Wild Foods

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Wild Foods

Collecting enough wild foods. One can imagine how much time Native Americans had to spend to collect enough wild foods to feed families and tribes. Indeed, this time crunch most likely contributed to the first gardening of wild greens which would make food collection easier.

Depending on what you want to gather, expect to spend a lot of time searching for and collecting wild foods. Gathering wild greens can take a lot of time because so many of the wild greens are best when only the young leaves are young and small. Some of these do not occur in large populations making the search even longer. Season is also important because many of the species are either short-lived or only edible during certain times of the year.

Possible environmental degradation from wild food gathering can result from over-harvesting wild edibles. Harvesting vast amount of wild greens in a limited area could also contribute to population loss of these species and eventual decline.

University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
2301 South University Avenue
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 • USA
Phone (501) 671-2000 • Fax (501) 671-2209

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