Bowen Hiking 41: Wild Woods Foraging Walk

Apr 8, 2017

After my hike around the Cape Roger Curtis area with my injured foot, I fell ill with a debilitating cold for about a week. I guess my body was REALLY trying to tell me to slow down.  >.<

Still suffering from the cold but slightly improved, I didn't want to miss the Wild Foods Foraging Walk with Emily van Lidth de Jeude.  Besides, we had already paid...

The weather was terrible.  It was pouring rain and cold AF.  We wore rain jackets but they quickly got soaked through. However, it was an interesting an informative 2km walk, mostly flat (see the blue path in the map below).

(this is a modified screenshot from bowentrails.ca)

Obviously, "hiking" itself was not the main goal of this walk, but I am a sucker for both trivia and survivalist skills, and I thought my readers might also like to know about the bounty in the earth beneath our feet, here on Bowen.

We met at the front of the Bowen Island Community School, and Emily gave us samples of steaming hot teas, made with local foraged ingredients.  In the cold weather, this was an exceptionally welcome touch.  :)

The first was Herb Robert/Robert's geranium tea. It was very bitter but I liked it a lot. Most of the rest of the group found  that one really unappealing. Here's a photo of Herb Robert that we encountered a little later on the walk:

The second tea was made of Douglas fir tips. It was crisp and clean and tasted like mint and citrus. Everyone liked that one.  It really inspired me to get out there and pick some fir tips to make my own tea.

I asked about the vitamin C content, because I had long ago read about early Canadian settlers using Hemlock needles to warn off scurvy.  Emily confirmed that yes, Douglas fir also has a lot of vitamin C.

To my surprise, she then told us that all of the trees on Bowen are edible, except yew, and launched into a description of several of the local trees' health qualities.  For example, you can chew on the Alder leaf and its cambium (inner layer of bark). Apparently, Alder has interchangeable effects with Willow, which as you may know, is the original source of ASA.  Alder catkins, shown below, are also supposed to be delicious when fresh and fried in a saucepan.

I was also really surprised to learn that Cedar is literally cleansing: for example, it flushes out dead white blood cells left after the flu.  In my experience with traditional First Nations medicines, cedar is considered a "spiritually" cleansing herb. One uses it mainly to "cleanse" a space, either as fresh branches, or though using it as a smudge, or boiling it to use the steam to cleanse the area.  It was gratifying to see modern science confirm the effectiveness of that traditional medicine!

The third and fourth teas we tried were raw burdock and roasted burdock, respectively.  With burdock, it's the taproot that is used to make the tea. Burdock has a very long and thick taperoot, up to a foot long, as you will find if you ever try to remove it from your yard.  ;p  Emily had dug some up using a pick axe, minced it, and then toasted it in her oven at a low temperature. One root can make approximately 50 cups of tea.

The roasted burdock was actually proffered as a coffee substitute. Some people liked it.  I personally didn't like it that much.  The root can also be eaten like a root vegetable, but it's not a very common practice outside of Asia.

After our teas, we headed off towards the school's Outdoor Learning Centre. A plaque announced that it was a "classroom without walls, created through the vision and generosity of Bowen Islanders, for the benefit of all."

Behind the Outdoor Learning Centre, we actually found some young burdock plants. These were small, but the plant can grow 3-6 feet (1-2m) tall, with leaves over 2 feet (70cm) long. Most people recognize the "burrs" of burdock, which tend to get stuck on clothing and in pets fur. Here's one I took later in the season, once it had grown taller and started to develop burs.

Emily pointed out the heart shaped leaves, and the white backs of the leaves. These were important distinguishing features, because people often mix up burdock with Western dock and with Foxgloves-- otherwise known as the toxic Digitalis.

Nearby, some Western dock was growing, which was convenient to do a visual comparison.  They definitely had similar heart-shaped leaves, but the backs were plain and green.  With Western dock, one can eat the young leaves, cooking them like spinach, because like spinach, the oxalic acid can be bitter.

As far as Foxgloves, we also have them in spades on Bowen Island.  They have a lovely flower, but no part of them should be eaten, as they are toxic.  One major distinguishing feature is the "spear-like" leaves. Emily made a joke about distinguishing them from burdock: "heart is kind; spear will hurt you."

Foxgloves can also grow quite tall. Several on my property grew well over 6 feet!

In that same clearing by the outdoor classroom grew several varieties of local berry bushes.  None had berries on them, at that time of year, but I was familiar with each of them, from those camping trips of my youth where I stuffed my face. Yum.  However, some people in our group had never seen the berries in question. Below are some photos I've taken later, when the berries were ripening.

Salmonberries grow everywhere on the island.  They ripen first among the berries.  Hatchery Trail near the Meadow, by Killarney Lake is a great place to eat salmonberries to your heart's content. They look a little like raspberries, when they ripen.  Even though the berries ripen from yellow through bright red to a deeper red, I find they are the juiciest, sweetest, and tastiest, when they are still yellow with only a hint of red. 

Red huckleberries ripen next. You can spot these along nearly every trail on the island. This year, I got a pretty good crop of huckleberries in my yard. Too many to harvest them all, in fact.  They look like blueberries, but ripen to red, not blue. The texture is also similar to blueberries, but huckleberries are less sweet, even when fully ripe.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, salal is ever-present, and a traditional First Nations food source. Here are some ripe salal berries. They ripen a little later, maybe mid-July. They're not actually that "tasty" to me... dry and somewhat flavourless, in comparison to the other berries. 

We also have several strains of "blackberry." You might be surprised to know that native blackberries, black raspberries and Himalayan (European) blackberries are different species.  The kind that you are probably familiar with are actually European blackberries. They have thick green stems with big spikes and can take over a whole yard if you don't cut them back aggressively. But the berries are big, juicy, and sweet when ripe. But they might not ripen until August.

In contrast, another type has thin whitish stems and smaller leaves. I wrote that these are "native blackberries" in my hike notes, and I had always thought of them as the native blackberry, but after doing a little online research, I became less sure... maybe they are black raspberry?  You see, according to my online research, one big "tell" between a blackberrry and a black raspberry is whether the centre of the berry is hollow or not, when you take it off the stem.  So while these ones below sure look like black raspberry stems, but the inside of the berries were not hollow, leading me to believe they might be local blackberries after all.  If you know which they are, leave me a comment!  In any case, this kind is fairly common on the island. It doesn't spread as readily as the European blackberry, and you might find a single strand growing in the underbrush. The berries are also much smaller than the European blackberries.  

Thimbleberries are also pretty common on the island. They ripen a bit later in the summer. They grow bright red. They have a very mild taste, and the berries are on the "dry" side, compared to salmonberries or blackberries. I surmise that they are called thimbleberries because they are completely "hollow" inside, so when you pick one off a bush, you can stick them on the end of your finger like a thimble.

The last on my list are currants. We found some on our walk, and I found some growing in the back of my yard too!  This is the stink currant we found on our walk:

This is the currant bush in my yard, photographed a little later so you can see the blossoms and fruit.  I have to say, to my great disappointment, they were not particularly tasty.  A little chalky with no real "berry" flavour.  I guess I could leave these for the birds, and they will be happy. 

After looking at all the various berry bushes, we dove into the forest behind the school. Here, Emily pointed out several of the tree varieties we had discussed earlier as being edible, including hemlock, fir, and cedar. She also showed us a variety of ferns and greens, which we sampled on site, according to her wild harvesting instructions. 

Right at the fork in the trail, we found several good specimens.  The left fork would take us on a lovely little jaunt through the forest, and join up with the Hatchery Trail. The right fork leads around the back of the school property, and pops out onto Bowen Island Trunk Rd, on the other side of the school's field. (See white dotted trail around the school in the map below.)

(this is a screenshot from bowentrails.ca)

Colin and I had previously walked a portion of that trail behind the school and found a non-view "viewpoint" in the peak of this year's snowy winter. Today, it all looked quite different, but we didn't have time for a longer walk on this day, as we were focused on areas that had edible greens. 

First we tried, spiney wood ferns, which have tiny fiddleheads, and unfurl into a very lacy triangle. The unfurled frond below is missing one side of its leaves, so you don't really get the full idea of what it supposed to look like.  Perhaps a hungry deer got to it before we did.  ;)  But I managed to snap this photo before someone picked the little fiddlehead in the centre of the photo.

Fortunately, Emily held up a spiney wood fern leaf beside a lady fern leaf for comparison, and I got a photo of that (see the right-hand fern in the second photo below). The lady fern's leaves (on the left) unfurled into a diamond shape, and had more regular oval lumps along their spines.

Next, we found Brackenfern fiddleheads. These only fern grow as single stems, which looks very different than most ferns, which tend to grow in clumped groupings.  Brackenfern are the fiddleheads that you might find in your local grocery, at the right time of year.  I've had them blanched then sauteed in butter and salt.  YUM!

We didn't sample these fiddleheads on site, however, because they must be cooked in order to be safe to eat, to break down the thiaminase (an enzyme that breaks down ... yep... thiamin a.k.a. vitamin B1, and leads to a deadly deficiency), as well as a poison called ptalquiloside.  Actually, it turns out that water, boiling heat, and salt all play a role in eliminating these toxins.  So your typical "blanched and then sauteed in butter and salt" preparation is actually pretty ideal for rendering these fiddleheads non-toxic!  However, once the leaves mature, they are more toxic, so you don't want to eat those, and depending where you're getting your fiddleheads, they might have varying doses of ptalquiloside poison.  So, even if you cook them, you are playing Russian roulette if you eat TOO much. Some folks have decided to completely forego this tasty treat, for just these reasons.

The Salish First Nations would dig up the Brackenfern rhizomes and use them to make flour, and many First Nations groups roasted the rhizomes to eat. The Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations say that only older women can harvest them,  because young people will get sick and die if they do.  Modern science has confirmed that Brackenfern can cause cancer (due to that pesky ptalquiloside), which is yet another confirmation of traditional native wisdom.

Emily promised to also show us Licorice ferns, which grow almost always on broadleaf maples, but they would have to wait until a little later on our walk.

It was time to forage some leafy greens!  Before we continued on, we got to try some Miners lettuce and Wall lettuce. These were at the best stage for harvesting, because the older/bigger they get, the more bitter they are. To me, they just tasted like leaves. Not too exciting.

We also found some Mustard greens.  That was not too hard, since once these get established somewhere, they tend to grow like wildfire. These are the plants that spread via seeds that explode all over with a "sprooosht!" if you touch them. These were young mustard greens, too young to have seeds. They tasted a little peppery. Once the greens are a little older, they would be very bitter. I had been weeding these out of my garden pretty aggressively, and didn't realize they were actually edible. With the amount I pulled out of my flowerbeds, I could have made a killing selling them at the Saturday tailgate markets.  ;)

Then we left the forest and headed onto the Trans-Island Trail (TIT).  We took the entrance with the wooden railing, facing the school on Mt Gardner Rd, and headed east. I had walked this section many times, sometimes in the snow, sometimes in the rain, ok, so far mostly in the snow and the rain... haha... and today was no different.

Where the trail split, the TIT headed up towards Grafton Rd on the left, and straight towards the Children's Centre on the right. We took the right, in order to explore the forested area nearby. 

We knew we must be getting close to the licorice fern, because we passed some tender young Broadleaf maple sprouts. You bet we stopped to sample!

Soon we arrived at a huge Broadleaf maple, and Emily could see licorice ferns growing on its lowest branch. One member of our group got a boost up to pick a couple for us.

The licorice fern fronds resemble sword fern fronds, but with the licorice ferns, the fronds go straight out from stem; the sword fern has a tiny angled stem coming out from the main stem (compare in the photo below). Even though licorice ferns do sometimes grow on rocks, another big hint that you've got yourself a licorice fern is if it is growing off a big maple tree-- you won't likely find a sword fern up there!  

Actually, I just realized that I didn't snap a photo of a sword fern on our walk.  I guess I tend to disregard them, since they are literally EVERYWHERE on Bowen. The leaves are edible, but apparently taste exactly like eating "leaves," i.e. probably your last choice, if you have other ferns around.  Their tubers are also edible, and are said to taste like a sunchoke. The tubers are also supposed to be a good source of water.  Here's a photo of a clump of sword ferns that I took on a different walk. 

Ok so back to the licorice fern: the rhizome of the licorice fern can be up to a foot (30cm) long, and sprout many ferns along it. We just nipped a little piece to try. If you want to try this, you will probably need a pocket knife to cut a little bit off, because if you just yank on the root, you might get the whole thing. The pieces we got were each centered around the fern stem. One side of the root was much darker than the other.  I can't remember exactly why, but I think Emily said that one side was younger than the other.  She also told us which side was better for what uses, but I am ashamed to say I didn't note it down and now I've forgotten.  Although both sides tasted like licorice or anise, to more or less degrees, each side definitely tasted different.  Normally, you wouldn't actually "eat" the root, but rather just chew on it, or use it to make tea. 

These roots were traditionally used by First Nations to relieve sore throats and were sometimes used as a sweetener. They contain "a substance called osladin, which is 3000 times sweeter than sugar."  In the past, I've had a very tasty wildcrafted tea which contained licorice fern rhizome. 14/10 would drink again.

Broadleaf maple blossoms are also delicious, Emily assured us, tossed into salads or sauteed with butter, but we were about one week too early to harvest any.  Here's one that is still too young.

An interesting thing about broadleaf maple is that it is native to the Pacific Coast. In fact, it will only grow within 300km of the coast, and no higher than 51 latitude, meaning that BC is the only province in Canada in which it grows. Some broadleaf maples can live up to 300 years, but will stop growing after about 50-70 years. You can harvest a type of "maple syrup" from its sap, but compared to the more famous sugar maple, it is of poorer quality and takes a lot more sap to get any syrup, so it's generally not considered worth it.

As we started back towards the school, Emily started pointing out slugs. Yep. You can eat slugs.  Something I had never before considered!  Emily included a "tasty" slug recipe in her handout for the walk.  Most of us eyed it suspiciously.  

She noted that the banana slug (see photo below) was the most delicious, but since it was getting out-competed by the black slug, it was actually the least sustainable one to eat. I thought that was interesting, considering the research I had just done about local slugs for my last post.

As we headed up the hill near the Children's centre, Emily pointed out some Albino slugs. She noted that they appeared to live only in this area of the island!  Why were they all albino here?  Was it something they were eating??  Googling didn't help much.  I did find out about "ghost slugs," a scary looking carnivorous invasive species that appears to be taking over the UK, but these slugs didn't really resemble the images I had seen.  These guys really just looked like cute albino versions of regular slugs.

We trudged our way back to the TIT and then the school in the pouring rain.

Emily recommended a book, "Plants of Coastal British Columbia," as one of the best ones on the market for plant identification. She said they often carried it at Phoenix books in Artisan Square. Well, I had to stop in and try to get a copy. 

While I had no luck with the book, I even more dismayed that someone had run over our "resident parking lot duck" and left the duckling an orphan.  It was soon all over the community Facebook page...

 Then soon after, another photo was posted of "the duck in happier times"...

In case you are wondering, someone had put the duck duo there to help drivers avoid the big pothole. Apparently, someone didn't, and the "parent" duck paid the price.

We headed home to dry off, warm up, and order my book off amazon.