Spring Foraging on San Juan Island

Food security, preserving farmland, and access to fresh, local, and seasonal fare are big subjects on San Juan Island. So are wild foods from the isle’s pristine land and sea. Many Farm-to-Table restaurants serve not only locally sourced but also foraged food, like sea asparagus and wild mushrooms. If you are a foodie and want to try dabbling in foraging yourself, Spring is the time and San Juan Island is the place.

Tasty, versatile stinging nettles with their abundant health benefits are growing right now. Our favorite place to forage for them is around English Camp National Historical Park, also one of the best places to find sea asparagus (being careful, of course, not to forage within the boundaries of the park itself). To learn how to harvest stinging nettles and how to cook with them, check out this lovely blog by one of our staff writers on Eating Weeds with Steffi.