Extension is expanding its online education and resources while in-person events and classes are canceled.
Goods from your woods
Minnesota forests offer more than timber. Learn how to produce nuts and fruit, make maple syrup or gather wild plants for food or decorations.
Gather and grow edible fruits and nuts for your own enjoyment or to sell them. Learn how to harvest wild food or grow your own fruit- and nut-producing trees and shrubs.
If you’re new to harvesting and gathering forest products, the Minnesota Harvester Handbook is an excellent place to start. It covers more than 20 goods beyond timber, from the familiar to the unusual. Natural resources such as maple syrup, walleye and morel mushrooms, contribute to Minnesota's social fabric and well-being by supporting our livelihoods and shared identities.
What’s in the handbook?
The Minnesota Harvester Handbook was developed by University of Minnesota Extension with the help of a broad network of contributors. It demonstrates the breadth and diversity of useful natural resources found in and around the state’s woodlands and forests with year-round potential for harvesting and gathering.
Products and resources by harvesting season:
Winter
- Basswood
- Chaga
- Firewood
Spring
- Maple syrup
- Fiddlehead fern
- Yellow morel
Summer
- Birch bark
- Oyster mushroom
- King bolete mushroom
- Sweet tooth mushroom
- Lobster mushroom
- Chicken-of-the-woods mushroom
- Chanterelle mushroom
- Juneberry
- Thimbleberry
- Wild rice
Fall
- Balsam boughs
- Hen-of-the-woods mushroom
- Princess pine
- Red osier dogwood
- Tree cones and seeds
Anytime
- Small diameter wood
- Character wood