[I] Identify - the plant (no pretending)
[T] Timing - consider the plant's needs, should you be harvesting right now?
[E] Environment - is right here a proper place to eat from?
[M] Method - be careful (do it for the kids)
I recently went for a walk in the park (Boeing Creek in Shoreline), December 24, 2012 to see what is growing. I brought one of my guide books. Northwest Foraging by Doug Benoliel If it were back in the day and I had to rely on berries, plants and roots, what could I reasonably eat from this park? I was mostly curious about edible greens. I saw a lot of Oregon Grape.
As for environment, I'd harvest from this sweet little, woodland. I used to run these trails back in Cross Country. Here is a nice, historical article about the park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Creek And atleast one review on Yelp recommends the park for smoking pot and harvesting Indian Plum (not the time of year for that one). But most of all how could I say no to this beautiful log formation?
I saw one plant with enough abundance and large leaves just perfect for a salad. But I didn't know what it was. The book I had with my demonstrated no similar pictures. No answers.
Now King County has a great archive of "noxious weed photographs" http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification.aspx for people like me without a mentor to follow. Though they are largely organized by flower color and now is not this plant's time of year for flowers. You can send them your photos though through email and they will help you identify it.
Needless to say my ITEMs weren't checking out so I left the park with only a few photographs.
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