State foraging calendar
New Jersey Foraging Calendar
New Jersey's foraging reputation suffers from its suburban image, but the state's Pine Barrens alone justify it as a destination foraging landscape, with some of the finest highbush blueberry, cranberry, and native berry habitat on the East Coast in a protected million-acre expanse. The northern Highlands and Kittatinny Ridge share the foraging character of the Hudson Valley and Pennsylvania Appalachians, with ramps, morels, and autumn mushrooms in the mature hardwood forest. The Pinelands' acidic sandy soils support plant communities found nowhere else in the mid-Atlantic, and the coast adds beach plums, glasswort, and sea rocket to the foraging profile. New Jersey's diverse immigrant population, particularly in the north, maintains active Italian, Korean, and Eastern European foraging traditions in the state's surprisingly extensive forest preserve system.
6 bioregions across New Jersey
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Tap a region to see what's in season
Bioregions of New Jersey
Foraging seasons shift sharply between New Jersey's ecoregions. Pick the one nearest you for a 12-month calendar of what is in season.
New England Highlands
184 speciesThe New Jersey Highlands of the northwest, with ramps, fiddleheads, chanterelles, and wild blueberries in the cool northern hardwood forest.
View calendar →Piedmont
180 speciesNew Jersey's northern Highlands and Kittatinny Ridge with ramps in the hardwood-hemlock ravines, spring morels in river-bottom woodland, chanterelles in summer, and a full mid-Atlantic autumn mushroom season in the mature mixed hardwood forest.
View calendar →Central Appalachians
179 speciesNorthwestern New Jersey's Ridge and Valley country, with ramps, morels, hen of the woods, black walnuts, and pawpaws in the mixed hardwood forest.
View calendar →Northern and Central Appalachians
172 speciesNorthwestern New Jersey's Kittatinny ridge and Allegheny-influenced highlands, with excellent ramp and morel habitat and a long fall mushroom season in hemlock and maple-beech forest.
View calendar →New England Coast and Pine Barrens
168 speciesThe New Jersey Pine Barrens and shore counties with highbush blueberries and cranberries in the Pinelands bogs, beach plums along the barrier beach scrub, glasswort and sea rocket in the coastal marsh, and the unique sandy-soil foraging of this protected million-acre wilderness.
View calendar →Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
168 speciesSouth Jersey's Maurice River and Delaware Bay shoreline with glasswort and sea purslane in the salt marsh, watercress in the tidal creeks, and elderberries in the fresh-marsh fringe.
View calendar →Always confirm any wild edible with multiple sources and an experienced local guide before eating it. Many edible species have toxic look-alikes.