Wild food you can find within 5 minutes of your home

No matter how good you are at identifying wild plants, you can never guarantee the ones you want will be the ones you find. Unless you know where some of the more uncommon plants are specifically growing, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to find them when you want to. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert to find enough food in the wild, and you don’t even have to go far from your house to get something substantial. Here is some of the most common wild food you can find within 5 minutes of your home that grows almost anywhere:

1) Blackberries

Mid-August to the end of October

Brambles are considered a pest plant and the days of people rushing to the park to gather blackberries to make their own jam have long passed. They grow pretty much anywhere and are one of the most common plants in the country, popping up along roadsides and in people’s gardens. Since no one really bothers to gather them anymore that leaves more for the very few that do, and making a couple dozen jars of blackberry jam to spread out across the year will not only cost less, but the sugar will help to preserve them until next year’s gathering.

2) The Elder Tree

First half of June for flowers, End of August for berries

Birds love to eat elderberries but they can’t digest the seeds, pooping them out all over the place which leads to elder trees appearing anywhere there’s a hedge or tree for the birds to sit in.

The flowers are good for making wine and putting on salads, and since they have a good sugar content as flowers go, they also work nicely in cakes and sweet dishes. The berries are a little sharp and are only good for making jam and wine, but be careful not to blend them or do anything that could crush the seed in the center, which contains a very bitter substance and can change the flavor of anything it’s in.

3) Nettles

All Year

You can’t walk around most places for more than a couple of minutes without seeing some nettles. Most people stay away from these things and usually remove them from their gardens as soon as they show up. The thing about nettles is that most people don’t realize they are actually vegetables, and the leaves have similar nutritional properties to spinach.

Wearing a thick pair of gloves, snap the stem off at the bottom and run your hand up the stem, pulling off all the leaves. After a quick clean in some water, they should be good for cooking, and when doing so they act within dishes the same way spinach leaves do, quickly wilting and becoming part of the sauce if boiled.

4) Burdock

September to December

This is another plant that people ignore, probably due to how similar it looks to a thistle. The flower looks almost the same, but the leaves have rounded edges and aren’t spiky like on a thistle.

The edible part of this is the root, which appears as a long tube-like vegetable with a white starchy core. It’s similar to potatoes in terms of nutrients and likes to grow on waste ground and around the edges of farmers’ fields.

5) Dandelions and Sow thistle

May to October

Both of these look almost the same, with the only main difference being that sow thistles grow more than one flower from the main stem. The leaves and flowers are the most edible parts, but both aren’t really the nicest thing to eat, with the leaves being slightly peppery with an unpleasant aftertaste.

Some people like to use them on salads, but personally, I wouldn’t class this as one of the nicest wild foods, and perhaps best left to a survival situation.

6) Apples

September to October

In terms of wild food, one of the best things about Britain’s past is that we used canals a lot, and for a long time. People throwing apple cores in the banks for decades has led to thousands of wild apple trees popping up across the country.

This is one of the best places to look if you’re close to one, but it can be very hit-and-miss. Close to where I live, there are six trees in the space of under a mile, but if I walk in the opposite way the next tree doesn’t appear for over 4 miles.

Another good place to check for apples is the public park as the same rule applies. I have two trees in my local park, but unfortunately the second they start to appear people pull them off.