Eat wild herbs and determine: what to look for

If you want to save a lot of money and at the same time want to absorb the healthy, concentrated power of nature, you can include wild herbs in your diet. You can find useful tips in this practical tip.

How to collect wild herbs properly

When you harvest your food from nature, there are a few things to watch out for. Only if you know your way around will eating the nutritious and healing plants a safe pleasure.

• The right equipment: Protect yourself from prickly and stinging wild herbs with gloves. Harvest aerial parts of plants with a knife or scissors. If you want to harvest roots and tubers, you need a root cutter or a spade. Place the harvested plants and parts of plants in a basket.
• The right place to collect: Do not collect wild herbs in nature reserves. Avoid busy roads and sprayed fields. Places that serve as a toilet for dogs are also taboo. Instead, keep an eye out in the garden, meadows, and forests. In the wild you will find an enormous variety of species that will enrich your meal plan.
• The right amount: For the sake of the environment, only collect as much as you can recycle. Think about the continued existence of wild herbs. They also provide a livelihood for bees, insects and other animals.
• The right plants: Only eat wild plants that you can pinpoint. Many delicacies such as nettle, giersch and dandelion are very easy to recognize.
• The wrong plants: In your own interest, you should not collect poisonous plants. Among the wild herbs, there are some edible species that have dangerous look-alikes. For example, the meadow chervil looks very similar to the deadly poisonous hemlock. For environmental reasons, keep away from endangered plant species.
• The right helpers: Through suitable wild herb guides and on wild herb hikes, you will get to know edible wild plants and their poisonous doppelgangers.
• The right age: Prefer young and healthy parts of the plant that are still tender. Many wild herbs become hard, fibrous or bitter as they mature. Some herbs develop incompatible or toxic substances with or after flowering, for example the celandine herb.
• The right processing: The very rare but dangerous fox tapeworm is usually transmitted to humans via dogs and cats. However, you should wash your collected wild herbs thoroughly to minimize the risk of infection. If you want to be on the safe side, eat wild herbs only when heated.