I've previously written about what you find along the way, when you set off for one plant and find another instead or in addition. The trick is to make it more likely that you’ll come across the unexpected, find that small treasure, learn something new and useful, discover something different in a place you thought you knew well.

Do you want to find wild food, new plants, herbal medicines and have adventures in nature?

You'll find 10 tips to start with, after the jump.

Ten tips to see more wild food, and other things:

1) Get out of your car.

2) Get out of your house. Step outside. Spend time outside. Go out at different times during the day or night. Go out in the rain, in the snow, in the wind, in the cold, as well as when the day is perfect.

3) Look around. What do you see? If you bring your entertainment with you (cough cough iPod cough cough) you’ll be distracted from the discoveries in your path.

4) Look at your little part of the world with new eyes. It helps to change your angle - get down on the ground, or up in a tree , into the water. Use a ladder, crawl with a kid. Watch what your dog does, what they notice and smell.

5) Try a new trail and a new path - maybe get onto the water, or leave the paths entirely.

6) Keep taking the same path all year-round so you can know the same plants through the seasons.

7) Move more slowly. How fast did our ancestors go? That’s the pace we used for millions of years. That’s the pace where you’ll pick up the subtle changes and new plants, fruit and other tidbits. That’s the pace our brains were designed for when it comes to foraging.

8) Always have collection bags with you. You never know what you will find. Carry a good knife. For eating apples with bad parts, for cutting off shoots, all sorts of uses.

9) Choose transportation that creates the space for all of the above. Walking, bicycling, canoeing and kayaking are all great choices.

10) Bring your friends and family, and especially your kids (or someone else's). In many ways this learning and exploring stuff is more a kid’s world than a grownups.

How you get around is a start. Hopefully the photos and descriptions from this blog and my daily Twitter posts are helpful in knowing what to look for and when. Supplementing it with Wikipedia, Google and online plant databases will also help. I also suggest buying a number of inexpensive plant books with great photos, and a couple more books with good descriptions that may not be as good with photos. There are a few books that have both, Peterson’s "A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants," or they also have a guide to Medicinal Plants. Both are great starting books and easy to find.

Some books list hundreds of plants, a paragraph for each one. Others have a whole chapter on just one or two plants. Both have their uses, collect a number of them (and support the herbalists who write them). I’m currently in love with Samuel Thayer, who wrote the Forager’s Harvest and has a new book out, "Nature’s Garden."

For a quick and easy guide, I have a PDF file on my website you can download and use to learn about a little over 30 easy to find plants in Southeast Michigan and the northeast part of the United states. The PDF file includes a brief intro to their uses. Follow this link, and click on "Spring Plants for Medicine and Food" to download the PDF file. There are no photos, but with the Latin names you can easily find a Google image for each plant online.

There are hundreds of wonderful nearby plants to eat, to use as medicine, and to just thoroughly enjoy. Don’t try and learn them all at once. One or two plants learned thoroughly each year is a reasonable goal. Learn a few more just by sight and name, but the ones you really learn will be especially valuable. Where it grows, how it can be used and which part, what time of year to harvest, how it spreads, if it is endangered, if it is invasive, what it looks like in all four seasons. It is even important to know if there are any look-alike plants that could be mistaken for your plant.

If you learn two new plants a year, in 10 years you’ll know 20 plants really well, and hundreds more casually. My foraging friend recommends connecting the plants you learn with events in your life. What is ripe on your birthday? Your anniversary? For example, black raspberries are ready around when kids get out of school.

You can also join me for plant walks Sept. 26 and Oct. 10. There is a small fee for these afternoon weed walks; kids 12 and younger are free. Nothing compares to in-the-field experience. I also offer free classes on herbs, focusing on the medicinal benefits. These classes are once a month, usually the fourth Thursday of the month, sponsored by The People’s Food Co-op and located at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tearoom. Both websites have calendars that will give the class topic each month. Reserve your spot through the Co-op by calling 734-994-4589.

Above all, have fun. The exploration of plants and wild food will take you places and expose you to tastes and ideas you never imagined. So simple and easy.

The slideshow shows a few other outdoor scenes of foraging, including my dog Nala, a frozen Barton Dam, and my foraging friend picking without even leaving his bike.

Linda Diane Feldt is a Holistic Health Practitioner, writer and teacher with a private practice in Ann Arbor MI. You can follow her daily tweets on twitter, visit her web site, or contact her directly ldfeldt (at) holisticwisdom.org