Foraging for food possible in the city

Putting together a tasty salad for dinner doesn't have to involve a trip to the grocery store, or even a farmer's market.

Rashel Tremblay, a farmer from Tilbury, took a small group of people on a foraging tour Thursday along Windsor's riverfront.

"When I was a child my dad introduced me to red clover flowers because they taste like honey. They're a very sweet treat. Something that's nice to snack on while I'm working," said Tremblay.

She really became interested in finding edible wild plants when she tired of using kale and spinach in her breakfast smoothies. That's when she started experimenting with things from her yard.

Tremblay said any small, green space in the city would yield enough to make a nutritious salad.

An example she gives is garlic mustard, an invasive species, which is a good ingredient to use for a pesto. She also regularly uses lamb`s quarters, which Tremblay compared to spinach, and wild onions.

She said people curious about foraging for edible plants should start slowly.

"You need to just know a couple of plants first, very intimately. And once you know those, you start to notice — what are these other plants? But it does take some time," Tremblay said.  

Tremblay also forages for wild fruits. She said by the third week of June there will be wild mulberries to eat, and after that Saskatoon berries.