Garlic Mustard Foraging Hike

Name: Garlic Mustard Foraging Hike
Start: 2026-03-19T09:30:00-04:00
End: 2026-03-19T15:00:00-04:00
Location: 18 Eagle Fork Rd, Hayesville, NC 28904

Schedule

Thu Mar 19 2026 at 09:30 am to 03:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

18 Eagle Fork Rd, Hayesville, NC 28904 | Hayesville, NC

Please head to our website to register for this event: www.mainspringconserves.org/events/
Restore native habitat while foraging!
Garlic Mustard is a nonnative, invasive plant that thrives in shade and rich soils. It densely colonizes our forest floors, pushing out our diverse native wildflowers and confusing native insects, including pollinators. This plant spreads aggressively by seed, but is easy to pull by hand. It’s also edible! Join Mainspring and the Forest Service to hike into Bly Gap and forage as much Garlic Mustard as we can carry back. As we hike, we will enjoy the spring curiosities we find along the way including wildflowers, ferns, mosses, and perhaps a few early migrating warblers!
During this event, we will hike up to the Bly Gap AT Crossing/water source, where we’ll pull up as much Garlic Mustard as we can carry back. This is a strenuous 1.75 mile (3.5 miles round trip), 1200ft elevation gain hike. Participants are encouraged to bring some Garlic Mustard back to their kitchens; recipes for Garlic Mustard Kraut and Garlic Mustard Pesto will be available to take home (recipes provided by Wildcraft Kitchen.) Tools and snacks will be provided, but bring plenty of water, a lunch, and your own work gloves if you have them. No experience is necessary; Garlic Mustard is easy to ID even if you are a beginner botanist, and all participants will be given a brief ID lesson. Please note that Garlic Mustard is a low growing plant, so this event will involve a lot of bending, stooping, and walking off trail on uneven footing.
We will meet at the Clay County Fire and Rescue Station 6 (18 Eagle Fork Rd, Hayesville, NC 28904) just before 9:30am on Thursday, March 19th. See the map on our website for the exact location. From there we will caravan to the parking area, about 20 minutes down the road. We will be out until around 3:00pm.
Fill out the form on our website to register for this event: www.mainspringconserves.org/events/. Please leave pets at home. This event is weather-dependent. Email Skye at [email protected] with any questions.