Day trip to nature's kitchen

Food is something you might take for granted. As a country, we're fortunate. But if you've ever gone through a weather emergency or financial hardship, you know you aren't as immune to a food shortage as you'd like to think. If you've ever participated in Scouts, you might have learned a bit about wild foods and edible plants.

While it seems insignificant because of the abundance of food available in our daily lives, identifying food sources in nature is an important frugal skill to have - not just for emergency survival but for their frugal, organic, nutritional and medicinal value, too.

If you're looking for a fun activity this summer, you can learn about wild-food foraging. Involve the whole family during a nature hike, camping trip or neighborhood stroll.

You don't have to gear up like Survivorman and trap and roast a desert critter. But it's good to know plants that are free, edible and available in nature and that are poisonous or protected. You can bring a camera, journal, specimen jars, binoculars or a flower press, too.

Here are a few small ways to get started.

Learning resources: Go to your library, and look for books on wild-food foraging and edible plants. I recommend "The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants" by Samuel Thayer. It includes excellent pictures and his experiences, which makes it a practical field guide for beginners.

Call your local cooperative extension or nature center, and see whether they have any classes on the topic or plant experts or naturalists who will share their knowledge. Visit naturalist Steve Brill's Web site wildmanstevebrill.com for informational articles, recipes and additional resources, too.

• Contact Sara Noel, owner of Frugal Village (frugalvillage.com), at sara@frugalvillage.com.