Foraging
Edible Plants
Identify calorie- and nutrient-worthy wild plants, avoid the local look-alikes that will hurt you, and harvest without stripping a patch.
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General practice
- Positive identification with three or more features before eating anything.
- Universal Edibility Test only when nothing safer is available.
- Never harvest from roadsides, agricultural runoff, or land recently sprayed.
- Rotate patches and take no more than a third of what is present.
Regional focus
Desert Southwest
Sparse but calorie-dense once you know a few staples of arid country.
Key items
- Prickly pear pads (nopalitos) and tunas
- Mesquite pods (ground for flour)
- Piñon pine nuts
- Yucca flowers
- Cholla buds (deglochidiated)
Regional caution: Spines and glochids injure eyes and hands; process with tongs and a torch or ash rub.