Visiting The Villages of Mt Hood gives you a taste of fresh-air mountain living.  For a delicious flavor to match, try sampling some of Mt. Hood’s wild edible plants.  Within minutes of The Villages, you can be gathering food in the rich alpine landscape.  Here are a few of the natural delicacies you might like to try.  Do take great care in identifying your wild foods, eat only those of which you’re 100% sure, and please don’t over-harvest – take only enough for yourself.

Edible Greens

Start with some greens that are very easy to find:  dandelion leaves and red clover.  Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) aren’t just those unwanted yellow flowers that crop up on your lawn.  They’re full of calcium and vitamin A.  The newest, most tender of those long, jagged leaves make a refreshing salad green (wash them well first), or boil or saute them for about 5 minutes for a new take on cooked vegetables.  Red clover (Trifolium pratense) leaves can be treated the same way for a green that’s full of protein.

Fiddlehead Ferns

Their charming name refers to the young curled fronds of any fern and are another tempting vegetable.  Look for those from the ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), and choose the brightest green, firm ones.  Trim them close to the curl, rub off and brown scales, rinse, and boil 3 to 5 minutes in salted water.  Fern enthusiasts say they taste like a cross of asparagus and artichoke.

Would you like to try the challenge of mushroom hunting?

Though you need to be absolutely sure of your species, wild mushrooms are a gourmet delicacy anyone can have with time and know-how.  Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) are only found in the wild, and are prized by chefs worldwide for their firm but tender texture and unique flavor.  Find these golden, gently ruffled mushrooms on the ground under hardwoods or conifers.  They have a sweet odor similar to apricots, and have a mild or slightly peppery taste.  The fall season is the perfect time to find chantrelles around the Villages of Mt Hood.  Try the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus), which grow especially plentiful in the later autumn.  You’ll find these pale wide fungi growing in clusters on dead wood.  Cook them for 10 to 20 minutes and savor their soft, pleasantly chewy texture. 

Juicy Jewels

Wild berries are a lovely treat when they’re sun-warmed and plucked right from the vine.  You can hunt for thimbleberries (Rubus parviflorus), which even your littlest foragers will enjoy since they have no thorns.  These soft, bright red, cap-shaped berries pop right off their core when picked, looking just like thimbles.  You’ll often find them along roadsides and in forest clearings. Salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) are found near streams and in moist forests.  They range from yellow to salmon-orange to yellow in color, and look like shiny raspberries.  They can be tart, which makes them ideal for cooking with sugar.  Hummingbirds are very fond of salmonberries, so you may have some fast-moving competition for your harvest!

You’ll also find lots of eager berry pickers looking for the best places for huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium).  Look in the forest for a deciduous shrub up to 4 meters tall with oval leaves and small, bright red to dark blue berries.  They’re a bit tarter and more intensely flavored than blueberries, and have crunchy edible seeds inside.  Huckleberries aren’t grown commercially, so in the wild is the only place to get them.

Some wise words on mushrooms from the Audubon Field Guide:

Before you eat a wild mushroom, be absolutely sure your identification is correct and that the mushroom is a safe edible. The first time you eat any species, take only a small portion and do not drink any liquor. If you experience no side effects, try a slightly larger portion the next time. Don’t eat a large quantity, no matter how often you have eaten a particular mushroom; mushrooms, in general, are indigestible.

Unless otherwise advised, cook all wild mushrooms…collect only firm, fresh mushrooms for the table. Cut them in half and check for insects and worms.

Remember before foraging for edibles in the Mt Hood National Forest to check with the Zigzag Ranger Station for information about rules and permits.  They also carry several books and guides to assist you in finding nature’s tasty treats.

by Andree Larson

Here’s an easy, delicious recipe for some of that yummy natural bounty: