Food Grows Everywhere
BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
Look around, leaves are bound, and the sky is a brazen shade of azure. Spring is here and summer approacheth. While the good people who source or grow produce, tote it to the farmers’ market and make your comestibles dreams come true, you too can add to the bounty simply by walking your neighborhood or a riparian zone near you. What’s more intriguing at a dinner party than edible flowers, morels, huckleberries or wild garlic that you plucked from the land yourself? Foraging is the next level in situational awareness—for what may be called “creative sustenance.” Foragers know this and take advantage of the bounty within the boundaries of Blaine County for a unique, free and replenishable resource.
How many edible plants can you identify in Hailey? Maybe too many to list, but there are some common appetizing or medicinal plants and fungi that grow around town, on the outskirts, and maybe even in your own backyard. Wild apples, dandelions, Saskatoon and elderberries, nettles and wild onions are some of the many available riches. It’s worth noting that there are any number of regions in the U.S. where you can find actual produce growing in the median. Seattle, for instance—in Ballard, and just north of that neighborhood, you’ll regularly find zucchini, tomatoes, strawberries and herbs growing right there for anyone to harvest. Food forests have been gaining traction as people are realizing that food is actually infinitely abundant and easily grown. Anyone who’s dealt in heirloom seeds knows this. What is a seedless watermelon? Maybe easier to eat, and there’s no knocking Mendel and his modification of peas, but what actually is a fruit without seeds? Convenience? Your mileage may vary. Of course, climate and habitat play the starring role in all of this, as do the contents of the soil.
How Many Apple Trees Can You Count In Ketchum?
Community gardens are a slightly subtle but enormous victory for the locals who maintain and share or barter with their yield—true grassroots community living, pun intended. For those without a backyard, there are apps where you can rent garden space such as https://yardyum.com/. Sun Valley’s Institute for Resilience is a great resource for finding local food https://www.sunvalleyinstitute.org/localfoodalliance/locallygrownguide. Mycologists and fungi fanatics might enjoy https://idahomushroomclub.org/ serving southcentral Idaho.
Backcountry Bounty
It’s very important to identify what you find and a quick search for ‘foraging in Idaho’ will yield quick results. There are dozens of photo-based plant and fungi identifying apps to consider, such as iNaturalist, PlantNet, Wild Edibles Forage. Resources to help you do that come in the form of apps, websites, books and even local foraging guides that donate their time and experience. Some basic tools will help—a pair of gloves, a utility knife, shearing scissors and a cheesecloth or even plastic bag to hold your harvest. You might opt for a printed field guide such as Foraging Idaho: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods, Foraging in Idaho: Foraging Log Book for Local Backyard Gatherers: Hunting, Identification And Adventures or Wild Edible Plants of Idaho.
Foraging is often a community quest. You might find an appetizing batch of wild garlic in someone’s yard and find that it’s time to ask permission. This is an opportunity to open up a conversation, weaving the fabric of community, getting to know your neighbors and making new friends. But there are plenty of backcountry spots and riparian zones where you can have a walkabout and discover your treasure.
What treasures await the forager? Thimbleberries, lambs quarter (similar to spinach), wild raspberries and chickweed make for a splash of excitement for an enchanted luncheon. Exquisitely colorful and unique salads, pickled garlic, pine needles for a tea or ground to a powder and infused into ice cream are a handful of ideas for foraged goods.
The Cycle of Life
Keep in mind a few guidelines as foraging is something of a game. Consider the harmony intrinsic to the glory of Earth’s ecosystem. Everything in the natural world has an interwoven purpose, from poison ivy to plantains. What may seem like a weed could be the roughage a hare loves, daily grazing for a goat or medicine for a mountain lion. Depending on what you’re looking for, it’s wise to take only as much as you intend to consume, reasonably, both to keep the balance in the plant and animal kingdom and to be courteous to other foragers.
Spring is morel season and brings out the most foragers, as these delicious fungi are highly profitable. An absolute delicacy, they’re great for eating fresh, sauteing, drying for storage or even dried and ground for powder to add umami to soups or barbecue rubs. These delightful mushrooms can be found in forested areas, specifically near coniferous trees, including spruce, fir or pine. They’re generally found on south-facing slopes and, oddly enough, forest fires leave a perfect habitat for their growth. Always keep a guidebook with you for identification, as mushrooms can be tricky and false morels are toxic. The difference is easily recognizable as good morels have a honeycomb interior while the interior of false morels are more like cotton. Do note that the popularity of these mushrooms can require a permit, for up to 5 gallons per day, free from the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. It’s wise to check with the office before lacing up your hiking boots.
Local Literacy
Some may remember the Hailey Alley Plant Walk, a popular event most recently held in August of 2023, that offered the chance to become familiar with the splendor in the grass around town. Learn to identify local species of plants with the Wood River Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society. It’s a fun and educational event with an exercise component as you stroll through the alleys of Hailey. There’s rumored to be another Edible Plant Walk for Adults in Hailey put on by The Nature Conservancy of Idaho.
But if you really want to match your skiing and hiking adventures with a flair for the edible, you may consider a backcountry adventure. Put on your long sleeves and loose pants, to guard against poisonous plants and insects, and escape northward into the vast expanse of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area to the Alice-Toxaway Loop and the Sawtooth Lake Trail for edible greens and berries. Heading east, you’ll find the alpine meadows of the Pioneer Mountains where huckleberries and thimbleberries can be found on Hyndman Creek Trail and the Pioneer Cabin Trail. The Boulder Mountains, north of Ketchum offer forest and wetlands bearing gifts of mushrooms, berries and wild greens. Heading southward to the high-alpine trails of the Smoky Mountains, you can find nettles and wild onions on Goat Creek Trail or Prairie Creek Trail. If you hone in to the northeast, to the alpine lakes and meadows of the White Cloud Mountains, you’re bound to find all manner of mushrooms, edible greens and berries on Washington Lake Trail and the Fourth of July Lake Trail.
Foraging is the ultimate foodie recreation for hikers with a hankering for exotic edibles. Plan your adventure! Pack your guidebooks, tools and keep an eagle eye out to hunt with the exultant realization that delicious vegetation is all around you in the mountains and meadows of Idaho. Imagine the delight in the vibe of your next dinner party—decorated with locally harvested and ironically exotic treats. Foraging is hunting, too, and a colorful way to enjoy May as we lead up to the summer months.