Tired of the same old carrots and broccoli at the grocery store? Consider foraging for wild plants to add more diversity to your diet. There is a plethora of plants in your backyard,  in the woods, and along streams that taste good and are hyper-healthy - if you know what to pick and when.

“Wild fruits and vegetables taste better than store-bought ones, and they’re more nutritionally dense,” says Sam Thayer, a Wisconsin-based botanist and author of The Forager’s Harvest, Nature’s Garden, and Incredible Wild Edibles. “There are about 70 edible plants in the grocery store where I shop, but I can gather another 350 locally. I’ve eaten 700 species of wild plants around the country that I would eat again.”

Thayer has spent the past 15 years not only foraging for his own food but also teaching others how to do it. “We know a lot about a few plants - such as corn, soybeans, and wheat - that are commonly cultivated,” he says. “But we’ve forgotten most of what our ancestors knew about plants.”

Unfortunately, you can’t study edible plants in school, and most institutional authorities - such as government agencies and universities - don’t have edible plant experts on staff. However, there are hundreds of books on the topic, so Thayer says to read up, but only about one plant at a time. If you try to learn the whole forest at once, it can be overwhelming and you are more likely to give up or make a mistake. Like mastering any outdoor skill, if you keep it simple and build your knowledge one step (plant) at a time, you’re more likely to enjoy it and stick with it.

Thayer says the biggest health risks of harvesting wild plants are eating a plant that was sprayed with herbicide, eating one that’s not ripe enough or over ripe, or eating the wrong part of the plant. “You wouldn’t eat an apple that’s not ripe or an apple leaf,” he says. “Wild plants have a particular stage of growth when they’re ready to harvest and taste good.”

Thayer splits wild plants into nine broad categories: root vegetables, like wild carrot and burdock root; fruits and berries (serviceberries and thimbleberries are his favorites); herbs and seasonings, like tarragon and sassafras; shoots and stalks, including invasive Japanese knotweed, which tastes similar to rhubarb; wild nuts, such as hickory and pine nuts; teas and drinks, including tea made from staghorn and other red sumacs; leafy greens, like wood sorrel and stinging nettle (which loses its sting after cooking); seeds and grains, such as wild rice and amaranth seed, which can be cooked as a hot cereal; and flowers, especially black locust.

In fact, if you learn just one wild plant you can eat, the black locust flower should be it, Thayer says. “It tastes like honey-vanilla.” A few of his other favorites: “Blue violets are also delicious, sweet and savory. The newly formed bulb at the base of a river bulrush may be the best vegetable I’ve ever tasted. It’s a cross between an artichoke and sugarcane. It’s amazing!”

To Thayer, foraging for wild edibles is a way to combine many of the best reasons to get outdoors. “It’s family time and a way to connect with nature,” he says. “I save money, get exercise, and eat some of the best food in the world.”