Pascal Baudar reaches up to the Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree above him and gives the leaves a shake. Small, white, shell-like flakes rain down on the group gathered beneath the tree in the mountains of Sylmar, California.
Baudar reaches up again and scrapes some of the tiny white flakes off a leaf. Then, he encourages us to each eat a small handful. The taste and texture are similar to Rice Krispies.
Baudar, who is originally from Belgium and a leading foraging and wild food expert in Southern California, said these white flakes are a form of wild “sugar.” He then explains that they are essentially the excretion of insects. Called Lerp Sugar, Baudar scrapes these scaly insect “shields” off the leaves, dries them in the sun, and then uses them in everything from desserts to wild beers. Baudar said lerp sugar is among his top 10 favorite ingredients to forage. For the rest of the group, gathered on a sunny Saturday morning for Baudar’s urban foraging course, eating — and enjoying — insect excretion was a new venture.
Baudar is part of a growing movement of urban foragers in Los Angeles. He has written four books on the topic: guides on wildcrafted cuisine, vinegars, brewing and fermentation.
Foraging might seem unlikely in a place as developed as Los Angeles, but Baudar and other avid foragers say it’s a highly accessible hobby. The fall foraging course took place in the driest time of the year in Southern California’s desert climate. However, “even though it’s the worst time of year,” Baudar said, “we still find something every 10 yards.” Along sidewalks, in vacant lots, and tucked into the edges of city parks, there’s a surprising variety of wild foods — and a growing movement of people learning how to find them.
The group moved toward a roadside section of yellow grass—the type that covers much of California’s hillsides and road shoulders. These grasses are made up of various strains of invasive weeds. Baudar says he’s found over 100 edible grains in the LA area, many of which are available right on the side of the road. “Grocery stores might only give you a small variety of things,” said Baudar, “but the natural abundance is much more.”
Baudar offered tastes of Great Brome, a tough, rice-like grain extracted from long yellow stalks of grass, and California Buckwheat, small, crunchy brown seeds he mixes into bread. Next came mustard seeds—he’s found over 14 varieties of wild mustards—tiny red seeds from golden grass, shaken out through a sieve. Then, there was acorn flour. Acorns are abundant in the fall and were traditionally a primary food source for many of California’s Indigenous people. Baudar uses the flour for baking. Mixed with sugar, the flavor is cinnamon- and molasses-tinged.
Over the course of two hours, the group stayed within a 200-yard area and still found more than 10 different edible foods. “I can spend two hours in this exact spot,” said Baudar, standing in an unassuming brushy area surrounded by sagebrush, yucca, mustard plants, and wild grains. “Every plant can be used.”
The ability to forage doesn’t just apply to those in rustic locations. You can easily forage in the city of L.A., too, said Douglas Kent, an author, activist, educator and specialist in ecological land management.
“I would always recommend foraging residential neighborhoods, public parks, greenbelts, right-of-ways, easements,” Kent says. Many of the plants found in the forested setting of the course can be found in the city, too, according to Kent. “Black mustard, fennel, dandelion, plantain, goosefoot, lamb’s quarters, purslane—all these plants can be found growing in the cracks of every sidewalk.”
While foraging is technically accessible to anyone, it can be intimidating for those who don’t know what to look for. It can be confusing to know which plants are safe, let alone how to use foraged foods.
That’s why Bat Vardeh works to make foraging in Los Angeles more approachable. Vardeh is a self-taught local forager who runs a Facebook group called Foraging and Mushroom Hunting Women of SoCal. During a recent outing with a small group of foragers, she picked wild cherries and shared the story of how her interest in foraging began.
“I’m Middle Eastern, so I grew up eating things like figs and mulberries,” Vardeh said, which she found on local fruit trees around Los Angeles. Once she could drive and reach higher into the trees, Vardeh said she started teaching herself to identify mushrooms and other edible plants.
But as she started meeting other foragers in L.A., she said she found the culture exclusive. “There were a lot of weird guru-y dudes,” she said. “They would say things like, ‘You can’t do this without me,’ or ‘A beginner would never mess with something like this,’ and it’s like…an apple,” she said, referencing the sort of condescension she has encountered.
Bat, who now works as a professional field mycologist, acknowledges that foraging requires knowledge to avoid toxic plants. However, she said she feels strongly that foraging is for everyone and should be easily accessible. In her free, women-only group gatherings, Vardeh said she ensures that there’s no unintended “mansplaining.” After all, Vardeh pointed out, foraging has been in the human tradition since prehistoric times.
Foraging isn’t limited to edible items. In his class, Baudar showed the group mugwort, which helps with poison oak rashes, but can also be brewed into a tea that’s said to spark vivid dreams. Yucca, with its strong fibers, can be used for sewing, while sagebrush adds spice and flavor to meals. Douglas Kent works with natural fibers to create dyed materials, and Vardeh uses foraged willow bark to braid miniature baskets.
Foragers emphasized the value of taking what the land has to offer, regardless of whether or not a plant is considered “invasive.” “We foragers, we accept what is,” Kent said. “We don’t classify plants as native or not, ornamental or spontaneous. We just view it all as a gift from our earth, our mother.”
In the city of L.A., for example, there is abundant fruit to be plucked off trees. Oranges, figs, grapefruits, lemons and more are mapped on a crowdsourced, publicly available map called Endless Orchard. Harvesting fruit from human-planted trees is referred to as gleaning, while foraging is the practice of gathering wild food from nature.
By harvesting so-called “invasive” plants, foragers can work with, rather than against, the environment.
“I try to use foraging as a way to help the environment,” Baudar said. Baudar explains he tries to harvest 90% invasive species in the spring and summertime. If he takes a native plant, he said he tries to spread the seeds, and replant more of it in the area he took it from.
Kent said he has some hard and fast foraging rules. “I always let the plant go to seed, never take more than one-third of it. If there’s only a small population of it, I won’t even touch it,” he said.
Kent said he also makes sure to spread seeds of what he harvests by making “seed balls,” which are balls of clay, compost and seeds. He then throws them in public places, like highway medians, patches of grass on the sidewalk or empty city lots to spread the growth of native plants. Kent said he considers himself to be in a partnership with the plants.
“We take the bounty and try to create relationships with whatever there is. We ensure the plant we’re harvesting always goes to seed, and we never take too much of a plant. We enter into these relationships of give-and-take, reciprocity and harvest. That’s what I love about foragers—we’re not so top-down.
image source from：https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/04/18/urban-bounty-foraging-around-los-angeles/
