Ethics & safety

This page is still evolving, but please, courtesy, common sense, and respect!

Know the law. Foraging is illegal in many places especially on private property.

Do not pick endangered plants. We are not experts but when we know a plant is endangered, we will say so on the entry for it. In this case the entry is purely for interest sake rather than our or your culinary pleasure. Although we try our best to note down when a plant is endangered we will probably miss a few. Please do your own research (and then tell us so we can include it!).

Harvest respectfully of the plants. Learn how to forage from a plant in a way that doesn’t damage its ability to reproduce for the next year. This is something we have not (yet) covered on this site but there are many good internet resources. A few are listed on our links.

Harvest respectfully of other foragers. Wouldn’t it suck to come upon say a longan tree in fruting season only to find some asshole has cleaned it? Don’t be that asshole.

Plants can be toxic and easily misidentified. Please, please, please be certain of plant identification, toxicity and preparation before you indulge. We have tried our best to provide accurate information but we are not nutritionists, botanists, or professional foragers, and this site is in no way definitive. It is merely a rough guide — a spur to go out there and learn more.

Pollution. Although there are many pockets of wilderness to be found in Hong Kong, they are more often than not set amongst highly urbanised areas with soils that may be contaminated and air that frequently has a high particulate count. Please use common sense and wash everything throughly with vegetable soap before eating and avoid picking from roadsides that see heavy traffic, highly industrialized areas, and the like.

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