Here is a good article about harvesting wild food and sustainability.  If I’m going to talk about eating wild foods and talk about how great they taste and how nutritious they are, I need to present the other side of it.  Humans have caused a lot of damage to wild ecosystems – over fishing and hunting the North American Bison down to just a fraction of what it used to be are two recent examples.

It would be devastating if those were lost to us forever, just as it would be if no future generations would be able to enjoy ramps or fiddleheads.

If you forage yourself, make sure to do so in a sustainable manner.  The article gives a few basic guidelines on how much of certain things you can safely take.  When harvesting ramps, for example, you take the entire plant, you must be sure to leave many more behind when you are finished foraging.  Fiddleheads can sustain more harvesting, but you still need to leave some behind for the plant.  Berries you can typically take a lot of.  I’m sure there are other books and websites that give more detailed information if you want to begin foraging for yourself.  There are also tours you can take with wildcrafters.  I’m sure many areas have these specialists, such as The Wild Man Steve Brill who offers tours in the New York and Connecticut areas.  His website also has great information about foraging, and he has written a few books as well.

If you purchase your wild crafted food from a vendor or farmer, talk to them.  Ask where it came from.  You don’t want something that was picked off the side of the freeway anyway, just for your own health!  After ascertaining it is safe for you, ask if it was safe for the plants.  Ask how many ramps they left behind, for example, and if this is an area many other people have access to.  Talk to them and see if they are knowledgeable about wildcrafting.  Hopefully if they are also farmers who use sustainable methods, they will apply that to wildcrafting as well.