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Wild Edible Foods
by Jim Easterday
Many local residents pick wild blueberries and raspberries along logging roads in the Fall but we are surrounded by other delicious foods in the bush, ....if you know what to look for.

Wild foods are nutritious, free of chemicals used by farmers, free of cost, and often within walking distance of your home. Best of all, they taste good.
Wild onion, from near Hagwilget Canyon
The Bulkley Valley Naturalists recently held a "Wild Edibles" field trip to the Hazeltons (Spring plants show sooner in the Hazeltons). Sybille Haeussler, of Smithers, explained how to tell the edible plants from the not-so-edible plants and how to avoid plants that may upset your stomach or worse...

Here are some of the easy-to-find species of Spring plants for your next meal.

Early in the Spring. look for wild onion (Allium cemuum) on open grassy meadows on a warm south slope. Wild onion is very strong when raw but delicious cooked in a soup or stew. Wild onion looks like domestic onion but only grows about 10" tall. Dig the entire plant with the bulb. The strong onion smell is the best clue to identity.
Sorrel has a lemon flavour and is great in a salad
The leaves of the Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) have a mild lemon flavour. It's found in open rocky areas. Sorrel grows no more than 12" tall and has very distinctive arrow-shaped leaves. It's delicious raw and goes well in a salad. Look for the tall stalk of very small reddish flowers. We found it near Hagwilget Canyon but it is common across the north.

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