We’ve talked about foraging for mushrooms in Santa Cruz, but fungi are not the only thing you can find out in nature! There are dozens of edible plants and flowers in the area, all bursting with way more flavor than anything you’d find at the grocery store. Foraging for your own dinner takes a lot of time and patience, and—unlike at the grocery store—you have to be paying attention to what’s in season. But once you’ve read a book or two on the subject, you’ll find a veritable feast waiting for you just outside of your door.
As with any outdoor activity, first make sure that you take precautions to ensure your own safety and the safety of the environment around you.
Preparations
Santa Cruz has a number of delicious native and non-native plants, so in the interest of protecting the environment and prioritizing sustainability, focus your efforts on non-native plants if you can. Look up rare and endangered plants and make sure you strike those from your list in advance. You can learn about native plants in the area from sources like A Flora of Santa Cruz Island or do a cursory search online.Both of those action items rely on foreknowledge and research completed before you head out into the woods. If you want an easy rule of thumb that can help you in the moment, it’s this: never forage from a plant if it’s the only plant of that species you find, and if you find multiple, never forage more than ten percent of it. This will allow plant populations to stay protected and healthy and will also ensure that foraging can be a sustainable activity.
The evergreen advice when tramping around in the woods of Santa Cruz is to take basic hiking precautions and watch out for poison oak, which is notoriously ubiquitous all year. Get some poison oak relief cream in advance or wear long pants and bring gloves.
And finally, have the right tools with you! In addition to your usual emergency gear (like a neck gaiter, poncho, water filter, and med kit), make sure you have good tools for foraging! A harvesting bag for carting around your spoils is essential, as are stem cutters for digging through brambles and mulch.
Edible Plants
- Hazelnuts: These tree nuts, also called filberts, can be found in groves around Santa Cruz, although they don’t ripen and drop until late in summer, usually mid-August. They grow on shrubs and are usually hidden by serrated leaves. Hazelnuts are tasty raw or roasted and pair well with chocolate.
- Miner’s Lettuce: In terms of greens, miner’s lettuce has it all. It’s a native and mild-tasting lettuce that’s loaded with vitamins, retains good taste and texture even after it flowers, and can be found in most mossy woods growing near oak trees. Use it in salads or alongside any toppings you would use in a salad.
- Black Mustard: An invasive species, black mustard grows rampant all over the area and is quite visible, as it grows to about six feet high and has bright little yellow flowers. Mustard can be consumed in numerous ways. In the spring, when the plant is young, you can put the leaves and flowers in a salad, where it will taste similar to arugula. Later in the summer, when the leaves are tough, you can cook them down like you would bitter greens. And finally, you can always harvest and dry the seeds, then grind them into mustard powder!
- Cactus: You can find patches of cacti growing in various places in Santa Cruz, including near UCSC. The flesh is delicious cooked, but be careful! Cactus spines are thin and easy to overlook, so you have to make sure you’re careful when skinning the pads. Make sure all the spines are removed so you don’t end up with one in your finger—or worse, your tongue!
Santa Cruz boasts many opportunities for foraging for those willing to look. These are just a few of the options for eschewing the grocery store and exploring the wilderness instead.
