Trees

• Pennsylvania's forests are home to a vast variety of edible trees. It would be impossible to name them all of Pennsylvania's edible plants here, but a few trees deserve special mention.
  
  The sugar maple was an extremely important tree to Native Americans, who first developed the method of tapping the maple tree for its sweet sap, then boiling it down to condense the sap into maple syrup. For Pennsylvania's Native American tribes, maple syrup was a key element of their winter diet. Today it is enjoyed around the world for its rich, sweet flavor.
  
  Pine trees offer up their needles, which can be boiled to make a tea; their cones, which contain edible seeds; and their inner bark, which can be ground to make flour. Pennsylvania's forests are also rich in nut-producing trees, like the American Hazelnut, the American Chestnut, and the butternut.
  
  

Fruits and Berries

• In the summer and the autumn, a great number of Pennsylvania's trees and shrubs produce edible fruit.
  
  Edible fruits include the American Plum, which occurs as a large shrub or short tree and produces shiny red plums that ripen in August or September. The Eastern Persimmon tree can grow up to 100 feet tall, and produces sweet orange fruit in the autumn. Pennsylvania is also home to many species of cherry trees -- including the chokecherry, whose fruit is highly astringent when raw but can be cooked into jellies and jams.
  
  Many edible berries also grow wild in Pennsylvania. These include currants, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and huckleberries.
  
  

Wild Plants and Herbs

• Pennsylvania's forests grow many different edible herbs, though it can take a trained eye to know the difference between edible plants and inedible ones.
  
  Fiddlehead ferns are easily identified by their distinctive shape and can be eaten raw or boiled.
  
  Clover grows extensively across Pennsylvania's open fields. White clover can be eaten raw, and red clover can be eaten after boiling. Most of us consider dandelions a weed, but dandelion flowers, leaves, and roots are all edible and nutritious.
  
  Pennsylvania is home to many edible wild mushrooms -- but also many poisonous ones. As with all wild plants, never eat something unless you are certain of its identity and safety!
  
  

Animal Life

• Pennsylvania's fauna are among its most abundant edible natural resources. Its rivers and lakes are home to many fish, but its abundant deer are what fed Native American tribes for centuries. Pennsylvania is home to 1.6 million whitetail deer, with densities in some places reaching 100 deer per square mile. Deer can be a nuisance for gardeners and dangerous for drivers, but their abundance has long been a boon for hunters, from Native Americans to the early Colonists, to modern-day outdoorsmen.