Whether you live in the country or an urban area, you likely have a plethora of edible, medicinal plants just outside your door. Considered by many to be pretty but useless flowers at best, these herbal allies are packed with nutrition, flavor, antioxidants and even an ability to heal cuts, bruises and other injuries.
You don’t need to be a credentialed herbalist or a medical professional to know how to safely harvest and use wild plants, but always take caution before harvesting any wild plant intended for ingestion or other healing uses. Check several qualified sources to ensure with 100-percent certainty what you’re harvesting to compare different thoughts on their uses, learn potential hazards and to identify nonedible lookalikes.
Understanding the larger ecosystem these plants belong to will help provide you with a holistic approach to wild foraging. Never harvest from roadsides or in areas that may have been sprayed by pesticides, and always forage sustainably, responsibly and ethically.
From early to late spring in North America, there are myriad edible plants that pop up in yards and wildscapes that haven’t been sprayed with pesticides. Some, such as dandelion, stick around through most of the summer.
The list is very long, so start with the following big players, and you’ll soon be addicted to foraging.
RED CLOVER
None of us is a stranger to clover, especially for its soil-building capabilities, but red clover (Trifolium pratense) in particular makes good medicine. It’s a classic alterative, meaning it improves the condition of the blood.
The flowers and the top pair of leaves are picked for their high vitamin and mineral content, namely calcium, chromium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, tin, and vitamins B and C.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Healing Herbs 2025 من Hobby Farms.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Healing Herbs 2025 من Hobby Farms.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
The RISE of Opportunist WEEDS
Be prepared to see increasing changes in weeds we fight, such as poison hemlock and poison ivy, and in the crops we grow.
LIVESTOCK Health
Prepare yourself for how to spot symptoms of illness in your farm animals so that you can get them help before it's too late.
CUT FLOWER Farming
If you're considering growing flowers for sale, brush up on these five key things to know before diving in.
WINTER Survival
Keep your land, animals and yourself in good shape this winter with this helpful advice.
COVERAGE CONCERNS
Avoid common insurance mistakes for rural and hobby farm businesses.
FARMER'S GUIDE Berries
Set the stage for tasty strawberries, blueberries and brambles with these soil-boosting garden tips.
Preconditioning CALVES
Follow our step-by-step guide to get more money for your calves.
Soil Conservation
Often, outside of having a specific problem that needs to be addressed, soil conservation isn't something every farmer readily thinks about. Yet conserving the soil should be at or near the top of every farmer owner or manager's list of concerns because absent the prevention of soil erosion, we have the opportunity for another dust bowl.
Year-Round Lettuce & Salad Mixes
It's easy to think of salad greens as just a spring- or fall-garden crop, but it's possible to enjoy freshly harvested lettuces, mustards and more from your own garden year-round.
Barn Improvements
Days are never long enough for a farmer. From dawn to well into the night, tasks arise that often require immediate action. Having to search for tools or equipment is an enormous time waster and incredibly frustrating when you can't find what you need, especially when you know you have it.