Foraging Seasons By Month

January

Hawthorn berries, barberry, wild carrots, evening primrose roots, burdock roots, highbush cranberry, guelder rose, bittercress, edible seaweeds, mussels, clams, oysters

February

Chaga, maple sap, birch sap, sycamore sap, pine sap, evening primerose roots, burdock roots, pine needles, bittercress, spring onion, garlic mustard, edible seaweeds, mussels, clams, oysters

March

Arrowhead tubers, Solomon’s seal shoots, watercress, jerusalem artichokes, coltsfoot, tree saps, chaga, edible roots and spring greens listed above, mallow leaves, purple dead nettle, chickweeds, day lily tubers, magnolia buds, greenbriar/catbriar shoots, tendrils and leaves, edible seaweeds, mussels, clams, oysters

April

Stinging nettle, wild mustard leaves, fiddlehead ferns, violets, dandelion, Japanese knotweed, wintercress leaves/buds, salsify, spring onions/crow’s garlic/field garlic, henbit, cleavers, bedstraw, chickweeds, dead nettle, box elder, forsythia, day lily tubers and shoots, motherwort, wild oats/bellwort shoots, trout-lily, clintonia, galinsoga, sweet cicely, magnolia buds

May

Lilacs, day lily shoots and buds, wood/sheep sorrel, fiddlehead ferns, elm tree seed pods, maple tree seed pods, yarrow, dwarf ginseng, Dame’s rocket flowers, milk weed shoots, ox-eye daisy leaves/flower buds, pineapple weed, elderberry flowers, magnolia flowers, red bud flowers, carrion flower shoots, wild lettuce, black locust flowers, pokeweed shoots, mugwort, three-cornered leek, ramps, chicory shoots, conifer tips (spruce/fir), wild asparagus shoots

June

Wild grape leaves & tendrils, wild berry leaves, cattail hearts/bloom spikes, burdock flower stalks, day lily flowers/buds, milkweed flowers/buds, Linden (basswood) blossoms, beach pea flowers, salty fingers/marsh samphire, sea beans, mulberries, juneberries, chicory flowers, hop shoots, lambs quarters, orache, angelicas, peppergrass leaves, various tree pollens

July

Black raspberries, fire cherries, milkweed pods, blueberries, bilberries, huckleberries, strawberries, indian cucumber, young/green black walnuts, yarrow flowers/buds, purslane, mullein, wild mints, bugleweed, sweetgale, sweetfern, bay leaf, may apple fruit, currants

August

Purple flowering raspberries, black cherries, blackberries, elderberries, ground cherries, sumac, hazelnuts, beach pea pods, beach roses, wild mustard flowers/buds, peppergrass, purslane, wood sorrel, amaranths, sweetgale, sweetfern, bay leaf, gooseberries

September

Beach plums, paw paws, fox grapes, riverside grapes, cranberries, hickory nuts, crab apples, autumn olives, cow parsnip seeds, spicebush berries, chokecherries, wild pears, dogwood fruit, sassafras leaves, crabapples

October

Black walnuts, crab apples, chestnuts, persimmons, acorns, rose hips, mustard seed pods, autumn olives, burdock seeds, cow parsnip roots, ground nut tubers, bunchberries, ginkgo fruit, beech nuts, wax myrtle

November

Multi-flora rose hips, cleavers, garlic mustard, wintercress, bittercress, sorrels, spring onion/crow’s garlic/field garlic, wild horseradish roots, sunchokes, various edible sea weeds

December

Pine needles, burdock roots, evening primrose roots, jerusalem artichokes, barberry berries, sumac, Soloman’s seal rootstock, juniper berries, sassafras roots, wintergreen, edible seaweeds, mussels, clams

Winter

Enoki, winter chanterelles, oysters, turkey tail, chaga, witches butter, wood ear, jelly fungus

Spring

Morels, parasol mushrooms, fairy ring mushrooms, field/agaricus mushrooms, reishi, dryad’s saddle/pheasant back

Summer

Chanterelles, black trumpets, chicken of the woods, puffballs, milky caps and a large variety of boletes including – kings, bi-colored, chestnut, Russell’s, Frost and more.

Fall

Hen of the woods/maitake, hericium/lion’s mane, beefsteak polypores, oyster mushrooms, lobster mushrooms, hedgehog mushrooms, blewits, honey mushrooms, shrimp of the woods and a large variety of gilled mushrooms – russulas, brittle gills, etc.