Foraging Wild Edibles

The Adventurous Life

Sunshine falls through the leaves above us and splashes onto the water at our feet. Rocks the size of melons glisten in Four Mile Creek, which runs ankle-deep on its way to the Niangua River. A light breeze whistles across my long-sleeved shirt, cooling the sweat that has gathered on it.

Rachael West, founder of Eating the Ozarks and author of Wild Foraged, walks ahead of me in sandaled feet. I linger a few steps behind, my sneakers soaked through, my eyes soaking up the beauty around me. “This is Eden,” she says.

Rachael has devoted the last 15 years to teaching foraging. She hosts corporate parties and private events at her property in Long Lane, where she cooks for guests. She also offers wild food catering and teaches classes where participants learn to safely forage and eat what grows naturally around them. “The whole goal was to get you cooking with plants that are out your front door,” Rachael says.

Four Mile Creek, which runs near her property, is a little slice of heaven. It’s green and lush and fragrant and lined with bushes and trees so thick you can’t see more than 10 feet through the foliage.

Identifying the Greens

To my untrained eye, all the plants blend. I can’t tell one from the next. “A lot of people just see green,” Rachael says. But she sees nuance, subtlety, details, shades of green. She sees a veritable pantry of wild edibles—Missouri’s natural spice rack—and they’re all free, all delicious, all good for you.

A cornucopia of edible plants thrives all over her property, along the secluded road leading to it, and along the banks of Four Mile Creek and the Niangua River, and these same plants thrive all over Missouri too.

As she does with her students, Rachael teaches my friend Micah Humphreys and me how to find, identify, and cook the plants. Rachael encourages us, saying, “They’re not hard to identify. You’re not tromping through the woods backpacking with an ID badge for each plant.”

I wanted to learn about foraging because I’m intrigued by the idea of living off the land. I mean, I’m not going to do it because it’s impractical considering I live in the suburbs and have two teenagers to feed, but I like trying in short bursts. There’s something visceral, hearty, substantial, meaningful about eating something that has never been in a truck, never been on a shelf, never run through a scanner at a grocery store.

Food just tastes better when it’s a product of your own efforts. Among the most memorable meals I’ve had are fish I caught and cooked at Montauk State Park and chili made from a deer I hunted. Foraging follows the same principle—I got this for myself.

Eating Weeds

Rachael received a gift from one of her students, a placard that reads, “Eat more weeds.” This message is apropos of all that Rachael promotes. She sells her elderberry syrup in stores, teaches online classes for Smithsonian, and has a regular segment on the local TV station KOLR.

She talks fast but lives in a slow world. It has taken her time to learn to identify plants and understand their differences and properties. It takes time to find them. It takes time to learn how to integrate them into recipes.

But that effort is worth it.

Micah and I devour candied walnuts and watermelon rinds pickled in blue spruce vinegar, along with other delectable items she places before us. We can’t decide which is best, so we eat and eat and eat to try to figure it out.

If it tastes like this, maybe I will try living off the land after all.

Sample of Wild Edibles

Goldenrod.
All 200 varieties of goldenrod are edible and have bright yellow flowers, Rachael explains. You can dry goldenrod and make it into a green tea; it has seven times as many antioxidants as green tea, she says. Or you can roll the leaves between your fingers before drying them, which allows them to naturally ferment and then make a drink that resembles black tea.
Juniper.
Juniper has blue berries that are used in sauerkraut and pickles. The berries are also used to cure meat, while its branches are used to smoke meat. Like cranberries, the juniper berries help fight urinary tract infections. The plant also has antibacterial and antiseptic properties.
Spicebush.
The spicebush, which grows from the East Coast to the Ozarks, smells like a mix of vanilla and lemon. “When you’re foraging, your nose is as important as your eyes,” Rachael says. She recommends using spicebush in a wide variety of dishes, from chocolate chip cookies to ice cream to dumplings.
Pawpaw.
If you’re in the forest and you think you smell crushed red bell peppers, it’s this small tree, which yields North America’s largest native fruit. Some say it tastes similar to bananas.
Sochan.
A member of the sunflower family, it is great in a stirfry, Rachael says. She also suggests sautéing the leaves first, then throwing them in scrambled eggs.

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This article was originally printed in the October 2026 issue of Missouri Life.