Walking the Wilds: A Guide to Fall Foraging
Finding, Gathering, and Honoring the Abundance of Autumn
As the wheel of the year turns toward the dark half, the land offers one last generous breath. Gold spills from the trees, mushrooms rise in quiet forests, and the air turns sharp and sweet with the scent of leaves and earth. For the forager, this is a sacred season of gathering, gratitude, and slowing down.
Whether you’re just beginning your foraging journey or walking with the plants for decades, fall offers a rich and varied harvest if you know how to listen.
Where to Forage in Fall
Finding Wild Spaces, Legally and Respectfully
You don’t need remote wilderness to find wild medicine. Fall's gifts grow along rail trails, roadside ditches, garden edges, and hidden forest paths.
Places to Explore:
- State and County Parks - Many allow limited foraging for personal use (check posted rules or park websites).
- State & National Forests - Often more forager-friendly than national parks. Research regulations by location.
- Public Hunting Lands & Natural Areas - Use onX Hunt, Gaia GPS, or state DNR maps to find access points.
- Bike Trails & Prairie Borders - Rich with goldenrod, rosehips, mugwort, and elder.
- Backyards & Fencelines - Especially useful for everyday herbs like plantain, dandelion, and violet. Always ask permission from the property owner.
Always check local laws. Get landowner permission for private land. Tribal lands are sovereign and off-limits unless explicitly invited.
Ethical Foraging: The Old Ways Matter
Foraging is not free food, it’s a relationship. One rooted in reciprocity, restraint, and respect for land, plant, and spirit.
The Code of Ethical Wildcrafting:
- Positively identify every plant or mushroom. If unsure, don’t touch.
- Harvest from abundance. Never take from a struggling or solitary patch.
- Take no more than 10%. Leave plenty for wildlife, regrowth, and others.
- Leave no trace. Backfill any holes, scatter seeds, tread lightly.
- Harvest mindfully. Slow down. Ask the plant. Offer thanks.
- Keep your word. Don’t overharvest, waste, or treat foraging like a trend.
“The more you ask permission, the more the land begins to speak.”
Gear Guide: What to Bring into the Field
You don’t need a lot, but a few essentials can make your foraging trip smoother, safer, and more respectful.
Foraging Toolkit:
- Field Guide- Your best ID tool. Look for region-specific guides with multiple clear photos and botanical descriptions. (Apps are helpful, but often wrong and don’t work in cell phone dead zones.)
- Pruners or garden scissors - For clean snips of stems, mushrooms, or flowers
- Digging tool - Hori-hori knife or small trowel for roots
- Gloves - For thorny plants or unknown terrain
- Baskets & cotton bags- Keep plants breathable. No plastic!
- Jars or paper bags - For separating berries, seeds, or roots
- Notebook & pencil - For field notes, habitat observations, or plant impressions
- Labels/tape & marker - Always label what you gather in the field
Optional but handy:
- Compass or GPS (more necessary than optional if you do not know the area extremely well
- Tick repellent
- Water bottle + small trash bag
- A quiet mind and a listening heart
What to Harvest in Fall
Roots, Mushrooms, Seeds, and the Last of the Green
Roots & Bark (dig after frost, once energy moves downward)
- Dandelion - Bitter, liver-loving, best after first frost
- Burdock - Deep, mineral-rich, great in vinegar or roasted
- Yellow Dock - Iron-rich, powerful but pungent
- Wild Ginger - Aromatic rhizome (harvest sparingly)
- Valerian - Uplifting sedative root, best in year two
Mushrooms (after rain, in shady woods)
- Turkey Tail - Colorful fans on fallen logs
- Reishi - Glossy red shelves on hardwoods
- Hen of the Woods (Maitake) - Feathery, rich, grows at oak bases
- Lion’s Mane - Cascading white spines, brain-supportive
🍄 Only forage mushrooms if you’re 100% certain. If not, leave them be or ask an expert.
Berries & Fruits
- Rosehips- Best after frost, high in vitamin C
- Elderberries - Deep purple and immune-supportive (must be cooked)
- Hawthorn Berries - Heart-supportive, subtly sweet
- Crabapples/Wild Apples - Tart, tannic, lovely in vinegar or jelly
Seeds & Aromatics
- Goldenrod (still blooming!) - For allergies, kidneys, infused oils
- Plantain - Still usable in fall if leaves are green
- Mugwort - Dream herb and digestive, lovely in bundles
- Yarrow - Late leaves can still be tinctured
- Pine - Needles for tea or bath blends
Processing & Preserving
After gathering, comes the crafting.
- Dry leaves, flowers, and seeds flat or in bundles with good airflow
- Infuse fresh or dried herbs into oil (low and slow, or solar method)
- Tincture fresh roots, bark, or berries in high-proof alcohol
- Make teas, vinegars, syrups, or oxymels to carry the season into winter
- LABEL EVERYTHING - date, location, plant part, purpose. You may think you will remember what is in the jar but after 6 weeks they all tend to look the same.
Don’t feel pressured to do everything at once. Even one well made jar of medicine is enough.
Closing Thoughts
Fall is not the end, it’s a shift.
A turning inward. A slowing down. A season of storing up and listening more than speaking.
Foraging in this time is less about abundance in volume, and more about abundance in meaning.
It’s not the full baskets that matter most, it’s the relationship.
Intentional. Reciprocal. Sacred.
And truly, it’s not about what you find, or even how much.
It’s about being there. Walking the trails. Noticing the way golden leaves fall through quiet air.
It’s about letting yourself belong to the land again, even just for a little while.
Let this season teach you how to gather gently, how to prepare without rushing, and how to hear the forest when it speaks:
“Take only what you need, and walk with care.”
And when the last leaves fall and the snow begins to settle, don’t hang up your basket just yet.
Watch for the upcoming Winter Foraging Guide, you might be surprised just how much life, medicine, and magic still lingers in the quiet, cold months.
Throughout the season, I’ll be sharing in depth foraging guides for many of the herbs, mushrooms, roots, and wild plants mentioned in this post, starting with some of my longtime favorites like plantain, goldenrod, rose hips, and turkey tail.
Each entry will include:
- How to find and identify the plant
- When and how to harvest it
- Traditional uses and simple preparations
- Ethical wildcrafting tips
- Notes from my own experiences in the field
So if you're ready to deepen your connection with each plant one by one, stay tuned and follow my facebook page for more information and updates
🌾 Because every plant has a story… and every season offers something to learn.