Beautiful, isn’t it? What do you think? Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)? Carrot (Daucus carota)? Nope! This is poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). I have been watching a wonderful herbalist on FaceBook that ends her reels with “Happy snacking! Don’t die!” Great advice.

When starting to wildcraft or harvest herbs from your local area, BE VERY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PICKING. The results of picking the wrong thing can be literally deadly. There are very few herbs that will kill you dead. There are a lot that might make you feel like you are dying and can cause serious medical issues with lifelong complications.

Because there are a LOT of plants out there, I think it is best to learn the poisonous ones first: There are a lot fewer of them. Any plant has the potential to make you sick – maybe you ate too much of it, it just doesn’t’ agree with your constitution, or you’re allergic. But there are a very few plants that will kill you dead.

Before starting to harvest your own, please learn what it poisonous in your area, and its look-alikes. I do not harvest any herbs from the family Apiaceae that I have not planted myself and KNOW what they are. No guessing on this one – it’s just too dangerous in my opinion. Poison hemlock is widespread in my area. You don’t always see a lot of it every year – it is a biennial, so every other year you will see a large flush of it. It likes marshy wet areas with some shade. It is a beautiful plant, but I won’t even touch it without gloves on.

This is another lovely and deadly plant, death camas (Zigadenus venenosus). To me it looks a lot like wild onion. And again, I won’t harvest anything in the same family (Liliales) due to the risk. Those of you who know me know that I tend to be rather risk-averse!

Children used to pick elder (Sambucus canadensis) or hemlock (Conium maculatum) stems to use as whistles or straws as both stems are hollow. While the elder would tend to make them nauseous or even vomit, hemlock would kill them.

It’s spring and things are popping up all over. It’s hard not to get excited about harvesting food or herbs to stretch your experience and funds. Just be careful. And to quote someone I admire: “Happy snacking. Don’t die!”