Thoughts on winter foraging for wild edible plants

 I would say that the trick to winter edible is summer preparation. Knowing the edible roots and where the plants are found was the old way of surviving. Knowing what you are looking for precisely (and in cases similar to the poisonous vs edible members of the carrot family for example), you can recognize areas likely to be fruitful even under snow cover.

Parsnip, queen annes lace, cattail, wild onions, chicory, etc... all of these roots are edible after prepared. They may not be as enticing as other things, but they are more than plentiful in the wild if you know what to look for.

Other edibles would be tasty treats like the toasted inner bark of the white pine or black birch tree, truffles (that grow on the roots of oak trees).
If you are lucky enough to score it, deliscious sweet sugar maple sap or even birch sap can be collected and used as a drink for a light sugary beverage (birch sap is not as sweet but can be boiled down just as sugar maple but it takes more sap than the maple does to make any kind of sugar/syrup. If the temp raises above ~45 degrees during the day but dips below freezing at night, you can tap a sugar maple well into Feb. Red maple, Black birch, hickory, and walnut can all be tapped for sap too though arent generally as fruitful.

White Pine Tree

White Pine tree

Black Birch

sugar maple

harvesting wild cattails

Know your plants first. There are members of the hemlock family that look just like edible members of the carrot family, but will kill you dead. Be positive or be dead.