CRESTLINE — Bailey Solze crouched on the forest floor, holding a trowel in her green-gloved hands. Her parents stood a few feet away, watching as their daughter concentrated on digging up a wild leek.
It took a couple of minutes, but 8-year-old Solze eventually managed to extract it from the park’s rich soil.
“There was rocks in the way I had to get out,” she said.
The family of five were among a group of about 30 foragers to descend on Lowe-Volk Park Saturday, led by naturalist Chelsea Gottfried on a wild edibles hike.
Gottfried pointed out a variety of edible plants during an hourlong hike, from dandelions and wild violets to spring beauties and garlic mustard.
At one point, she broke off a piece of pheasant back mushroom, also known as dryad’s saddle, and told participants to take a sniff.
“There’s not really anything else it looks like dryad’s saddle,” she said.
“But if you’re ever not sure, it smells like fresh cucumbers to me or some people say watermelon.”
The group hiked a bit further, then encountered some stinging nettle and garlic mustard. Gottfried encouraged the foragers to pluck out garlic mustard by the roots, since they’re invasive.
“With the stinging nettle, I’m just breaking them off. That way they can continue to grow like an herb,” she said.
Dandelions can be eaten in salads, made into tea
Many participants said it wasn’t their first time snacking on food from the forest.
Roger Myers of Mansfield said he’s been foraging since the ninth grade. For him, it’s part of a lifelong interest in survivalist training.
“I like nature and you never know when you might be in a survival situation,” he said.
Myers said he doesn’t have a favorite plant to forage — most are pretty bland. But he extolled the taste of purslane and the versatility of dandelions.
“The (dandelions) leaves taste like spinach when you cook them,” he said. “You can grind up the roots. They’re bitter, but they’ve got good medicinal properties to it.
“You can make a dandelion tea out of the roots,” he added. “Put a little honey in it so it’s not too bitter.”
Bailey’s father Troy Solze said he and his wife introduced foraging to their children as a fun, educational activity.
“We got a book a couple years back and we’ve learned little by little each year,” he said. “It’s a wonderful way to get them out of the house and just have fun with your family. God provided a wonderful playground for us out here.”
Bailey said her favorite thing to forage is dandelions.
“They’re good in salads,” she said. “My dad used dandelions and he made this special cream for your hands if it gets itchy.”
Troy said he found the recipe for an antibiotic and anti-itch dandelion oil due to his children’s enthusiasm.
“They kept picking a bunch of flowers and I didn’t want to waste them. So I tried to figure out other ways to use them,” he explained.
Local professor plans plant-based photography
Most people who signed up for workshop had edible plants on their minds.
Photography professor Bridget Murphy Milligan had another goal.
She came to learn more about bloodroot. A member of the poppy family, bloodroots can be fatal if ingested. But long before European settlers set foot on English soil, Native Americans were using the plants to make dyes and insect repellent.
Murphy Milligan plans to use it for anthotypes — a kind of plant-based photograph.
“I’ll use the juice of that, pulverize it with a mortar and pestle, dilute it with maybe denatured alcohol and then use the UV light,” she said.
Murphy Milligan attended the workshop with her mother, daughter, aunt and grandmother, Mary Studer.
At 91 years old, Studer likes to live off the land as much as possible, growing her own vegetables and foraging dandelions and lambs quarters.
She said she came to the workshop in hopes of expanding her knowledge.
“I thought maybe it’d be something different than I didn’t know,” she said, spinning a green stem between her fingertips. “I didn’t know what this (garlic) mustard was.”
After the hike, participants headed back to the nature center to put their collective harvest to good use. Some diced dandelion greens and trout lilies for a salad, others made a wild violet vinaigrette. Garlic Mustard pesto and cupcakes topped with wildflowers were also on the menu.
Tips for foragers
Foraging is far from a new activity. For much of history, humans gathered and ate native plants.
Whether it’s due to high grocery bills, survivalist tendencies or mere curiosity, foraging is seeing a resurgence in popularity. Columbus-based social media influencer and foraging educator Alexis Nikole Nelson has more than 4.4 million followers on TikTok.
Gottfried said the annual wild edibles hike is one of her most popular park programs for adults each year.
“People like to eat things from nature,” she said.
Her advice for new or aspiring foragers is to do lots of research (there are plenty of good books on foraging) and start off alongside experienced gatherers.
“You always want to be sure of what you’re eating,” she said.
Another tip she offered is to forage responsibly — tread lightly and don’t get greedy. If there’s only a bit of something, don’t take it all.
“Don’t over-harvest,” she said. “Think about the wildlife. It’s their food. We don’t really need it, it’s just fun for us.”