Edible Rhode Island: Mother Nature Provides Wild Selection

Feasting on forage

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News columnist

Autumn olives, delicious, nutritious and invasive.
Ripening right about now. Photo by Will Collette

Not to be rude, but the free Saturday morning breakfast buffet didn’t look appetizing. The portions were meager, bugs were crawling over much of it, and some of it could be toxic if prepared the wrong way.

Our hostess, Keri Brulé, delivered a splendid 2-hour presentation. The affable University of Rhode Island student working on her master’s degree shared how to identify what we were about to put in our mouths, preparation tips, and valuable information to keep us from having a seizure or pooping our pants.

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We learned a lot about foraging. Most of the 15 of us walking through the woods and meadows of Ryan Park seemed comfortable with the idea of feeding ourselves in the wild. I was not among the confident. Without Brulé, a botanist and plant ecologist, planning the menu, I’m fairly certain I would eat the wrong plant or the wrong part. I would not survive the apocalypse.

The Sept. 12 breakfast club gathered in a parking lot outside a gym on Ten Rod Road. The edible walk was sponsored by the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society.

Besides sampling the wild menu, Keri Brulé,
here holding an edible tuber from a young Indian
cucumber root, encouraged participants to
also touch … (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

“Roughly 15,000 years ago, where you are standing right now, was covered under a massive sheet of ice,” Brulé told us. “That ice melted and retreated from the landscape. Slowly, vegetation moved from south to north to occupy that space. About 10,000 years ago, indigenous people followed that vegetation, and therefore animals, in the form of food and medicine.

“European colonizers arrived in the 1600s and they brought their forms of food and medicine that they were familiar with to this landscape. Not longer after, enslaved people were brought here against their wills and they brought their food and medicine with them as well, when they could. The landscape you are in, is the story of the geography, of time, humans, and, therefore, you.”

She noted we all have, whether we are aware of it or not, an innate relationship with plants. She encouraged us to look at, touch, smell, and get to know the plants around us. Mind the poison ivy.

“You were meant to interact with them in the form of food,” Brulé said.

The Chepachet native grew up in Rhode Island “eating the wood sorrel out of my yard” and “picking blackberries out of the woods.”

Wood sorrel, also known as sourgrass or “nature’s Skittles,” is an edible wild plant. It’s easy to find, easy to identify, and common.

“Whenever I got a cut or bruise, my mom told me to get the ‘green stuff’ out of the fridge, which was an indiscriminate pale green balm in a recycled baby food jar,” Brulé said. It contained plants her mother used for medicinal purposes.

Sgt. Brulé spent about a decade in the military, in the Rhode Island Army National Guard as a refueler for Black Hawk helicopters and a weapons mechanic.

“It was a great learning opportunity,” she said. “I learned I am not a soldier.”

Unlike he who will not be named, Brulé would likely survive the apocalypse. After all, the 38-year-old works at the Raven Wilderness School, a bushcraft school where she is an apprentice who teaches foraging and wilderness skills.

Upon her return to civilian life, she went back to school. She’s currently earning a master’s in ecology. She’s also working with the Brown University Herbarium and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey to study and document the state’s rare plant species.

Her interest in plants, though, is rooted in foraging. Edible wild plants were a big part of her upbringing. They make up about 10% of her diet now. Her favorite pancakes are made with acorn flour.

“Once you start, it just takes a little bit of looking and a little bit of time, and then these things start becoming apparent,” Brulé said. “You’ll find food on the ground.”

We’re really not that different than squirrels.

Before we even entered the woods, Brulé found some mugwort bordering the parking lot. She noted it was once used to make a popular adult beverage.

“Mugwort was originally used as a flavoring for beer before hops was popularized and before a beer purity act was put in place, because you could basically make beer out of whatever,” she said. “You didn’t exactly know what plant you were getting in your beer prior to that, but it was generally mugwort — the wort you put in your mug.”

Mugwort is an invasive plant that is far too common. Brulé noted it really likes disturbed areas, such as off highways and parking lots. It takes over and then outcompetes native species.

“We’ll find a lot of this, so feel free to pick it. Take as much as you want,” she said. “I would say it is medicinal, not necessarily edible. You can make teas out of it. … Another alternative for using this plant is if you’re a person that likes smudging, burning sage, I offer mugwort for burning and for cleansing. We would love to get rid of it.”

Eat up

One way to help slow the encroachment of invasive plants is to consume them.

Most invasives don’t have natural predators feeding on or killing them, but more than a few, including Japanese knotweed and Dame’s rocket, are edible to humans. Some of which are even more nutritious and/or flavorful than their cultivated counterparts.

During our edible food trek, we discovered the red berries that grow on invasive autumn olive bushes are Brulé’s 10-year-old son’s favorite fruit — “he just eats them by the handful.” Ryan Park must be his favorite place in Rhode Island.

There’s no shortage of autumn olive on the local landscape. It was introduced to North America in the early 1800s from Asia for many well-intended reasons — erosion control, soil reclamation, and wildlife habitat. It quickly became apparent the idea was ill advised.

… and smell the edible and medicinal plants they would
encounter on the hike. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

“This was brought here because we thought it was a good idea to feed the wildlife, and turns out it is. It’s just too good at it, and now it’s absolutely everywhere,” Brulé said. “It likes to be cut down. I don’t know how to get rid of it, so I’m going to encourage you to eat it. I am not afraid of you taking 10 percent of the population. I spent, I think, two hours picking this tree a week ago. You’d never know it. They’re everywhere.”

Not all edible invasives, however, are a threat to native species or take over a landscape. For example, European settlers brought dandelions to North America in the 1600s to use as food crops and medicinal tonics. Every part of a dandelion is edible, from the yellow flower to the roots. They also are an important early-spring food source for emerging insects.

And not all edible wild plants are invasive. Brulé found several during the walk:

Beach plum: They are typically ready to pick about mid-August. They are a bit like cranberries in terms of eating, as not many people eat them straight off the bush. There’s a hint of sweetness and a lot of tartness, though the flavor varies from bush to bush — as is the case of most wild edibles. Beach plums are typically made into jams and jellies.

Fox grape: “You can use the grape leaves in some dishes, and they do produce actual grapes. You make jelly out of them.”

Greenbriar: “If you find the little tendrils at the end of new shoots, they’re very soft, they’re very flexible, and it has the two little tendrils. They’re actually extremely tasty. You have to beat the deer to them. The deer love them, but they’re really tasty. But once it gets tough, it’s unpleasant.”

Indian cucumber root: The tuber is what is edible. “It is surprisingly good to eat. It is the texture and the taste of a cucumber. It’s very watery. It’s very crunchy. A fantastic edible. The only issue is that you have to destroy the plant to get it. So, please don’t take more than 10% of the population.”

Also, most sumac species native to North America feature red berries growing in dense, upright, cone-shaped clusters. The berries are edible.

On the other hand, poison sumac is, well, poisonous, but luckily it doesn’t feature berry clusters. Even he who shall not be named would probably eat the correct one.

Note: I was 15 minutes late to breakfast, because I went to the wrong section of Ryan Park. In my defense, I showed up early to the wrong place. Keri emailed me her opening remarks.

Frank Carini can be reached at frank@ecori.org. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.