What to Forage in Winter

30+ Edible & Medicinal Plants and Mushrooms

Winter may not be the first season you associate with wild plant foraging, but there's actually a lot you can find.  Winter offers a great opportunity to forage for  edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms, even buried under the snow!

Even with ice & snow, rose hips hang on through winter. This tiny taste fruit of the rose flower is high in vitamin C & can be used in herbal tea or homemade jelly.

The needles of evergreen conifer trees are one of the easiest plants to forage for in winter. Most conifers are edible, with the exception of the yew tree, but everything from spruce to fir trees are edible & high in vitamin C. Try them in herbal tea or to infuse gin!

As long as the ground isn't frozen solid, chicory root can be harvested all through winter. It makes a delicious herbal coffee substitute when roasted.

Yellowfoot chanterelles, can be found during most of winter. They have the same false gills as chanterelles, but a hollow stem. Try them simply stir-fried with butter and herbs in a piping hot skillet.

If you live near the ocean, seaweed is one of the easiest wild plants to forage for because they're all edible (but not all taste good!). Dulce, reddish-colored seaweed tastes great & can be used medicinally to prevent iodine deficiency.

Ways to use edible winter foraged plants

juniper berry wild yeast starter

infused gin

rose hip syrup