Special Sunday Edition

Yesterday Hubby and I participated in a class offered through our local rec centre where we were introduced to edible native plants. We spent the morning in the classroom learning the do's and don'ts of harvesting, identifying and eating plants that grow in the wild. Most of the afternoon was spent outside checking out what was growing in the parks around the rec centre and enjoying the fabulous spring weather.

Fireweed. Close-up I think it looks like Cleopatra the man-eating plant from the Addams Family. Fortunately, this plant isn't quite so deadly. The young leaves are edible, and the instructors served it to us in a salad at lunch.


Fireweed certainly looks like a weed from a distance.

Red elderberry. This is one I think I'll avoid. Though our instructors assured us that the cooked fruit is safe, there were several other warnings regarding this plant.

Salal. The berries are edible, though they don't appear until the fall. The leaves are often found in flower arrangements.

Lady fern. The shoots are edible if they are steamed. We were warned not to eat them raw.

Nootka rose. We have this growing wild beside our driveway. I would have never considered eating it, but apparently the flowers and the hips are edible.


Labrador tea. It's hard to see in this photo, and apparently it can be tricky to identify in person too, as it can be confused with other inedible plants. The instructors served us tea from the leaves. It was quite tasty, but I think I'll limit my consumption to those occasions where the tea is made by people who know what they're doing.

Grand fir. This one isn't so grand. It's just a baby. The new, light green needles are edible. We tried them in class served right off the twig.

Bigleaf maple. All kinds of good eating here. The young stem, flowers, sap and the seed part of the helicopter are all edible. Maple, not just for syrup any more. We did taste syrup made from bigleaf maple. Good stuff, though wildly expensive. We only got a drop or two on a teaspoon to try. Yum. It's not quite as sweet as syrup from the sugar maple, but it's good enough that I'd be tempted to learn how to make it myself. I wonder if my neighbours would notice if I tapped their tree?

We talked about a dozen different kinds of native berries in the classroom portion of our course, but the only one we found on our walk was the thimbleberry. The young stems, flowers and fruits are edible, and the leaves are so soft they are called nature's toilet paper. Good to know!

Another example of thimbleberry. The plant in the lower right corner of this photo is an example of an inedible berry. It's a snowberry (I think), and its berries are poisonous. Also good to know.