Recently the New York Times had a front page article on foraging, or rather, on why the Parks Department may be starting to take a sterner approach towards foragers than it has in recent years. The concern is that rampant foragers will decimate plant populations. I have seen no signs of this. As I am quoted in the article as saying, the majority of the plants I forage in the parks are invasives that are actually crowding out some of the potentially threatened native plants.

“What advice do you have for someone who would like to incorporate more local foods into his or her diet but isn’t sure where to begin?”

That’s a question I’ve been asked frequently, and it deserves more attention than I can usually give it in the context of a quick take-away response.

Maybe you found your way to this website because you have the same question. Or maybe you’re already deeply committed to the local/organic/sustainable food movement, and would like to help others just starting out on that path. Let’s take clear look at how to get started.

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.

I’ve fallen in love with lacto-fermented chutneys, so much so that I’m considering turning all the vinegar-based chutneys I canned into ketchup (ketchup is basically just pureed chutney). The flavor of these fresh chutneys is so good that I could, and do, eat them straight out of the jar. Plus you get all sorts of health benefits that aren’t in the vinegar versions; lacto-fermented foods have good-for-you bacteria in them, like with yogurt.

The recipe below is a Northeastern locavore’s variation on one by Sally Fallon (I swap in just a little vinegar to replace non-local lemon juice, and local honey instead of Rapadura). This chutney is an especially good use up for the storage apples we’re still getting from local farms at this time of year. But it’s also good made with peaches, cherries, and other fruit.

“What do you eat in winter?” is a question I frequently get asked when people learn that I eat a mostly local foods diet in the Northeastern U.S.

My reply starts with the fact that I eat just as well in winter as I do in summer. That fact really cheers me up right now. We are at the tail end of winter, but it will still be many weeks until the first spring crops are ready. If I only ate the storage and greenhouse crops available year-round here, well, I’d survive but my meals would be really boring.

Here’s how you can make your “off season” meals as interesting and nutritious for you as the ones you eat during the harvest months, all the while keeping a locavore’s lowered carbon footprint:

The seed and plant nurseries have got us gardeners right where they want us at this time of year. We’ve had just enough time to rest from outdoor work; enough time to forget, perhaps, just how devastating last year’s failures were, and more than enough time to regain our optimism that this will be the year we revel in natural splendor and the most abundant harvests ever. We are ready to plan this year’s garden-to-be.

By this time of year, when the harvest season is coming to an end, my shelves are lined with colorful jars of pickles and preserves, and the freezer is stuffed with fruit from the garden and veggies from my CSA share. I’ve got chutneys, jams, dried mushrooms, sauerkraut, dilly beans, marmalades, corn relish, and much more.

For the first time ever I got tired of basil and tomatoes, fabulous as they are. I got tired of shorts and flip flops. I wanted potato and leek soup, wild mushrooms, and roasted winter squash. I wanted an excuse to delve into my store of dried and home-canned foods, not inferior to their fresh counterparts, but different—as raisins are different from grapes.

At this time of year, my dehydrator is humming almost non-stop, and there are bundles of aromatic herbs drying all along my hallway wall. Although I also can and freeze food for winter (part of how I keep up with my CSA share!), drying food has several advantages:

From neglected (but delicious) greens to scraps that can be used to make fragrant herbal vinegars and soup stocks, there may be some food freebies in your kitchen that you haven’t yet taken full advantage of.