10 Wild Edible Greens to Harvest

My friend, Eric Joseph Lewis — plant educator, avid forager, permaculturist and Earth lover — shares his top ten wild edible greens, specifically for the mid-Atlantic. We filmed this video in Maryland.

1. Stinging nettle: Urtica dioica, Urtica gracilis and Laportea canadensis
2. Chickweed: Stellaria media
3. Lamb’s quarters: Chenopodium album
4. Dandelion: Taraxacum officinale
5. Garlic mustard: Alliaria petiolata
6. Basswood: Tilia americana
7. Mulberry: Morus alba and Morus rubra
8. Purslane: Portulaca oleracea
9. Milkweed: Asclepias syriaca
10. Beggar’s ticks & Spanish needles: Bidens frondosa

Transcript: The following is a transcription of 10 Wild Edible Greens to Harvest — Foraging Plants.

Robin: Hey everyone, I am here with my friend, Eric. We met two years ago in Florida, and I was blown away by his knowledge of the plants that he has been foraging for about a decade. He is a plant wizard with really seemingly infinite knowledge. I know there are things that he does not know, but it seems like he knows pretty much every plant that we cross. I have been blessed to get to learn from him. I’ve been with him for the last day in Maryland and have learned so much. I am excited that he is going to share some of his favorite plants to help you get foraging. First, he is going to introduce himself a bit.

Eric: My name is Eric, I am a plant-lover, permaculturist, and an avid forager, and I am just really grateful to be here with you all today and share my top ten wild edible greens for the mid Atlantic. There is such an abundance of food in these fields and forests, so let us go see what we can find!

Stinging Nettle

My number one all time favorite wild edible green has to be Urtica dioica, or the mighty stinging nettle. There is a native North American species as well, Urtica gracilis, and also Laportea canadensis. I love it for so many reasons. It offers all kinds of amazing medicine, its flavor is incredible, it can be absolutely prolific in the wild, and it is very easy to cultivate for those of us who are gardeners. Not to mention that it will grow in full shade underneath black walnuts for the permaculturists out there. It can be made into dried green powders or blended up into pesto, or it can also be steamed and sautéed. Any kind of heat will deactivate the stinging hairs and make it edible. Definitely my number one all time favorite has to be stinging nettle.

Chickweed

Number two on my list of wild edible greens has got to be chickweed. This is another great friend to really connect with and bring in to the kitchen. This is Stellaria media, the common name is chickweed. I love this one because it is pretty easy to identify, it has these really cute little star shaped flowers on it, and opposite leaves. It is really cool and juicy and the flavor is really awesome. It is one that I do like to cook because it is a little higher in the oxalic acid department, but it also makes a great pesto and can be dried into powders. I would definitely say that number two on the list is chickweed. Keep an eye out for this one in the spring and fall. It will disappear in the summer.

Lamb’s quarters

Number three on my list is lamb’s quarters. This is one of the first friends that I really got tuned into when I was first starting to eat something wild every day. The Latin name is Chenopodium album, and it is just an absolute super star from the spinach family. It is one of the most nutritious plants on earth. It is also one of the highest wild greens in oxalic acid. This is one that I definitely like to cook up. I like to steam it, boil it, pan fry it, anything to help cook out and denature those oxalates. But after that, it is an absolutely flavor packed, incredible edible. This is one that should be in all of the four-star restaurants, and it should definitely be on everyone’s plate. So, Chenopodium album. Lamb’s quarters. Number three.

Dandelions

Number four on my list is definitely dandelions, Taraxacum officinale. This is one that most everybody is probably already familiar with. It is an absolutely incredible edible. The leaves are great in salad, but they can also be boiled to remove some of the bitterness if you are not into that. They are loaded with all kinds of nutrients, tons of vitamin A, and they are the second highest source of boron of any of the wild greens, which is cool because boron helps to detoxify the body of fluoride. It is definitely an important one for us to bring into our diets, and it is also a great one for helping to support the liver health, and helping our body to detoxify in multiple different ways. Dandelion is definitely one for everybody to tune into, and bring home to the dinner plate.

Garlic Mustard

Coming in at number five is Alliaria petiolata, the garlic mustard. So this is a biennial plant in the Brassicaceae family, the mustard family. Like the first four on our list, it is a European import that is very weedy and prolific. This one, in fact, is allelopathic, so it competes against other plants in the area. For that reason, I really love encouraging people to consume these kinds of plants that are exotic to our region, so that we can help native habitats to thrive a little bit more, take some of the pressure off of the native plants in that way. This one was brought over from Europe because it is very highly nutritious. There are 190 milligrams of vitamin C per a 100 gram serving, which is very easy to consume in a batch of pesto. That is definitely one of my favorite ways to bring garlic mustard into the kitchen, is in pesto form. It also makes a great cooked green, sautéed or even steamed up, or you can boil it when it gets older to take some of the bitterness out. Definitely number five on the list is Alliaria petiolata: garlic mustard.

Basswood

Number six on our list is basswood. This is the American basswood, Tilia americana. This is a native tree in the mallow family. I love this one because we do not get to eat a whole lot of tree leaves and this one is so mild and has such a nice flavor that it can actually be the basis for a salad. I love greens that we can eat raw. It also makes an excellent green powder, makes fantastic sautéed greens, steamed; anyway that you prepare it, basswood is absolutely incredible. And the leaves also have this nice kind of mucilaginous quality to them that I think really helps to keep us hydrated in the summer time, and also makes for a wonderful tea when we have a sore throat. Definitely number six on the list is basswood: Tilia americana.

Mulberry

For number seven on our list, we have another tree leaf, and this is one that I bet a lot of you are already familiar with because it is world famous for its berries. And, of course, we are talking about the mighty mulberry. In the mid-Atlantic, that would be either Morus alba, which is the Asian species, or Morus rubra, which is the native one. They both have edible leaves. There is an introduced species, Broussonetia papyrifera, that is a lookalike that is worth looking into. It is called the paper mulberry and it is in the same family but not as edible. This one is not as … some of them are acceptable as a salad crop, but moreso, I think of mulberries as being great for green powders or cooked greens, either steamed, sautéed, or otherwise kind of cooked down a little bit. Yeah, I love mulberries because they are so easy to identify and they are so prolific, and they have these deep roots. They are just beautiful, amazing, awesome trees. Number seven is the mighty mulberry: Morus alba, Morus rubra.

Purslane

Coming in at number eight on our list is purslane, Portulaca oleracea. This is a really great cooking green. It can also be added raw to salads. The flavor is great. It is kind of high in oxalic acid, so I do prefer to cook it myself personally, but I have heard of people adding it to smoothies. It has got a little bit of a sliminess to it that adds a great mucilaginous kind of throat-coating quality to it. One of the other things that is amazing about this plant is its remarkably high omega-3 fat content. This is a great source of omega-3 fats from a local, wild, plant-based source. Definitely let us say number eight is Portulaca oleracea, purslane.

Milkweed

Number nine on our list is milkweed: Asclepias syriaca. This is a native perennial that grows in open fields all throughout the country. This one is absolutely, incredibly delicious. It is important to boil this one twice because it does have cardiac glycosides known as cardenolides in it that are pretty toxic. So I like to boil it in two changes of water. Another thing to be aware of with this plant is that it looks very similar to another native that is poisonous and that is dogbane. This is the dogbane right here and you can see that they obviously grow in the exact same habitat and so superficially it can be difficult to tell the two of them apart, but when you get into the core of it you can see that the inside of the milkweed is hollow, whereas the inside of the dogbane is solid. And so, that is a very key distinguishing feature that makes it easy to tell the two apart. Asclepias syriaca, number nine.

Bidens

Coming in at number ten on our list is the mighty Bidens. Beggar’s ticks, Spanish needles, and with this one, we will go ahead and say the entire genus. As far as I know, every species is edible. Some are definitely better than others I have noticed. This one in particular is Bidens frondosa, and this one is a great weedy summer superstar. It is in the aster family and has a little bit of a kind of bitter sappiness to it, so I do prefer to either boil or steam it before using it for pesto, but an absolutely incredible cooking green. It is loaded with nutrition and also has a medicinal component to it as well, being very popular as a gentle but effective antibiotic. The common names of beggar’s ticks and Spanish needles, are a reference to the seed, and that make these very easy to identify. You will see these all over the place once you start looking for them. Number ten, Bidens.

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know my top ten wild edibles for the mid-Atlantic. I wanted to give a special shout out to definitely Robin Greenfield and your team. Thank you so much. I definitely want to give a lot of love to the folks at Meta Creative for helping me with all of this filming and putting together all of the shots and scenes and just making this whole process so much more approachable for me. Thank you for your help and patience. I wanted to give thanks to The REED Center in Middletown, Maryland, Chesapeake Bounty in Saint Leonard, Maryland, and Plant Path Nursery in Knoxville, Maryland for hosting some of these video segments. Thank you so much. Peace!

Robin: I hope you got a lot out of this video and can now implement these things into your life. Eric is a plant educator, an Earth lover, and a permaculturist with so much knowledge to share with us. Check the links in this description to follow him. And make sure to subscribe to this channel. There are many more inspirational and educational videos to come. I love you all very much, and I will see you all again real soon.