Nature’s buffet – adding foraged food to the menu
The common raven is heard to use up to 30 distinct
vocalizations; some researchers dare to compare it with language. The bird even
mimics human speech. Raven migrations may fly to altitudes over 20,000 feet.
They will eat almost anything, including bugs… though not the monarch
butterfly. Milkweed –the monarch’s favorite food—renders the insect poisonous
to predators, and bright wing colors serve to warn them off. Monarchs can
migrate from eastern America all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, even as far
as England.
Yup, I have a good memory for detail about animals that live
with me –birds and bugs. But plants in my environment? Forget it. My brain
finds botany unfriendly as foreign speech. Now, poison oak… I can spot that, usually. It can prove very painful
when I don’t. Indeed, the subject of herb lore fascinates me. But I can’t quite
be sure about which shrubs, trees and weeds are edible or useful in other ways.
I tried printed field guides. Pictures never really match the season or locale
where I wander. Videos are better. Best reference– my own drawings or photos
and notes.
What I really require is a local foraging expert as hands-on
guide to different settings, and return trips at different times of the year. Give
me a personal trainer, then maybe I could remember something… or not. Some make
a living publishing videos and teaching classes, hosting trips to the wild or a
neighborhood’s urban garden. What guides do nowadays is make the survival apprentice
get down and dirty at subsistence tasks of searching and gathering, then
preparing and eating one’s very own wild salad. Yum!
Now… why am I suddenly so itchy?
One renowned forager in Florida keeps up a blog online, with
searchable detail archived:
Only problem is that his plant descriptions may not be 100
percent reliable for areas where I live and play in southwestern states. So he
also maintains a page listing regional experts to consult:
So what happens when crisis hits and the grocery stores are all
locked shut or looted? You will need to
supplement your own pantry store with fresh greens. There is surely more to
your yard and garden than crab grass. I propose that every household compile their
own list of edible (and non-edible) plants, emergency food growing (literally)
in your own back yard, free and readily accessible. Start with produce found in
your garden; then generalize to public areas of your neighborhood, parks and
surrounding wilderness.
Next, fire up your favorite spreadsheet program and design a
paper cheat sheet. That’s right, do it
on old-fashioned paper! Or print index cards to file in a separate shoebox
catalogue for ready reference when internet access fails. Here follows starting
entries in my own data collection.
Try to enjoy the quest. Make it an adventure. And there is nothing like the feeling of empowerment that comes of knowing how to feed your loved ones in a pinch. Birds and butterflies do it. Just cuz we’re human, does it mean that we can’t?
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| Nut grass, aka nut sedge or java grass |
Other interesting resources:
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| Edible tuber on the root of nut grass |
