People used to live on what they could get from the land around them. Even after farming became routine, they depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering roots, nuts, berries, and greens. Foraging wild food in CA and other areas is no longer a necessity for most, but more and more people want to learn how it's done.
Those not into gourmet cooking or survival skills may wonder why anyone would go outside to find things to eat. Even residents of inner cities are doing it. Some do it out of necessity: remember Ernest Hemingway rhapsodizing about how good pigeons tasted when he was a hungry student in Paris. Others think it romantic, do it as a hobby, or follow the trend of cooking foraged foods.
Television shows have brought to public attention what had become arcane knowledge - the fact that many native plants are tasty, nutritious, or therapeutic. There is a wealth of great books and, now, online sites dedicated to teaching people how to identify and use plants that grow in cracks of sidewalks, in vacant city lots, or along the highways and by-ways.
People learn in school that Native Americans made flour out of acorns and taught Europeans how to find and eat oysters. They made pemmican out of roots, berries, and animal fat to carry for food on long journeys. Most adults know that toadstools may look like mushrooms but are poisonous, and that dandelion greens are edible.
This knowledge may be important someday in a time of famine. In that case, it will be helpful to know a mushroom from a toadstool. Mushrooms are valuable foods, with a taste that mimics meat and a high protein content. Making a salad of plantain, dandelion greens, watercress from a stream, and a few edible mushrooms can be lunch for a hungry person. In warm places like California, with long growing seasons, foraging is easier.
There are lots of old favorites, like field cress, watercress, and cattails. Dandelion greens, lamb's quarters, plantain, and wild onions are other familiar foods. Berries, nuts, and honey from the hive are natural delicacies. Ginseng, goldenseal, native mints, rose hips, and elderberries have medicinal properties, another thing that might be good to know.
However, even those who never think of the word 'foraging' may garnish their ice tea with a sprig of wild mint or crystallize violets for cake decorations. Some may harvest day lily buds, saute them in butter, and enjoy them as much as cultivated asparagus. Others may know that plantain from the yard is sure to please their guinea pigs.
Foraging, like any other use of natural resources, requires responsible harvesting. Naturalists already fear that the gourmet craze for ramps might endanger that plant. There are ways to take a little and leave enough behind to sustain the population of valuable plants and animals. This is a very important part of being an educated forager in California and other parts of the country.
Those not into gourmet cooking or survival skills may wonder why anyone would go outside to find things to eat. Even residents of inner cities are doing it. Some do it out of necessity: remember Ernest Hemingway rhapsodizing about how good pigeons tasted when he was a hungry student in Paris. Others think it romantic, do it as a hobby, or follow the trend of cooking foraged foods.
Television shows have brought to public attention what had become arcane knowledge - the fact that many native plants are tasty, nutritious, or therapeutic. There is a wealth of great books and, now, online sites dedicated to teaching people how to identify and use plants that grow in cracks of sidewalks, in vacant city lots, or along the highways and by-ways.
People learn in school that Native Americans made flour out of acorns and taught Europeans how to find and eat oysters. They made pemmican out of roots, berries, and animal fat to carry for food on long journeys. Most adults know that toadstools may look like mushrooms but are poisonous, and that dandelion greens are edible.
This knowledge may be important someday in a time of famine. In that case, it will be helpful to know a mushroom from a toadstool. Mushrooms are valuable foods, with a taste that mimics meat and a high protein content. Making a salad of plantain, dandelion greens, watercress from a stream, and a few edible mushrooms can be lunch for a hungry person. In warm places like California, with long growing seasons, foraging is easier.
There are lots of old favorites, like field cress, watercress, and cattails. Dandelion greens, lamb's quarters, plantain, and wild onions are other familiar foods. Berries, nuts, and honey from the hive are natural delicacies. Ginseng, goldenseal, native mints, rose hips, and elderberries have medicinal properties, another thing that might be good to know.
However, even those who never think of the word 'foraging' may garnish their ice tea with a sprig of wild mint or crystallize violets for cake decorations. Some may harvest day lily buds, saute them in butter, and enjoy them as much as cultivated asparagus. Others may know that plantain from the yard is sure to please their guinea pigs.
Foraging, like any other use of natural resources, requires responsible harvesting. Naturalists already fear that the gourmet craze for ramps might endanger that plant. There are ways to take a little and leave enough behind to sustain the population of valuable plants and animals. This is a very important part of being an educated forager in California and other parts of the country.
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You can visit livingwild.org for more helpful information about Foraging Wild Food In CA.
