Forget Beach Reads, Try Beech Leaves: Darya's Guide to Summer Foraging
At DCS, we believe in making change for the common good, and what better way (besides government and public relations) to do so than telling people about the beauty and nourishment that can come from the great state of Pennsylvania? DCS social media strategist Darya Kharabi (pictured with a fresh haul of blackberries) just so happens to be a longtime practitioner of foraging – locating, preparing, and eating wild plants available in our region. As a DCS summer treat, we asked them to share the scoop on three of their favorite plants to forage in the month of August.
Paw-paw (Asimina triloba)
What’s green, fragrant, and too good for regular grocery stores? Nope, it’s not your local hippie – it’s North America’s largest native fruit tree, the paw-paw! While paw-paw fruits range in flavor depending on where they grow, they tend to smell and taste like a mix between mango, kiwi, vanilla, and banana with a soft, custardy texture. When ripe, they’re extremely soft, even falling off the branch as you pick them. They won’t ripen much after picking, which is why you won’t see them at any grocery stores.
How to ID:
Leaves: Dark green, upside-down teardrop shaped leaves (think of the point of the teardrop as connecting to the stem) with smooth margins. They alternate on the branch, with two leaves unevenly forming the tips of each branch. They have a unique arrangement that is easy to recognize once you know it (see the picture above.
Bark: Paw paw trees have silvery grey bark with spotting on it sometimes. No ridges or furrows.
Fruit: Light to brownish green with a sweet scent, slightly kidney bean shaped, anywhere from 3-5 inches long. They grow in clusters.
Lookalikes: Some common lookalikes are buckeye, bitternut hickory, and horse chestnut trees as they have similar looking leaf shapes. However, all three of the aforementioned have serrated edges to the leaves, and ridged, cracked, bark in contrast to the paw-paw’s smooth leaf margins and bark.
How to eat: You can eat the fruit as is, blend into a sorbet, or make a jam!
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
Some call these guys a weed. I call them delicious! This tasty little succulent grows where many plants can’t survive: in sidewalk cracks, the barest spots in the garden, and basically anywhere the soil is poor. Seriously, I transplanted some into some top-notch garden soil with plenty of compost and it promptly died! Used in cuisine from the Western Asia to indigenous North America, this versatile plant is cute, naturalized everywhere, and yummy — just don’t let your pets eat it. I recommend looking for this in a yard and not near or on a sidewalk/roadway.
How to ID:
Leaves: Green, smooth, fleshy (thick and succulent) oval leaves that tend to be clustered at joints and stem ends. In bright sunlight, the leaves can take on a tinge of reddish-purple. Purslane grows low to the ground and wide, often from a central mass. Stems are reddish and juicy, with a clear sap.
Flowers: Most varieties found wild have tiny yellow flowers that bloom in the early morning, but some escaped cultivars have showy white, pink, or red blooms.
Lookalikes: The only common lookalike is prostrate spurge, AKA Euphorbia maculata/prostrata, but telling them apart is a breeze. 1) Spurge’s leaves are flat, thin, and not squishy like purslane, and 2) they have a white, latex-like sap unlike purslane’s clear, juicy sap. ALWAYS check that you don’t have spurge before you enjoy your harvest, because even a little can cause a lot of stomach upset.
How to eat: You can eat purslane raw in a salad (my favorite), sauteed like spinach, or cooked down in a soup. Think of it as a slightly sour spinach or other pot green!
Black walnut (Juglans nigra)
You’ve probably seen these trees everywhere, and encountered the massive amount of fruit that they drop, but have you ever tried the special gem that is the black walnut? They’re not quite like regular English walnuts, but still have a delicious, nutty flavor. Just wear gloves when peeling them, as they’ll dye your hands!
How to ID:
Leaves: The leaves have a rounded base and pointed tip, and are serrated on the edges. They alternate on the branch, though they’re close to one another, and don’t have a leaf on the end of the branch. When crushed, they have a distinctive spicy aroma.
Bark: Dark brown to black-grey, with deep furrows that almost resemble diamonds or triangles.
Fruit: A little smaller than a baseball, completely round, bright green to brown-black, with a hard, black nut inside.
Lookalikes: Black walnuts have several lookalikes: butternuts (Juglans cinerea), sumacs (Rhus), and tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Butternuts have pale grey bark, smooth leaf edges, and lemon-shaped fruit which are also edible. Sumacs have distinctive reddish tinges, furry stems, and fuzzy fruits that are used as seasoning. Tree of heaven has smooth leaf margins with distinctive lobes at the bottom and a stinky aroma, and young leaves are copper colored.
How to eat: I recommend wearing gloves while handling the fruit if you care about having stained hands! Look for fruit that has fallen off the tree and has mildly soft, bruised flesh. Peel the flesh and you’ll have a hard little nut that you can then crack open with a shoe or a rock! You can float the meat you collect in water at the end and skim off any husk fragments, then dry in a cool place for a few days. You can then roast them or eat raw. Use as you would any regular walnut.
As you enjoy the late summer, keep an eye out for these wild delights! And if you ever need someone to keep an equally keen eye on your social media channels (or, you know, take you foraging!), you know who to call.