Use: Edible fruit. The berries are good raw, tasting a little like blueberries although sometimes a little on the dry side. They are also great used as a replacement for any other berries in baked goods.
Use: Edible fruit. The berries are are astringent tasting when raw but delicious when cooked, baked, or added to purees. A great source of antioxidants.
Use: The entire plant is edible, root to blossoms. The roots are not tasty unless cooked and can be used like (very small) new potatoes. All the parts above the ground can be eaten raw or cooked.
Use: The young fruits can be eaten fresh. The catkins (flowers) can infuse alcohol with a unique flavor. In late spring, the leaves are tender and edible. Although there are recipes for sweet fern tea, it is described as "palatable".
Use: Berries can be eaten fresh but improve in flavor when dehydrated. Dried and ground berries can be used as a spice with a unique flavor described as floral and peppery, a little like allspice.
Use: Must be cooked to be edible. The flavor is similar to asparagus. Pick the unfurled part of the fern (crozier) before they fully unroll. Be sure the curl is tight. About 1" of the stem with the crozier can be eaten as well.
Use: Dried leaves can be used as a substitute for bayleaf for cooking soups and stews.
Eastern Prickly Pear
Use: The ripe fruit is edible raw or in jelly. Tender young leaf pads can be cut up and used similar to: string beans, or like okra to thicken soups, or raw in salads. Spines (glochids) need to be removed first! Read more to the right...
Use: Eat fresh like other plums, although the taste is very variable from plant to plant. The fruit is spectacular in jellies and jams. But you'll have to beat the birds to the fruit first.
Use: The most edible acorns for us humans. The acorn can be ground into meal and used as a flour and is rich in protein and fat. The tannins should be removed from the acorns first. See "learn more" to the right...
Use: A delicious raspberry, cousin to the raspberries we find at the supermarket. A little drier and slightly less sweet but according to one Blue Stem owner...the best raspberry ever.
Hobblebush and wild raisin
Use: The fruit is edible and tastes a like a raisin or date. Both species' fruit have large flat seeds inside, so plan to remove those. Great in a jam or as a sauce where you can sieve out the seeds.
The following species are native...and also delicious. Because there are so many edible native plants, we only include plants that we currently sell at Blue Stem and that are generally straightforward in their usage. However, we wholeheartedly support using native plants as food for humans. At the bottom of this page you can find links for further reading and research. Click on any image below to take you to each plant's product page.
For more reading on native plants that are edible, we recommend the following links: