That's part of the reason why Sam Thayer loves foraging. He started collecting wild food from the woods when he was a kid, and he still has cravings for delicacies he can't buy.
"Last year I gathered about 30 gallons of serviceberries"blueberry-like fruits that grow on trees and shrubs-"and I make fruit leather and eat it as a snack year-round," says Thayer, a naturalist who lives in Wisconsin, writes field guides, and posts on TikTok as Well Fed Wild. "I have about eight pounds of wapatoo, which is a tuber, in my pantry, and I grind it up into hot cereal for breakfast. I love it, and you can't buy it."
Foraging spiked in popularity during the pandemic, when people who felt unsafe going to the store discovered it was a fun way to collect healthy, nutrient-packed food from the great outdoors for free. It's possible to forage in all sorts of places, even cities: Thayer recalls an excellent salad he made out of leaves plucked from trees in Washington, D.C. Foragers have found a home on TikTok, where millions of people watch videos explaining how to harvest puffball mushrooms, gather and process black walnuts, and make wild-violet syrup.
We asked TikTok's most popular foragers to share their best tips on getting started.
1. Do your homework before setting out
This story is from the May 13, 2024 edition of Time.
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This story is from the May 13, 2024 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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