Introduction to Wild Plants of the Pacific Northwest

“Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.” – Mourning Dove

Two decades ago, wild foraging was the exclusive realm of upscale boutique restaurant suppliers, traditional overseas cuisine and nearly 1.8 billion people—mostly low income–who live close to the land. But today, the western world embraces wild foraging as both a healthier and cheaper option than cultivated and commercially grown food.

Indigenous cultures, from Australia to North and South America, have been thriving on wild harvested plants for thousands of years. What was once scorned is now hailed as the source of natural medicines and a diverse, healthy diet, thanks to the wisdom of the native people of these continents.

In North America, European settlers brought scores of non-native plants with them when they immigrated. These plants quickly spread and naturalized across the United States and Canada. Ironically, many of these garden plants were used ornamentally, such as dandelions. Within a few generations, the Indian population had uncovered their medicinal properties, incorporating those healing herbs into their diet. Where colonizers had attempted to encourage native tribes to adopt the European “civilized” way of living, the river of knowledge now is flowing in reverse, with First Nations elders teaching the rest of us the value of traditional medicines and food sources.

The Pacific Northwest region of North America is a true buffet of edible wild plants, many of them unique to the area. This makes learning about foraging—wild and backyard—an exceptional tool to provide a varied, healthy and inexpensive diet. But with that knowledge about what to harvest comes a demand to know what you should not and what you legally cannot pick. And how to use, store and sustain your foraged foods.

As he held the root up for inspection, my father pointed to the bulging top where the whorls of flowers had grown, then the short, stocky length just below the bulge. His finger traced the path to where the root branched in two, then branched several more times.

“What does that look like to you?”

My seven-year-old brain had no knowledge of what the human respiratory system looked like. I shrugged.

My father continued. He had a lesson that he wanted me to learn.

“Just like our lungs.” He pointed out how the top was like our mouth and larynx, followed by our throat, to the bronchial tubes then branching further into the lungs.

It was a lesson that the First Nations of western Canada had taught him, decades earlier.

North American indigenous people have a centuries-old tradition of folk tales and myths created to explain the workings of the world around them, including stories for almost every living thing, flora or fauna.

Many times, those folk tales also describe, not just the plant or animal, but the benefits that using it wisely can create.

Seneca root is one of those. It has a well-storied history as one of the best cold and cough remedies in the natural world. Indeed, until the 1970s, many of the pharmaceutical companies in North America used it as one of their two primary medicinal ingredients to suppress a cough. It is still in common use in Europe and Asia.

Dad’s story did not end with how the plant that looked like our respiratory system was used to treat breathing problems.

“Seneca grows in some of the worst soil conditions. It likes gravelly, dry and rough spots. And what do we use it for? Dry, scratchy and rough coughs. Where it grows tells us a lot about what we use it for.”

My father grew up with the plains Indians of Canada, but the elders of every North American tribe passed down similar knowledge from generation to generation. With no written language, they relied on stories. Ironically, story telling is one of the best mnemonic techniques for remembering details.

In school, we may have learned the order of the planets using a simple mnemonic rhyme that starts, “Many very early men…” Or we might have learned the parts of a flower or the colors of the rainbow using similar ditties. Why do we still remember them?

Many of the indigenous tribes moved about a lot, following the seasons, the game and the plants. They carried these tales with them. There are simple concepts, like comparing the usable part of a plant to the ailment it treats or its health benefit. Then there are more elaborate stories, using the spiritual beliefs of the tribes to explain natural phenomena. Many of these, sadly, have faded from memory, but a great deal still carries on in our native North American culture.

Instead of deriding the First Nations’ traditional knowledge and beliefs, the world now is recognizing their value and embracing these practices and ideas. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in how we view and use natural remedies to treat health issues.

To re-quote Mourning Dove, “Everything on this earth has a purpose every disease an herb to cure it.”

My father learned from his native friends in the early part of the 1900s. I learned from my father and those same friends decades later.

We—our family—grew up using the knowledge of herbs to treat an assortment of ailments successfully. We learned what plants were edible, which were not. We learned how to harvest sustainably, store and use those plants for a multitude of purposes. At the time, many of our neighbors scoffed.

Even the big pharmaceutical companies attempt to dismiss the medicinal value of the myriad herbs available, for free, in the wild. Yet, health experts agree that those same herbs contain a wealth of the nutrients essential for our diets, and also agree on the culinary benefits of those herbs.

Oddly, most of today’s twenty most common drugs were derived from plant material, then synthesized (insert citation). Many of the micronutrients in the plants are there for the same purpose that they are needed in our bodies: to fight invasive attacks of other pathogens like fungus and bacteria or even insects, to strengthen the plant like our bodies are strengthened by them, to increase growth, to provide energy, and so on. The pattern sounds very much like the essence of the indigenous folk tales.

These tales serve many purposes, aside from creating a durable record of the use of the plants. They tell where they grow, they talk about risks of using them as well as benefits, they teach the next generation how to look after everything in nature responsibly, they teach about the power of respect and how to observe and learn from the world around them. They are far more than silly stories.

Today, people are rushing to embrace wild harvesting and foraging for natural foods. It has become trendy. This fad, like every fad, can be harmful if not properly managed. In the frenzy to be part of the back-to-the-earth group, we can do immense damage to the future of the wilderness. We need to learn sustainability.

Neophytes heading into the bush, mountains and fields also place themselves at risk. For every beneficial plant, there is a lookalike that may be unhealthy or even deadly. In the Pacific Northwest region, from British Columbia to northern California, the wilderness is challenging, and the number of plants that can harm you is significant. Properly informing yourself before you venture out is vital.

Where you can harvest is restricted, too. Each state or province has rules about where you can forage, how much you can pick and what you can gather, whether it is on private property or public domain.

So, we arm ourselves with the essential harvesting tools and head out on a nice, sunny day. But what are we looking for, how will we transport it, and how will we use it when we do harvest our crop?

The Pacific Northwest is unique and many of the plants that thrive there are equally distinct. The rainforests, historically the source for many of our modern-day medicines offers a bounty of edible plants.

In this book, we highlight this unique cornucopia of flora, as well as the unique collection of Indian folktales that accompany those plants. We provide you with a handbook on how to harvest sustainably, as well as how to store each of the featured plants.  We provide you with cautions about the legality of foraging in your area, as well as cautions about surviving in the wild and warnings about misuse of the plants.

We provide you, as well, with an invaluable chapter on Three Sisters planting, based on the well-known Three Sisters tales that permeated the folklore of almost every North American indigenous tribe. This will guide you in setting up your own backyard foraging environment.

Two of the chapters focus on the forty-five most commonly used plants for medicinal or culinary purposes. We describe how to use the herbs, their active properties, where to find them, what parts to harvest and their historical and contemporary uses.

Unlike my father’s oral stories and lessons, or the entertaining and invaluable First Nations tales from which his stories originated, I provide you with a written chronicle of the plants of the Pacific Northwest and the ore surrounding them.

Enjoy the journey of exploration in the world of foraging and wild harvesting, but remember, as the tribes teach us, we are stewards of this precious earth and owe a duty to it, as it rewards us.

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