Year of Plenty: Traditional Foodways Foraging for Huckleberries, Ground Cherries, and Tumbleweeds | Tips from Wild Food Girl
In this episode of the Year of Plenty Podcast, we sit down with Erica Davis — better known as Wild Food Girl — to explore the fascinating world of wild edible plants. Erica has spent more than a decade teaching, writing, and foraging across the Rocky Mountains and beyond, and she shares her deep knowledge on identification, harvesting, and cooking techniques for some of the most interesting wild foods in North America
Topics We Cover
- How Erica became “Wild Food Girl” and built her online school.
- Dandelion soup (manest), including how to blanch greens to reduce bitterness, recipe variations, and pairing ideas.
- Huckleberry foraging with seasonal timing, elevation tips, species differences, and the regional naming confusion between blueberries and huckleberries.
- Oregon grape, with tips on safe identification, its tart flavor, and how to use it in jelly, wine, and other recipes.
- Tumbleweed (Salsola), how to harvest young shoots, different cooking methods, and the ethics of foraging invasives.
- Kochia “land caviar” (tonburi), including seed processing, rinsing to remove saponins, and creative flavor pairings.
- Ground cherries (Physalis), how to identify species, clear up toxicity myths, know the best harvest times, and find their favorite habitats.
- Foraging safety tips, from avoiding lookalikes to harvesting ethically and steering clear of beginner mistakes.
- The unique challenges and opportunities of foraging in the Intermountain West.
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