tree, I'll wad up the leaves and rub them on my arms and legs.
>> How can you tell this is a pawpaw tree? What are the identifying characteristics?
>> It has those large leaves that look really tropical.
>> Would this be one?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Kind of the elongated, long leaves.
>> What's it smell like?
>> This smells like green pepper.
>> Yeah. There you go. Green pepper.
>> Pawpaws are in the Annonaceae family, the custard apple family. They vary in flavor, but it's kind of a combination of banana, mango and pineapple all in one. It tastes like a tropical fruit, because it is a tropical tree. There historically were about 2,000 species out of this family that were in North America. Then the cold weather killed them all out. This one species is all that we have left now. It is our state fruit tree.
>> [Singing like "Survivor" by Destiny's Child.] "It's a survivor! It's not gonna give up. It's a pawpaw . . ."
>> It's a state . . . it's like a subcategory.
>> State fruit tree.
>> Native fruit tree, I think. I don't know. This is the fruit tree?
>> State fruit tree. And the black walnut is our state nut tree.
>> Note how Ginger and Pat ignored my Destiny's Child reference, and continued their discussion on Missouri state fruit and nut trees? That demonstrates their unwavering focus and dedication to foraging. All jokes and 2000s pop references aside, the day gave me a different perspective on nature, allowing me to learn how much nourishment it can provide in addition to its beautiful scenery.
[6:06.]
[Music ♪]
Foraging isn't just trendy, it's ancient! Humans have been foraging for more than 2 million years. Our ancestors survived and thrived by reading the land, knowing the seasons, and understanding which plants could heal or harm. In fact, many of the foods we eat today started out as foraged plants that were gradually cultivated into crops. Like carrots, lettuce and grains.
Here's a cool fact, during both World Wars, foraging became a patriotic act. In the UK and parts of Europe, people were encouraged to gather wild herbs and berries to supplement rations and support the war effort. Rose hips, which are high in vitamin C, were especially prized. Foraging has seen a recent resurgence, not just among survivalists or nature nerds. But in high-end restaurants, too. Ever heard of wildcrafted cocktails, or seen foraged mushrooms on a menu? That's the modern twist on an ancient practice.
[Music ♪]
>> You know, it's kind of surprising. Because we don't think of trees when we think of what we're going to eat. But, a whole lot of our native trees are edible or have edible parts. A whole lot of them. Obviously, we have acorns, we have hickory nuts, we have pecans . . . we're one of the top exporters of black walnuts, right here in Missouri. There's all kinds of edible parts. A lot of the barks you can use. You can take shag bark from shag bark hickories . . . toast it, make a strong tea, and then make a syrup. It'll become a lot like when you harvest the sap and cook that down into a syrup, except you can make it in one day. Your whole house smells like a campfire by the time you toast up the bark and get it nice and toasty.
[8:03.]
But it's like a smoky, pancake syrup. It's really, really nice.
>> I love the way that sounds.
>> Smoky pancake.
>> It's really good! It's so much quicker. [Laughing.]
>> For all my pumpkin spice lovers and fall drink connoisseurs, I'd like to introduce you to the native spicebush. This aromatic shrub grows in rich, moist, bottomland forests where pawpaws grow, along streams, in valleys, or in ravine bottoms. Historically, spicebush was made into medicinal tea for treating a variety of ailments, and the fruit was used as a substitute for allspice during the Revolutionary War. Spicebush is perfect for adding a unique flavor to your spice cabinet, and nearly all parts of the plant are edible.
>> You can steep the twigs to get that all spice flavor out, and make allspice chai lattes. You'll steep the twigs overnight in water and then . . . yeah! They're a little intense.
>> [unclear.] [Away from mic.]
>> You can eat them when they're green, or you can eat them when they're red. I think they're delicious, so I eat the whole thing. The people indigenous to this area would split them and separate the fleshy part of the seed from the hard seed on the inside, and eat them separately. You need to freeze them after you dry them, because they're real prone to spoiling, because they're really high in omega 3.
>> It is spicy! Mhmm.
>> You can use the leaves in a marinade for your meat, and you can use the twigs as a skewer in your meat, to get the allspice flavor on the outside and the inside.
>> I love that, using all parts of the plant.
>> Mhmm. Everything above ground. It's in the bay laurel family, along with sassafras. So, you can also use the leaves like you would bay leaves.
>> Okay, yeah!
>> You can dry them and use them like that.
[10:01.]
>> So, when I take kids on hikes and there's red berries, we talk about why berries are red. Basically, it's advertising. If you know the color wheel, the opposite of green is red. So, they're going to really stand out against a green background. They're usually, I think they're green aren't they, until they ripen?
>> Yep. They start off green, and they taste like green peppers with like a little bit of white peppers thrown in.
>> They're probably a bit bitter to wildlife. And then when they're red, then they're ready to eat and of course the birds eat them, swallow them, fly away . . . out comes a new tree down the road.
>> Yeah. And this is another understory species. We see it up there.
>> It's not a coincidence that most . . . not most, but a lot of fall berries are usually red, a contrasting color.
>> Mhmm. And then as you're eating them, that warm allspice flavor just comes up in your throat and warms your whole mouth. It's a warming plant.
>> I definitely got that from eating the leaf and eating the berries, for sure.
>> Think pumpkin spice.
>> It was!
>> [unclear.]
>> It's very seasonal, and very "fall flavor."
>> And those chai lattes with the twigs are the best chai lattes I've ever had. It's so good.
Now, this beautiful tree with the heart-shaped leaves is a redbud. Redbuds, we don't need right now, but redbuds we eat in the spring. It has these purple flowers, it's one of the first things that come out. You can eat those purple flowers. They make a great jelly, a flower jelly. But you can also sprinkle them on your salads, and they have a nutty flavor when they're on your salads, just a completely different flavor, which is crazy! You can eat the young, tender leaves, and then they'll get those little bean pods. This tree is a legume, just like our beans. So, this is a "bean tree", which is just crazy right?
>> I never knew that!
>> [Laughing.] So, those little beans, you can eat them. They taste like sugar snap peas when they're little.
[12:00.]
>> That's opened up a new world for me! That's one of my favorite vegetables. Okay.
>> So, eat them when they're little, when they're maybe a third as big as they're going to get. As soon as you see them, start eating them, and eat the young leaves.
>> They're nice and sweet?
>> They're nice and sweet. They are going to have a few more flavors than our palettes are used to, because it is a wild plant. When we domesticated things, we bred most of the flavors out of them. Yeah . . . it'll have a nice, sweet flavor, and it'll be delicious and green.
>> It's amazing! All this food, all around us.
>> Right? Like everywhere you go, you're stepping on food. [Laughing.]
>> When I'm out with kids, I say . . . ask them if they ever watch any of those survivor shows, like "Man Versus Wild" and "Alone." I'm always fascinated that they never have one in Missouri. It'd be too easy. There's too much stuff to eat.
>> [Laughing.]
>> Like, you can survive right out here in the middle of the city, in the backyard at the Discovery Center.
>> That's not common knowledge! I'm learning that today. I wouldn't have known that before today.
>> But, you just learn one plant at a time as you go along, and you build from there. There are all seasons, all habitats . . . there's food all year long. Smell that. This is a black walnut. Smell that smell.
>> It's almost . . . lemony?
>> Is that the juglan? [sp?]
>> The juglan. Yeah. I learned that term. I visited Hammond's Black Walnuts.
>> Ooh!
>> I did, I did a podcast episode. I interviewed them earlier this year, and I learned that term, the juglan.
>> Historically, the husks were used medicinally. You can dry the nuts and then crack them and eat them, and have delicious black walnuts. They're even better after you toast them. They go well in everything. The hard part is not eating them as you go. You can dry black walnut leaves and make a tea. That's pretty tasty.
>> Making dye from them.
>> Yes. You can make dye and ink out of the husks.
[14:02.]
>> Hair dye for old guys.
>> [Laughing.]
>> And instant graffiti. Watch this . . . [scratching noises.] This will oxidize and turn brown within like 20 minutes, even though it's green now. So . . . [scratching continues.] I'm just kind of making some instant graffiti there!
>> And how long will that last?
>> It'll be there for months.
>> Really?
>> Yeah. As a matter of fact, there's probably some on that one there, from last spring. Yeah . . . it's kind of fun to do with the kids.
>> It's like nature's chalk.
>> It really is. You can do it on paper too. I've seen artists use this just like a magic marker. It'll just, you know, draw stuff with it.
>> I love that! That's a really cool way for nature journaling too.
>> Mhmm.
>> Is that what you were talking about, the ink part of it?
>> Yes. Black walnut is a common wood stain. You can stain wood with it, you can cook it down more and make it a dye . . . you cook it down more, and you make it an ink. So, you can take your turkey feather that you save off of your harvest and make a quill pen, cut the end and make a quill pen . . . and use your walnut ink.
>> We have classes like that, where we promote that.
>> Pat, were you serious about the hair dye?
>> Oh yeah, they used it for hair dye. I'm sure they used it for tattoos. Native Americans would have used it for tattooing.
>> We would get in fights with the walnuts and throw them at each other, when they were blackened and on the ground. They'd stain each other's shirts. It's like paintball. [Laughing.]
>> It does stain . . . yeah.
>> They're already turning darker.
>> It is!
[Music ♪]
>> Ginger, I want to ask you, what got you into foraging?
>> Good question! I've foraged a little my whole life, and I didn't really realize it until later on. I mentioned my love for bacon grease . . . [laughing.] So, we would have wilted greens.
[16:00.]
And, when we'd have those wilted greens, we had leaf lettuce out of the garden, because we had a big garden. So, our neighbor would come out and pick yard weeds, which just seemed so weird to me. She'd pick some young dock leaves, curly dock, burdock, wood sorrel, several of the spring greens. And she would add that to that wilted lettuce, when we'd make it. I remember when she'd make wilted lettuce, it always seemed odd to me that she was picking things that weren't in our garden. They were just weeds outside that we would mow, and eating them. But that wilted lettuce had such a richer flavor, because of all of those wild flavors in it.
So . . . yeah. From there, about 3 years ago I took a foraging certification class, with Eating the Ozarks. And just dived in headlong, and haven't really looked back. I've always nibbled on some of the plants that I knew, and then just really got going from there. But it's so fun, so . . . I can have free food off of the landscape, any habitat, any time of the year, with foraging. It's about 5 to 7 times more nutritionally dense than the products that you'll get at the store. So to me, it's a deeper connection with the land, and I get to have spices and flavors that you don't get unless you go pick a spice berry. You know? It's just amazing flavors out there, and your palette will change.
The first time I'll have a foraged thing, a lot of times I think "okay, alright . . . I guess it was okay." Then the next time I have it, I'm like "hmm, that's pretty good! I didn't remember it being that good, but it's good." Then I'll start craving those flavors. So, our palettes got used to lots of sugar and lots of fat, but these flavors and the mineral content and all the vitamins, they're really, really delicious and really good for you. As you get used to more of the wild flavors, you'll crave them a whole lot more. And, you just feel good when you get out there in nature, to pick this stuff . . . one of my friends does not eat spice berries.
[18:02.]
But he will forage spice berries for me every year, and he said "you know what, I can't believe how much I enjoy that. My brain just feels better. I feel calmer when I go out and pick those berries, you know?" So, it really is a kind of calming, zen activity to get out there and forage. Then, to challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to go new places, challenge yourself to learn new plants. There's just food all around us.
>> Are you ready to discover the fruits of the forest? Add some wild flavor to your cooking? Well, there's some foraging etiquette you need to learn first before you head out to nature's grocery store. Let's go over a quick start list.
[Birds chirping, leaves crunching.]
First, know before you go. Never eat anything you can't 100% identify. Mistakes can be toxic, even potentially fatal. So, it's critical to be sure of what you're harvesting. Use multiple guides for help. As you've heard, nature is chock full of wild edibles, and it can be overwhelming when you're a beginner. But Ginger says the best way to start, is small.
>> If you're just starting out, I would start looking around my neighborhood or my yard and find things that are there and identify them. Then, figure out which ones are edible. Like, dandelions that are not native to here, so you're not going to hurt the wildlife if you remove some of your dandelions by eating them. You can eat all parts of the dandelion. After the top dies down, and especially after a frost, that root will be a lot sweeter. So, you can roast up that root, and it'll have kind of a burnt, caramel flavor. You can put it into baked goods instead of chocolate chips at that point. It's just kind of a delicious, caramelly flavor. You can eat the unopened buds if you dig those out, and you can caper them like wild capers. They're really delicious.
Then the flowers, you can fry them and they'll have a mushroom flavor.
[20:00.]
You can make them into jellies . . . the jellies! It tastes like honey and sunshine.
>> [Laughing.] That's so wholesome!
>> But in the winter time, when some of us want some more sunlight . . . if you have bottled up some sunlight in your dandelion jelly, you can have that all winter long! Just a rich, honey flavor with that . . . I don't know, that sparkle to it.
>> Those are a lot of unexpected ways to use something that everybody has accessible to them, or has seen somewhere, yeah.
>> You can even throw the seeds in crackers, or sprout the seeds, you know? For sprouts. You can use the whole plant. It's pretty fun.
>> So, that would be a good first step to start identifying plants where you are, and go from there?
>> Yeah. And, it's not hard to find things that are edible. Right here, we have these wild violet leaves we can eat.
>> Here?
>> Yep.
>> Okay, yeah! Those are in my yard. I've seen those.
>> [unclear.] In the spring, you can make a purple sugar out of them. You can eat wood sorrel that will be around in your yard. It has a tangy, lemon flavor. So, find things where you are. Right? And start there. Harvest gently. Allergies to these foods are not common, but they're possible. It's a lot of things that we haven't had before. So, I try to recommend people start with one plant at a time, and one part of that plant at a time. And for that week, learn about all of the different things that you can do with it. The different ways you can cook it up. But, no more than one plant at a time. That will give you 52 plants at the end of that year, because you can harvest in the fall and winter too. Just build from there slowly.
>> It's also important to follow the law, and know what's legal to harvest in your area. But also forage ethically, and respect the ecosystem.
>> You want to take only what you need, and make sure it's something that you're allowed to take, in a place that you're allowed to be. So, never trespass.
[22:00.]
Always have permission, always check the regulations, and make sure that what you're doing there is something you're allowed to do there. Then from there, I try to take only what I need, and no more than 1 in 10. I never take the first one I see, and I never take the last one that's out there . . . so that I don't affect that plant's ability to produce more of itself.
>> Fall is a wonderful time to start foraging. Right now, you can still look for persimmons, wild plums, hickory nuts, walnuts, pecans, wild grapes . . . even some pawpaws might still be hanging around. But did you know, you can even forage in the winter? Pine and cedar needles can be used to make teas, and you can also find wild garlic, onions, and even some fruits or nuts left over from the fall season.
Winter is also a good time to gobble up edible, invasive plants! Invasives often retain their berries or leaves longer than natives, making them accessible when other wild foods are scarce. Common ones you can eat include garlic mustard and autumn olive. Then as temperatures warm in spring, look for spring greens such as fiddlehead ferns, dandelion, ramps, clover, violets, nettles . . . also, don't forget those morel mushrooms!
Then, summer is a great time to look for berries! Blackberries, elderberries, wild cherries . . . the red berries on sumac. And when you head out, remember to bring a few tools of the trade. Some good hiking shoes, a reliable field guide, and even a foraging app on your phone. Scissors or a foraging knife, a cloth bag or basket, maybe a hand lens for looking at plant features . . . and of course, water and sunscreen. Maybe a friend who knows what poison ivy looks like!
[Music ♪]
>> Foraging is in our DNA.
[24:00.]
We are all here today because we had ancestors that foraged. They knew how to harvest plants, they knew how to harvest animals, and they knew how to make fire. So, it's part of our DNA, and that connection is so special. You can go outside any season, anywhere, and spot wild plants that are edible. So, you're never far from a snack once you learn more plants and start foraging!
>> Foraging helps us reconnect to nature. When you forage responsibly, you learn what grows where, what's edible, what's medicinal, and how you can support biodiversity, rather than harm it. If you want to learn more about foraging and how you can get started, MDC offers free, in-person and virtual programs all across the state on wild edibles and foraging. If you want to learn more, we've got links to classes, field guides, and more great resources in the show notes. So, be sure to check it out!
I want to thank conservation educator Ginger Miller, and naturalist Pat Whalen for this wild interview! If you enjoyed it and think we should do more episodes on foraging, send us a message at missouriconservation.org/natureboost. And, don't forget to join us for next month's episode, where we're diving into the fascinating world of One Health, and exploring how human health, wildlife health and environmental health are all connected. It's going to be a great conversation, so you don't want to miss it!
I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation, encouraging you to try a wild edible, and get your daily dose of the outdoors!
[Outro music ♫]
>> Okay, here's our spicy oregano bee balm. Grab a leaf. Second two is when the spice hits.
>> Mmmm.
>> That in your lasagna . . .
>> Oh my gosh, that's spicy! That is hitting the tongue.
>> It's good though.
>> Oooooh, that's on the tongue!
[Laughing, coughing, unclear.]
[26:00.]
>> She's like "I got this, this isn't spicy . . ."
>> I think I did two leaves, I should have done a baby leaf.
[Laughing.]
[End of podcast.]