Bar­clay Dodge has worked in fine-din­ing kitchens all over the world, but there’s just some­thing spe­cial about Col­orado. Maybe it’s the wild, untamed forests that Dodge loves to explore on his days off from Bosq, the Aspen restau­rant he owns with his wife, Molly.

Bosq’s menu is full of edi­ble trea­sures that Dodge brings back from his for­ag­ing excur­sions, such as blue spruce pine tips, water­cress, ser­vice­ber­ry branch­es, wild huck­le­ber­ry, chanterelle mush­rooms and wild roses.

“We real­ly want­ed a restau­rant that came from our sur­round­ings,” said Dodge, 51. “Bosq comes from the word ‘bosque,’ which means ‘the for­est’ in Span­ish. We’re inspired by our sur­round­ings, so that’s the dri­ve of the place.”

Dodge typ­i­cal­ly spends one to two days for­ag­ing in the forests around Aspen each week dur­ing the warmer months. But even as the weath­er gets cold­er and the leaves start to turn, Col­orado con­tin­ues to pro­duce a boun­ty of edi­ble plants and fungi.

We chat­ted with Dodge and oth­er for­ag­ing experts to learn which wild foods are in sea­son dur­ing the fall. As always, make sure you fol­low the rules about for­ag­ing wher­ev­er you’re plan­ning to hike, don’t tres­pass, and nev­er eat some­thing unless you’re total­ly con­fi­dent you know what it is.

Watercress

You can find water­cress in Col­orado all the way through Sep­tem­ber. Look for this spicy green plant near creeks, rivers and springs, then use it as part of a sal­ad mix. It’s a bit like arugu­la, but has a slight­ly spici­er, more pep­pery fla­vor, accord­ing to Dodge.

“The num­ber one thing we like to for­age is water­cress; freak­ing love it,” he said. “It’s so good, it’s so plen­ti­ful, it grows back quickly.”

Juniper berries

You might think juniper berries are just for gin, but these lit­tle dandies can do so much more. You’ll find juniper grow­ing in a vari­ety of set­tings in Col­orado, so keep your eyes peeled wher­ev­er you go. Dodge said he often finds them in clear­ings or at the edges of the forest.

“When the woods open up into a small glade, that’s the best place to find them,” he said. “But I’ve also found a bunch of junipers in deep, dark woods. This is one of those bush­es you can kin­da find everywhere.”

He uses juniper berries in all sorts of recipes at Bosq, such as part of a salt cure for meats like rab­bit and veni­son, in var­i­ous broths and stocks, and as a gar­nish after he lac­to-fer­ments them. (Lac­to-fer­men­ta­tion is a fun food preser­va­tion process involv­ing salt, water and nat­ur­al bac­te­ria; it’s respon­si­ble for foods like sauer­kraut and kimchi.)

In your home kitchen, you can use juniper berries for every­thing from jams and cakes to pork chops.

White ash berries

As the tem­per­a­tures drop in Col­orado, white ash berries trans­form from bit­ter and astrin­gent to sweet and deli­cious. Look for these tasty berries on river­banks among pine trees in thick­ly wood­ed areas.

Dodge loves to use the berries on their own or infuse their fla­vors into vinai­grettes and sauces. You can add them to a side of wild rice, to make jel­ly, or even turn them into wine.

Rose hips

Rose hips get bet­ter as the tem­per­a­tures get cold­er. After the first frost, they become sweet­er and soft­er, so hold off on for­ag­ing for rose hips until then.

Dodge likes to use them to make dif­fer­ent vine­gars, which lat­er become vinai­grettes, sauces or glazes. He finds them all over Aspen, includ­ing in his dri­ve­way, but they’re easy to spot along dirt roads and streambeds at near­ly any elevation.

Rose hips make a deli­cious tea, or you can turn them into jel­ly or use them to add fla­vor to smooth­ies, sim­ple syrups and even bar­be­cue sauce.

Angelica root

It’s a bit more obscure, but Dodge also loves to for­age for angel­i­ca root, a fra­grant mem­ber of the car­rot family.

He looks for it in aspen groves, then dehy­drates and pul­ver­izes it into a fla­vored pow­der. He also likes to lac­to-fer­ment the root, then add the left­over brine to vinai­grettes and sauces.

“It’s more on the infu­sion side,” he said.

You can fol­low in Dodge’s foot­steps, or use it to make angel­i­ca root soups, teas and even candies.

Woodruff

Woodruff is a leafy green plant with white flow­ers that grows close to the ground in shady areas through­out Colorado.

Dodge turns wild woodruff into a pow­der, then mix­es it with salt and uses it as a sea­son­ing (think: pota­to chips). He also likes to use woodruff in cock­tails, to make ice cream, and when he’s cook­ing sous vide.

“When you dry it or cook it, the vanil­la tobac­co fla­vors come out more,” he said.

At home, woodruff can be used to make tea, lemon­ade and var­i­ous baked goods.

Mushrooms

Mush­rooms are a big­gie — they’re often the first wild foods that come to mind when you talk about for­ag­ing. It hasn’t been a par­tic­u­lar­ly good year for wild mush­rooms in Col­orado, since it’s been so hot and dry, but there’s a chance you’ll still find some this fall.

Keep an eye out for hon­ey mush­rooms, wild eno­ki and Mat­su­takes, which con­tin­ue to fruit dur­ing the cold­er months, accord­ing to Ori­on Aon, who teach­es for­ag­ing class­es and runs the edu­ca­tion­al web­site For­age Colorado.

Each mush­room has its own pre­ferred habi­tat, so you’ll want to nar­row down your search depend­ing on what you hope to find. Aon often finds wild eno­ki in aspen groves, but has also found them in oth­er habi­tats along the Front Range, for example.

And, as is the case with for­ag­ing any type of wild food, be absolute­ly sure about the iden­ti­ty of the mush­room before you eat it. There are lots of harm­ful and even poten­tial­ly dead­ly look-alikes out there, so pro­ceed with caution.

“I always teach peo­ple to be 100 per­cent con­fi­dent in their iden­ti­fi­ca­tions before con­sum­ing any wild foods,” Aon said.

Feral apples

If you feel like skip­ping the tra­di­tion­al apple-pick­ing out­ing this year, con­sid­er for­ag­ing for wild apples instead. You can find these apples at low­er ele­va­tions in the foothills or along the Front Range, Aon said.

They don’t taste great raw, but wild apples make deli­cious apple but­ter, apple­sauce and apple-scrap vine­gar. If you’re crav­ing baked goods, toss them into apple frit­ters or scones, Aon recommended.

Wild plums

Wild plums should con­tin­ue to ripen through­out Sep­tem­ber, Aon said. Sim­i­lar to fer­al apples, wild plums are tasty after they’ve been cooked; con­sid­er turn­ing them into jam or jelly.

Acorns

Parts of Col­orado are home to lots of scrub oak trees, which drop deli­cious, edi­ble acorns in the fall. For a wild snack, you can sim­ply crack the shell and eat the acorn nut raw, accord­ing to Kat­ri­na Blair, founder of Durango’s Tur­tle Lake Refuge, a non­prof­it focused on wild foods, edu­ca­tion, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and organ­ic land stew­ard­ship. Blair teach­es class­es and leads hikes focused on wild foods; the orga­ni­za­tion also runs a wild foods CSA dur­ing the sum­mer months.

In addi­tion to eat­ing them as snacks, Blair also uses acorns to make nut milk, acorn ice cream and in var­i­ous bak­ing recipes that require nuts.

Chokecherries

Keep an eye out for chokecher­ry bush­es in the moun­tains and along streams at low­er ele­va­tions as they ripen through Sep­tem­ber. Blair uses them to make deli­cious chokecher­ry mac­arons at Tur­tle Lake Refuge’s wild food cafe, but you could also turn them into jam or jel­ly, or use them in tarts and pies.

Sub­scribe to our week­ly newslet­ter, The Adven­tur­ist, to get out­doors news sent straight to your inbox.