Sponsored by the Bennington County Sustainable Forest Consortium and the Equinox Preservation Trust
Leader: Russ Cohen, professional environmentalist and wild foods enthusiast.
On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, Russ and nearly thirty friends of the Bennington County Sustainable Forest Consortium looked for in-season wild edibles on Mt. Equinox. We found the following:
VERY COMMON TO COMMON SPECIES, MOSTLY INTRODUCED, HARVEST HAPPILY Basswood Bedstraw, common Black birch Black cherry Black raspberry Burdock Canada mayflower Coltsfoot Dandelion Milkweed, common Plantain Sumac sp. Violets, common Wild parsnip
VERY COMMON TO SOMEWHAT ELUSIVE SPECIES, MOSTLY NATIVE, HARVEST CONSCIOUSLY Blackberry Choke cherry Flowering raspberry Gooseberries/currants Hazelnut Jewelweed Maples Ostrich fern Raspberry, red Toothwort Wild strawberry
LESS THAN COMMON TO RARE SPECIES, HARVEST CAREFULLY OR NOT AT ALL False Solomon's seal Solomon's seal Swamp fly honeysuckle Trout lily Wild ginger Wild leek
UNRANKED SPECIES Dryad's saddle mushroom Morel mushroom Wood nettle Waterleaf Yellow birch
A NOTE FROM RUSS COHEN: The portion of the plant one is harvesting often has a great a bearing on whether the picking innocuous or potentially harmful. For example, digging up edible roots is usually more traumatic than merely picking berries (though some plants, such as Jerusalem artichoke, benefit from being thinned). The rules for responsible foraging, then, go beyond rarity considerations to the impact of harvesting on various plant parts, aesthetic values, wildlife food value, rare look-alikes, and other concerns.