Foraging and Food Security
It’s a reflex by now: I look out the train window and mentally check off the edible and medicinal plants I see. Today there’s burdock, red clover blossoms, dandelions, plantain, wild carrot, nettles. All of those are edible and medicinal as well. Food? Check. Field first aid? Check. There’s a baseline security to being able to identify wild edible and medicinal plants.
Not so long ago, during World War II, that baseline security was more common than it is now. In England during rationing when ingredients were scarce, even city people headed to the hedgerows and parks to collect wild greens and brambleberries for food, yarrow and calendula for medicine. They may not have wanted to do so, but the point is that they knew how to.
That would not be true of many of my friends in New York City. In just a few generations, what was once common knowledge has become obscure.
If trucking and other food supply lines were cut off, New York City would have 48 hours worth of food. That’s the official stat, but it doesn’t factor in wild edible plants (nor the growing ranks of urban homesteaders cultivating their own food).
A few years ago, I was in the Catskills with a group of children and a few parents and chaperones. There was a big blackberry patch next to our hotel and it was blackberry season. The restaurant was a pancake house, and I thought it would be perfect to collect a bunch of berries for the kids to have on top of their pancakes.
When I brought the berries to the restaurant, only one person would go near them, a parent who remembered picking them as a child. Everyone else recoiled. “How do you know they are safe?” These were sweet, plump, succulent blackberries harvested by an expert forager. But the kids and their adults were more confident of packaging and labels than of my expertise or their own ability to recognize a blackberry.
Another example of how far away from baseline security foraging knowledge we’ve gotten: I once led a foraging tour in Central Park during which we came upon a homeless person begging, he said, for food money. The bench he was sitting on was surrounded by nine different wild edible plants.
I forage because it’s fun, because I love the delicious ingredients that often can’t be found in any store, because nothing is more local than the plant that volunteered to grow on my doorstep, and because, hey, it’s free food.
But I also enjoy knowing that anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere I can eat, and eat well, regardless of my financial circumstance or whatever politics and calamity might be going on around me.
If you have the chance, go on a foraging tour or pick up a field guide.
That is awesome. I definitely wanna learn more about this. About the only thing I can identify right now it dandelion. Have any recommendations for anyone in LA?
Mike Lieberman´s last [type] ..Is My Integrity Tarnished Because I Have Sponsors
Hey Mike, try Edible weeds in LA at http://www.squidoo.com/edible-weeds-in-los-angeles. Happy foraging! Leda
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Great article Leda. By the way the raspberry plant, comfrey and lemon balm that I picked up last month are doing great.
Great article. Got hooked on food foraging because of my parents and then in the early 80′s was given a set of Euell Gibbons’ books like Stalking the Wild Asparagus.
what can you do w/ lemon mint beside put into tea.?
Mildred, are you talking about lemon balm, Melissa officinalis? If so, it’s an excellent anti-viral herbal medicine. Also good, just for taste, minced and added to fruit salads.
Leda Meredith´s last [type] ..About Foraging & Food Security
Anyone who lives in the NY area will love attending Leda’s tours!
Leda,
Can you suggest informational site for foraging in Southern Idaho? Thank you very much.
Great article! We really need to be teaching kids this. It’s truly amazing how much food is actually out there.
Thanks, Steve. Katerina, I’ve only been through Idaho once and there was spectacular foraging there. I suggest signing up for ForageAhead at yahoogroups. There are many knowledgeable as well as novice foragers there, and I’m sure you’d find foragers familiar with your area.
Leda Meredith´s last [type] ..About Foraging & Food Security
[...] Syndication on May 26, 2011 – No Comment If you enjoyed Leda Meredith’s article, “Foraging and Food Security,” check out this new app from “Wildman” Steve [...]
Good article, keep up the good work. Used to lead plant walks for the Ecology Club in the beautiful woods of Westchester Community College 37 years ago. A few people were very scared of all plants. Still looking for the large smooth Apios Groundnut and large succulent Evening Primrose root. I’m particularly interested in selecting Apios that are productive. It’s an overlooked native wildflower.
Hi Lewis,
I’ve found some good-sized tender evening primrose roots.
Apios americana has great potential as a cultivated crop (though to date I’ve only enjoyed it wild). Best of luck with your selections!
Leda Meredith´s last [type] ..Suddenly Summer
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