There is very little I will not eat and, most likely, like. I’ve had some things that I could probably live without, but I’d be hard pressed to come up with a food that I hate. The stranger, the more exotic, the better.

So when at the beginning of a foraged foods class I attended last week, the instructor issued a disclaimer, saying we were trying all the food he’d collected at our own risk, I was thrilled. This isn’t just different food, but a food challenge. I was up for it and boy was the risk worth it.

The class was held at The Road Less Traveled, the coolest eco-store I’ve ever visited. It has a decent collection of eco-friendly home goods, kitchen equipment, baby stuff and an awesome green living selection of books, but the store really shines is in the classes offered. There are classes on embroidery, sauerkraut and kimchi, felting, sewing, urban gardening, solar cooking and OMG so much more. I want to take all of them.

Back to foraged foods. This was one of the first classes I’ve taken at The Road Less Traveled and it did nothing but make me more excited for future classes. Joel Robinson, an Orange County naturalist introduced us to some in-season edibles that can be found in our area. Joel started off by telling us a short snippet of the history of the Native Americans in the area. Living amongst the concrete wasteland and never-ending strip malls of Orange County, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when clusters of condos didn’t block the horizon. There was actually a period in this area’s history where people lived with the land instead of dominating it. Mindblowing.

Joel introduced us to a table of green leaves. Most of the plants looked like wilting weeds and, well, technically I guess many of them were. But they were edible weeds. These are the things we spend boatloads of money on every year to kill because they crowd out the more desirable crops and tarnish our pristine landscape, but the have as much value as any of the other plants we throw in a typical salad. In fact, we did make a huge salad filled with sow thistle, fennel, mallow and more. Delilah, The Road Less Traveled’s amazing owner, supplied sage pesto and acorn bread. We made tea from toyon and raspberry leaves and chewed on some carob for dessert. I may not turn to all the greens we tried for a lettuce standby, but the result of the days class was a pretty delicious and ridiculously local meal.

All the while, I kept thinking back to the book Into the Wild by John Krakauer. I don’t want to give anything away if you haven’t seen or read it, but there is a scene where a pretty bad mistake is made in identifying plants. So I know I am nowhere near the level where I can feel confident marching out into the wild to search for my own salads. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with some of the people from my class or take a hike with Joel and get more hands-on experience.

If you are interested in learning about wild edibles in your area, I would suggest you try to find a foraged foods or wild edibles class or contact a naturalist in the area for more information. I’ve taken classes before on wild edibles in Ohio so I know they exist elsewhere. Just make sure you’re getting more hands-on information than from just a book. Please don’t end up all Into the Wild, okay? I’d miss you.

Mother Earth News has a neat article on how to learn more about using wild edibles.

You can read more about Joel at Naturalist for You and Delilah on her blog, Project Small.