Is foraging for mushrooms, berries and other wild edibles common in the US?

33 comments

1. It’s not completely unheard of, but most people never do it.

2. It’s *extremely* niche, especially compared to say, the Czech Republic.

   I’m sure there is a non-zero number farm-to-table hipster chefs that are trying to make it a thing…but not enough that it would even begin to approach levels described as “common.”

3. I would imagine it’s not that common in urban areas. I’m rural, and we usually pick the blackberries that are on our property every year. Our neighbors have also taken to harvesting our walnut trees (with our permission, of course).

4. Quite common in my neck of the woods

5. Berries, yes in rural areas. Others not so much.

6. People do forage for mushrooms, though usually it’s either older people or immigrants. When it’s immigrants it can be a problem, because we have some toxic mushrooms that look like safe mushrooms from other continents.

   Overall though, while it’s not necessarily rare, it is somewhat unusual for people in urban or suburban areas to know what plants and mushrooms are edible.

   I think it’s probably regional as well. I’ve heard about places where there are local festivals for wild edible plants.

7. Morel mushrooms and ditch asparagus are decently common to forage for in certain rural areas around me.

8. Berries? Yes, depending on the area. If I’m camping and there are a bunch of wild huckleberries, I will pick some and bring them home. Mushrooms and other stuff? No, not unless you’re some weird hippy or you like to camp/do survival stuff for fun

9. I’ve done it, and I know a handful of people who do it regularly, but it’s not a common thing. I don’t know anyone for whom foraging is a dietary staple.

10. It’s so unusual that most of my city or suburban raised friends think I’m weird for picking and eating blueberries when we happen to pass them on a hike.

11. Absolutely not for mushrooms. Too many look-a-like poisonous ones. You basically have to be a professional.

12. Blackberries are a common thing to pick. My friend goes to a blueberry farm to pick but that’s a hipster thing.

13. If hunting season lines up with the first freeze of the year, my friends and I usually pick and eat wild choke cherries while were out and about hunting, and in other parts of the year (i forget exactly when), wild strawberries are available as well. Everyone in our group/families knows but I wouldn’t be confident saying its common even just among other hunters.

14. It’s not too uncommon around here for people to go forage for morel mushrooms. I used to go every year on or around Mother’s Day weekend with my parents.

15. One of my great regrets in life is spending like 6 months in Russia and never foraging for mushrooms. It isn’t common in the US but some people do it.

16. I’ll pick berries and other plants while hiking, if I know the area and know what’s safe/tasty to eat. If I’m in a new or unfamiliar region, I won’t.

    I do not forage for mushrooms. Not worth the risk.

17. Depends what you mean by “forage”. We had wild blackberries growing near my house so every season we’d all get buckets and go pick as many as we could for pies, or pancakes, or just to eat.

    Wild crab apple trees are common, and surprisingly taste pretty good on their own but especially when baked.

    My grandma had a cherry tree and a pear tree in her backyard. Also a wild current bush we would eat from.

    So yeah, pretty common in my family. But it’s not like we wandered the open woods and fields regularly looking for plants to eat.

18. It’s a hobby that some people have, as others have mentioned it’s pretty niche though has become more popular during the pandemic.

19. Immigrants aside, to me it’s a ‘bygone generation’ type thing. My grandparents would’ve foraged for wild plants when they were young, but then they also shot and ate squirrels and raccoons. They were ‘country poor’, in other words. It’s one of those “back in the 1930s when I was your age” type of things, retold as they’re eating supermarket-bought potato salad in front of the TV set.

20. Fairly common in rural areas, yes. Many of my friends are avid morel mushroom hunters. Most people recognize edible berries (wild raspberries and mulberries are all over the place) and while they may not pick huge amounts, they’ll stop for a snack when they’re out for a walk or whatever. Dandelion greens are more popular with older folks, but I think most people know they’re edible.

21. I live in a desolate desert, so no, not really, since there’s very little that grows naturally. Plus it seems like a lot of people don’t trust did that didn’t come in a plastic wrapper with a logo on it.

    Having said that, I took my daughter out to gather mesquite pods the other day, and I was actually successful in making flour from them! Pancakes and bread made from it have a bizarre, different flavor, but are *so* good.

    Also, in winter for the past couple years (but not before, strangely) fields of a dark green, leafy plant I *believe* is a type of mallow grew everywhere. It’s invasive and farmers hate it, but you can use it like spinach, and it’s awesome. I saw a friendly middle Eastern woman in an empty lot that had been overrun by the stuff … she had parked her SUV right in the middle of it and was gathering the stuff in pillow cases.

22. I see people foraging for morel mushrooms all the time.

23. Foraging for morels is common around here, not so much for other stuff.

24. No, not really. There’s a lot of inedible and downright toxic berries and shrooms, and unless you’re an expert identifier you’ll likely end up poisoning yourself.

25. Mushroom hunting is a pretty common thing in my area. Some people are very much obsessed with it, to the point of taking a week off work to walk in the woods and hunt mushrooms.

    Other than that, people will pick berries in their own yard, but that’s about it.

26. Foraging for morel mushrooms is big where I live in Michigan. But in general it’s not very common. I know someone who lives in Oregon and forages for chanterelle mushrooms there.

    There are also wild black raspberries that I can find sometimes, but with more housing going up a lot of that has disappeared.

    Edit: I also know someone local who forages the puffball mushrooms, supposed to be pretty good.

27. In Pennsylvania, yes. Berries and mushrooms are easy to stumble upon.

28. Very common out here. Blackberries, dewberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries, 2 types of huckleberry, half a dozen types of wild mushroom, apples, cherries and I’ve found onion and greenbeen all growing in the woods.

29. Foraging for morels is a thing in Michigan. I’m not saying that everybody does it, but many people know somebody who does it or who has a special spot.

30. In a really casual sense, I actually think it’s common. I’m sure it’s extremely regional though. As a kid I picked blackberries near our house and any time we went camping I would find huckleberries, salmon berries, and wild raspberries. It was never a real source of food, you would just find it while hiking or whatever and pop one in your mouth.

31. I’ve never done it nor do I know anyone who has.

32. Berries, absolutely

    Shrooms is for experienced people’s only. You’ll hear of an occasional poisoning (or family poisoning) where some dude gets his liver fucked from picking wrong shrooms. We’ll get a couple deaths each year

33. Where I live we used to have blueberry and blackberrry bushes that grew in the wild not far from us. As kids we’d go out there all the time to pick them and eat them.