From Pasture to Plate: A Guide to Foraging Wild Greens in North Dakota

I grew up foraging with my mom in the pastures and shelterbelts on our farm in central ND. Each spring as the snow thaws I begin anticipating the first nettles and summer rambles through the fields and pastures gathering greens for supper. Many of the plants I forage come up in May, and so, after a long winter I can eat something fresh and green long before any garden vegetables are ready. In June when I look across the lush fields and pastures I see a bounteous buffet of wild greens. There is a surprisingly wide array of plants that we can forage on the Northern Plains. Most of them technically aren’t native wild plants but were introduced, probably coming over with European settlers as weed seeds in bags of seed grain. 

If you have a garden you will find many of the plants I’m going to discuss growing as weeds between your rows. If you have a farm or own land you may find many of these plants in your pastures and shelter belts.  If you don’t have land of your own you might try foraging on public lands or in parks. It’s important to be sure you have permission to forage on public lands. For example, fruits and berries may be picked on ND State Forest Lands except where prohibited by signage. However in ND State Parks harvesting of all kinds is prohibited (beyond a quick nibble while you’re hiking.) Check with the agency that governs the public land where you’re planning to forage. 

It’s also important to know what has been applied to the land where you plan to forage. I try to avoid places that have been sprayed with pesticides, and I avoid heavily trafficked roadsides because of dust and exhaust fumes. I avoid foraging around old buildings that may have had lead paint that flaked off into the soil. And I avoid foraging in sloughs or waterways that are downstream from land where pesticides have been applied or where manure or sewage may have been applied or leached into the water.

There are lots of resources online. Linda Black Elk is, in my opinion, the foremost expert on edible wild plants on the northern plains. You can find her on YouTube @lindablackelk3625 or just do a search for her name. She’s done lots of webinars and podcasts including this fantastic webinar she did for FARRMS in 2021. I led a webinar for FARRMS in 2015 on edible garden weeds. For recipes to use your foraged harvest I highly recommend Hank Shaw at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. I also enjoy Alexis Nikole Nelson who goes by BlackForager on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. 

What follows are my tips for finding, harvesting and cooking some of my favorite spring and early summer edible weeds.

Stinging Nettles

Nettles are one of the first greens to emerge. Starting in mid-May you can find them in damp, cool places and in rich soils. I tend to find them in coulee bottoms, the edges of ponds and sloughs, in shady spots on the north edges of shelter belts, and in old barn lots and corrals where there was a lot of manure. 

As the name stinging nettle implies, they do sting, so handle with care.  They have tiny hairs on the tips of their leaves and stems that act like needles injecting histamine and other irritants into your skin causing a stinging sensation and creating a welt.  I harvest them using thick gloves and scissors, snipping the top three to four inches of the plant into a plastic bag or bucket. The top few inches are the most tender. Once the nettles get over a foot or so tall they are generally too tough and woody to harvest. However if you harvest the tops when they are young they will grow back tender and you can get a few harvests from the same patch. 

Nettles are nutritious and have many uses. Cook them as a green vegetable, make nettle soup, or dry the leaves and make tea. The tall stems can be used to make cordage and because they have a deep root system they draw up nutrients and can be cut and soaked in water to make a nitrogen rich compost tea that you can use as a natural fertilizer. 

My favorite way to prepare spring nettles is to harvest a big bucket full and use tongs or scissors and a colander to rinse off any dead grass, insects or other junk. I use scissors to snip them into smaller pieces. Thinly slice a few cloves of garlic and sauté in olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium low heat. When your garlic is fragrant, toss in a few chili flakes, stir it around and then dump in your nettles and cover the pan. They will cook down a lot so start with more nettles than you think you need. The water clinging to the leaves will lightly cook the nettles and the heat will deactivate the sting. Your nettles should be cooked within about three minutes. Take them off the heat and drizzle in a little lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Cattail shoots

Cattail shoots are delightful but a lot of work for a small amount of food, and prepare to get muddy. I harvest them from the edges of sloughs and ponds when the cat tails are young, maybe 2-3 feet tall, and haven't yet made a stem with the “corn dog” on it.

To harvest, grasp the plant at its base and pull gently and firmly straight upward. Only the inner layers of the tender white bottom three to four inches are edible. You’ll need to peel off the outermost layers to get to the tender white interior.  They taste like celery or cucumbers. Chop them up and put them raw into a salad.  Or make this Cattail relish from Forager Chef.

Dandelions

Dandelions are the easiest “wild” plant to find and identify. They grow abundantly in lawns, gardens and fields from early spring to fall. You can eat all parts of the dandelion. The leaves are great raw in a salad. The leaves, stems and buds are good cooked. People make wine from the flowers and the roots can be roasted and made into a coffee substitute.

You're going to enjoy dandelions more if you pick them in a damp, moist, shady place. You'll notice that some of them have wider, more rounded leaves and some have very sharply saw toothed leaves. I find the saw toothed leaves are a bit tougher and a bit more bitter. I use the wider, milder leaves raw in salads. 

My favorite is to substitute dandelion greens for spinach in a Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing. I like to cook the slightly more bitter saw-toothed leaves and stems and tender buds with lots of sweet onions and pancetta and finish it off with a drizzle of apple cider vinegar and maple syrup similar to this recipe of Maple Bacon Dandelion Greens. 

Wild Mustard

Wild mustard is a weed in many farm fields but it’s very similar to the mustard greens one might grow in their garden and it’s my favorite of the “wild” greens I forage. Make sure you’re harvesting from a field that has not been sprayed.  I steam or sauté it and add a little butter, salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of shredded cheese. It’s also delicious lightly sautéed with garlic, in the same way as nettles, described above. 

Spruce tips

You can nibble on the tender new shoots at the ends of the branches of your Blue Spruce trees. Harvest spruce tips in mid-late May when the brown papery caps are starting to pop off of the tender tips.  You can put them into salads, or make spruce tip syrup. 

Baby Russian thistle

Did you know that you can eat tumbleweeds? Yes, Russian thistle, when it first pops out of the ground and is three or four inches tall, makes a tender and tasty green vegetable. I like them raw in salads or cooked in a frittata. I’ve provided a recipe for a Russian thistle & purslane salad and a Russian thistle frittata below. 

Purslane

Purslane is one of my favorite garden weeds. It’s related to moss roses and has a slightly tart flavor. I like it in salads or just to snack on while weeding in the garden. 

Lambsquarters

Lambsquarters are related to quinoa. You can recognize Lambsquarters by the pinkish, silvery fuzzy cast on the leaves. You’ll find them in your garden or unsprayed fields or anywhere the soil has been disturbed. Pluck off the top two to three inches and cook them in any recipe that calls for spinach.