Wildcrafting is gathering herbs and plants from their most natural environment – the wild. This is an old-age practice. There are so many health benefits when you choose to wildcraft. All the plants that are gathered are natural and free of toxins or man-made smog. Look for an area that has an abundance of the plant you want to harvest. Make sure the plants look healthy that you plan to harvest. Never take more than the forest or field can replenish in a reasonable amount of time, and never more than you can use. Powerlines, human traffic, ground contamination such as a farmer’s field that uses pesticides or herbicides, or poor soil are all places you should avoid as this can affect the quality and health of the plant being collected. Wildcrafting is a great way to benefit from herbal medicine without breaking the bank. There’s a wide variety of healing medicinal herbs and every season offers something different to harvest.
When wildcrafting, there are a number of things to account for. If you are harvesting on your own land there will be no legal issues but if you are harvesting on someone else’s land be sure you have permission from the private land owner or if on publicly owned land make sure you know the state or federal laws and abide by them. Wherever you are harvesting, respect for the environment is important. Many national and State parks have signs that say no removal of natural vegetation from the land and that should be honored. It is there for a reason.
As herbalists we want to preserve but also manage the environment. The act of our harvesting changes the environment so it is best if we do this in a well thought out manner. Wildcrafting is done with carefulness and sustainability in mind. For a large majority of the time only the fruit, leaves, or seeds are taken from the plants. The actual stem is still living and healthy. Wildcrafting promotes the idea that you should leave the environment looking better than how you found it. When people do end up taking the entire plant, you should replant a certain ratio of seeds for every stem they strip. Therefore, the harvested area gets replenished and eventually restored. Wildcrafters usually only take what they need or will use in the foreseeable future. Being thoughtful about what you take from the planet and put back is very important.
Helpful tools when wildcrafting:
- Field guide
- camera
- Clippers
- Pruning shears or scissors
- Knife
- Shovel
- trowel
- Handsaw
- Vegetable brush to clean roots and minimize dirt
- Silken paintbrush for mushrooms to avoid damaging them
- Flower press
- Collecting containers such as baskets, cloth bags, or paper bags (do not store herbs in plastic if you can help it as they can decompose quickly in the sun)
- Snacks and water
- A notebook or sketchbook
What to wear when wildcrafting:
The type of habitat and the weather will impact your clothing choice. Something to think about will be the density of vegetation, and the possibility of muddy ground. It’s a good idea to wear long pants if you’re going into the forest or tall grasses. Sturdy shoes to walk over rugged terrain and clothing or a utility belt with pockets for your tools can be very helpful.
Wildcrafting throughout the year:
It is important to harvest plant parts in the proper season. As the plants experience the cycle of seasons, different parts of them hold the most nutrients and medicine, and different parts will be available at different times. By harvesting each part in the best season, you’ll get the best yield and most potent medicine for your efforts. The best time to harvest is on a sunny morning right after the dew has dried. You don’t want to harvest wet plants on damp days, or in hot sun because the plants will wilt too quickly.
• Autumn: roots, seeds, bark
• Winter: roots
• Spring: In spring, before the flowers have blossomed, the leaves are at their most tender, clean and relatively untouched by bugs. After flowers appear, the leaves can become tough and tasteless or bitter. Harvest leaves before they fade in color, wither, or get eaten by insects.
• Summer: leaves, blossoms (as they open), fruit (at peak ripeness)
Flowers
- If you’re after flowers, then obviously you also have a specific window for each flower in which to harvest. Pick buds just before they open, or flowers that have just opened and before the start to wilt. Some flowers start appearing in early spring and some species are still blooming in late fall, but most varieties appear in summer.
- Make sure the flowers are dry. Harvest after the dew is gone.
- Don’t harvest more than 10% of the flowers in that area as you are removing their ability to make seed and create future generations.
Seeds
- Harvest at maturity. Collect seeds when they are ripe. Leave seeds on the plant to sun-ripen as long as possible, but harvest just before the wind distributes them.
- Dry seed only. You can tell when they’re ready by the little stem that attaches the seed parts to the rest of the plant. If the stem is dry, the seeds are ready. Yellowed leaves can also be an indicator of ripe seeds.
- Don’t harvest more than 10% of the seeds in that area as you are removing their ability to generate more plants.
- Spread the seed – In some cases spreading the seed around will help the plant. If you know how the seed naturally spreads and best grows, you can do a better job of it.
- Collect and grow your own seed for next time.
- Collect them by putting a paper bag over the plant and cutting the stem. Always leave the majority of seeds there for the plant to return next year.
Aerial leafy parts
- Harvest early morning in bud or flower stage but, this can vary. You need to know what is best for that specific plant.
- Dry plant material only. Harvest before the flowers bloom as this affects the taste of the leaves afterwards.
- Be careful not to harvest too much of any one plant in an area.
Bark
- Harvest bark in spring or fall, ideally from recently fallen branches, not from the main trunk.
- Take bark from small limbs
- If a tree or shrub needs pruning in the fall or spring, this is a great time to harvest the bark
- Don’t take bark off the trunk unless the tree is destined to be destroyed anyway. If bark is collected from the trunk of a tree, there is a risk damaging the tree irreparably; and if collected from around the tree trunk in a complete ring, the tree will die.
- It is best to harvest bark in the spring and fall when the sap is flowing
- Harvest the inner bark. This is the medicinally active part. Often when collecting the bark, you will get both the outer and inner bark together and if the outer bark is not thick it is OK to use it that way in most instances. When getting bark from small limbs the outer bark is not very thick and really too hard to remove anyway. It is easier to work with fresh bark, remove the outer bark from the desirable inner bark while still fresh and pliable. You will also need to remove the bark from the core or heartwood of the limb. I often use a hammer or rock to remove fresh bark. It will usually fall right off fairly easily. If it dries I usually have to use a knife and it becomes much harder to accomplish.
- Don’t remove more than 10% of the limbs at the very most on any one tree.
Roots
- Roots are best harvested as late as possible, before the first frost. This is when the energy of the plant subsides into the ground, preparing for winter, but after the first frost, they’re sometimes damaged and spongy.
- Biennials last only two years usually and you can harvest their roots from the fall of the first year until they start to send out spring shoots in the second year.
- Perennials live three or more years. You can harvest their roots from the fall through winter, until they start to send out spring shoots.
- Good for us & the plant to harvest in the Winter. Our harvesting the root in the fall-spring gives us better potency in our herb. It is additionally healthy for the plant to harvest the roots then as it is able to set seed in the summer and spread that seed prior to our harvesting the roots.
- Thinning is a key idea here with perennials. Thin out thicker areas and leave the plants alone in areas of scarcity. With some plants, you can take part of the lower root and replant the top part of the root. What I notice however, is that plant is never as healthy as the ones that grow without part of their roots removed. The root left grows strangely.
- When digging up a root, remember to fill the hole back up with earth.
Fruits
- Generally collected whole
- Collect when fully ripe
- Since bugs tend to like fruit, some fruits are better collected after the first frost to kill bug eggs.
Keep good records of your wildcrafting:
One thing you’ll want to do now that will make your foraging easier in the future is to keep a good record of when you saw which plants, so you’ll be able to predict the perfect time to harvest each plant for next season. Each season when the first of each plant pops up, jot it down and next year you’ll be glad you did.
Make sure you’re positive of the plant’s identity. When in doubt, leave it. For an introduction to some useful plants, it’s a great idea, and a lot of fun to take a class with a local expert. Many botanical gardens, zoos, and Facebook event pages have classes like these at very reasonable cost. Some are even free with admission! These classes immerse you in nature and give you firsthand experience in identifying and using local medicinal plants and even some more exotic plants you may encounter.
When you’re encountering a new plant, it can tell you a lot about itself if you take the time to get to know it. The smell, texture and color can sometimes give you clues as to what the plant’s uses are, and often a contemplative taste will also let you intuit what the plant does medicinally.
Be a steward of the ecosystem and avoid overharvesting
The most important thing is to gather with mindfulness for the continued abundance of the plant and its ecosystem. Never harvest rare and endangered plants. Always leave enough plants that they will replenish. Leave flowers for the bees, seeds and berries for the wildlife, and for the plant to continue to thrive. Don’t overharvest roots. Make sure to cover any remaining roots you have disturbed with soil. Only pick what you can process.
Over-harvesting can decimate a plant population in a given area, and depending on what you’re harvesting, you can also disrupt wildlife that depends on that plant, so you want to be mindful that you’re leaving enough for the forest, the birds & the bees. A general rule of thumb is to harvest less than 10% of the population in a given area, especially if you are harvesting roots.
If a plant is rare in your area, don’t harvest or disturb it. Many medicinal plants are at risk, so it’s good to check which ones are at risk in your area. United Plant Savers has a list that you can consult.
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