Seattle foragers pick 250 different species of plants

By Rachel Kaufman
National Geographic
Sept. 2, 2010

Excerpt:

In Sacramento, they pick figs, kumquats, and plums from public trees. In New York, they harvest purslane–an edible flower–from the cracks in the sidewalk. Down south, it’s fiddlehead ferns, and just about everywhere, people are picking black walnuts, wild mushrooms, and dandelion greens.

Urban foraging–gathering fruit, vegetables, and other useful things from parks, lawns, and sidewalks–isn’t a new thing. But as more urbanites become aware of the free bounty surrounding them, new issues are–pardon the pun–cropping up. When a public park’s berry patch is raided, whose responsibility is it to make sure there are some left for everyone to enjoy? What about pesticides?

The Institute for Culture and Ecology has been studying urban foragers since 2008 to understand how foraging fits into a city’s ecosystem. The latest project, studying foragers in Seattle, kicked off in early 2010 with partial funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Since then, researcher Melissa Poe and her team have interviewed 35 foragers.

Among their findings:

This tiny group of foragers–just a small percentage of the people in Seattle who gather wild plants–together picks a whopping 250 different species of plants, year-round. Some have been gathering in Seattle for over 60 years. Most act as caretakers for their favorite spots, which they return to year after year.

Read the complete article here.

See Rebecca Lerner’s blog here.

The Abundance Handbook – A guide to Urban Fruit Harvesting (Learning from our experiences of harvesting in Sheffield, England)

The Abundance Handbook
Published by Grow Sheffield, 2009
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

Abundance harvests trees across the city on industrial waste sites, roadsides, the grounds of mansions and back yards. We harvest a range of soft fruit, top fruit and nuts. Over fifty volunteers of all ages and from many different backgrounds harvest and process the fruit. Fruit is distributed to Surestarts, community groups, community cafes and individuals across Sheffield.

We receive tip-offs by word of mouth, text and email as to where to find ripe fruit trees. The greatest journey any fruit travels from tree to mouth is five miles often by bike and trailer. We have found at least fifty varieties of apples and more than twenty varieties of pears. We give away hundreds of fruits and lots of freshly pressed juice. Tree owners are offered the first share of fresh fruit.

We make juice, cider, jams, preserves and pickles from the damaged and bruised fruit. We leave plenty for the birds and the soil. We carry Abundance through the winter by teaching people how to prune their trees. Abundance taps into a huge public enthusiasm for and appreciation of local produce. We are rediscovering Sheffield as one big orchard.

Abundance was set up by Stephen Watts and Anne-Marie Culhane in 2007. Stephen is a food grower, artist and wild food forager and Anne-Marie is a community and environmental artist working in rural and urban areas. Stephen had been spotting fruit trees across the city over a number of years and harvesting them for his own needs, and together they decided to find a way to share the bounty with others.

The Handbook offers sections on:

Section 1
Our Philosophy – The guiding principles of
Abundance

Section 2
Preparing for Abundance – Scouting and
leafleting, Trees and tree owners

Section 3
Spreading the word, Communicating with
volunteers, Funding

Section 4
The Harvest – Timing, Fruit chart, What time
to harvest, Harvesting gear, Shakers and
catchers, Getting it sorted, Transport

Section 5
Storing, Processing and Distributing – Sorting
the fruits of your labours, Pressing the fruit,
Preserving the fruit, Abundance Week and
Encounter Abundance

Section 6
Mapping and Recording

Section 7
Pruning

Section 8
Planting

Section 9
Pollution

Section 10
Abundance Possibilities

Appendices

References

The whole handbook can be read online and also printed from this web site. Highly recommended!

From May 24 through May 30, local “Wild Girl” Becky Lerner will be eating an entirely wild diet as she forages from sidewalks, parks, wilderness areas and yards in Portland. There will be no dumpster diving or mooching off gardens – Lerner will be surviving on wild edibles only.

“I’m interested in foraging as a way to connect with the land and explore a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human,” Lerner said. “It’s also a valuable survival skill: Should the trappings of modernity become unavailable to us one day, knowing how to find food without grocery stores or even farms will surely come in handy.”

Lerner readily admits that her pesco-vegetarianism is in question. She will face the decision of whether to endure a vegetable fast — or else eat insects, go fishing or even consider dining on roadkill.

Lerner will be blogging for the nonprofit web magazine CultureChange.org on a daily basis during the project, updating readers with photos, video and writings about the foods she finds, how she prepares it, how she is feeling (satisfied? starved? desperate for brownies?) and how it changes her life.

See Lerner blogging on CultureChange here.

Lerner is a 26-year-old freelance journalist living in northeast Portland who writes about primitive skills, wilderness survival and wild food on her blog, www.FirstWays.com. Visit her blog here.

And this wild food story wins an award.

WEED ‘EM AND EAT

Locavore story wins award

May 29, 2009

Toronto Star food editor Kim Honey has won a feature writing award from the Association of Food Journalists.

Honey won for her story “Incredible Edibles,” about locavores and wild food in the city. It included her attempts to kill a rabbit for dinner, which enraged some readers.

“The point of the story was to show how the city, despite its distant relationship with nature, could provide a hyper-local diet if only pollution, city bylaws and love for furry animals would allow us to harvest it and eat it,” Honey says. “It really opened my eyes to the bounty around me, especially things like dandelion and wild mustard. Weeds, it turns out, are delicious.”

The story, published last July, was cited as one of the best newspaper food features in 2008.

The association is a professional journalism group with members across North America, but mainly in the United States. There were 234 entries in 12 categories for 2008.

Link to “Incredible Edibles” here.

Edited by Charlie Shackleton, Margaret Pasquini, Axel Drescher
Published by Earthscan Publications Ltd.
320 pp., June 2009

This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge of the potential and challenges associated with the multiple roles, use, management and livelihood contributions of indigenous vegetables in urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. There has been growing research and policy effort around urban agriculture in the region over the last two decades, but never has it been integrated with work on under-researched crops such as indigenous vegetables. These species have multiple advantages, including low input requirements, adaptability to African environments, high nutritional value and marked biodiversity, cultural and local food security significance.

Yet they are overlooked in the modern world, where recent emphasis has been directed to growing a limited range of exotic crops, both for internal markets and for export to developed country markets. This book provides evidence that, in spite of this neglect, in many African cities indigenous vegetables are still widely used, cultivated and marketed. It goes on to consider their potential to contribute to income generation and poverty alleviation of the growing numbers of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa, whilst promoting urban greening and sustainability. Based on critical analysis of the debates it presents a multidisciplinary analysis of the realities and future opportunities.

Charlie Shackleton is Professor and Head of Department in the Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University.

Margaret Pasquini is a geographer working as a research officer at CAZS Natural Resources, Bangor University.

Axel Drescher is Professor at the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and Coordinator of the Section on Applied Geography of the Tropics and Subtropics (APT) at the Department for Physical Geography (IPG), University of Freiburg.

Link to forthcoming book here.

See this seminar from January 2008 on “Promotion of indigenous vegetables” here.

Sarah loves ‘magical sauerkraut’ and makes it regularly with freshly picked cabbages from the garden. Using her knowledge of nutrition and bartending, she shows us how to make a Krautini.

Krautini Recipe:
2 shots vodka
1 shot home-made sauerkraut juice
ice

Combine ingredients into martini shaker and pour into a glass and enjoy. Garnish with olives and a sprig of sauerkraut.

Because of its extreme health benefits (see list below), sauerkraut juice is known for curing hangovers. A Krautini will stave off a hangover long before it takes hold! It has a tangy, refreshing flavour, that contrary to popular belief is very tasty!

Sauerkraut

Sarah: Sauerkraut is a “Super Food” in my opinion.

Here is a list of its nutritional/health properties:

Has a high vitamin and mineral content (especially Vitamin C), which are actually increased during fermentation.

Is packed full of the good bacteria (particularly lactobacillus acidophilus), that your gut needs to stay healthy – save dollars on expensive acidophilus supplements!

Contains anti-carcinogenic compounds that fight cancer.

Contains immune fighting antibodies.

Is very high in live enzyme content – good for digestion, full of life-force.

Improves digestion of fats.

Aids in pancreatic function.

Fermentation

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz

Our Maria is not just a Bug Lady, she’s a ‘Mushroom Lady’ as well. Hidden amongst the large squash leaves in the Youth Garden are some wonderful edible mushrooms she started last spring. Maria shows us how she grew her King Stropharia – Garden Giants.

See this piece about Garden Giants. ‘Grow edible mushrooms in your vegetable garden!’ By Carolyn Herriot

Victoria, B.C. – August 19, 2008
First Nations communities around B.C. are reclaiming their horticultural roots, thanks to a joint federal provincial funding program.

In the last five years, almost 40 communities have received grants through the Aboriginal Agriculture Initiative (AAI) to establish community and allotment gardens, build greenhouses and watering systems, and buy tools, bedding plants and seeds. The intention, according to Archie Deneault, chair of the AAI Advisory Committee, is to help Aboriginal people achieve self-sufficiency through participation in viable, diverse agri-food opportunities.

Says Deneault: “These projects are in harmony with our traditional values. Our priorities are to increase Aboriginal awareness of and involvement in agriculture, to develop land for agriculture use, and to increase participation in agriculture by Aboriginal women and youth.”

The communities that have received funding have reported numerous successes in terms of individual as well as community wellness. In addition to promoting healthy lifestyles through the consumption of fresh, local produce, communities take great pride in their gardens. In some instances, there’s a positive economic impact as excess produce is sold for extra income. Community gardens can also be a springboard to more market-oriented, commercial agricultural production.

Near 100 Mile House, B.C., the Canim Lake Band is engaged in the award-winning BEADS endeavour that involves training Band members in horticultural techniques, including traditional gathering and preservation of indigenous foods. The goals of the project are to become self-sustaining in the area of horticulture and vegetable production and to create employment for chronically unemployed Band members.

A community garden is also central to the initiative underway in the Nemiah Valley, near Alexis Creek, B.C., where the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government operates the ?Eniyud Health Services Root Cellar and Greenhouse Project. This undertaking benefits the local Xeni Gwet’in community by providing healthy, clean, locally-grown vegetables and by contributing to the ecological integrity of the local bioregion.

For its part, the Neskonlith Indian Band near Chase, B.C. received funding for a project called Promoting Healthy Food and Healthy Families by Allotment Gardening. This initiative allows Neskonlith community members to come together and grow nutritious food while creating a beautiful destination where community members can spend time.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of projects being funded through the Aboriginal Agriculture Initiative. AAI funds are provided through the Agri-Food Futures Fund (AFFF), a partnership between the Government of Canada, the Province of British Columbia, and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C. (IAF). The IAF is a not-for-profit organization that manages and distributes federal and provincial funds in support of innovative projects to benefit the agriculture and agri-food industries in B.C.

For more information, media may contact:
Gayle Farrell
Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C.
604-731-9912

Once a year we get to taste the exotic Saskatoon Berry, which is mainly grown in the Prairies. The Saskatoon Berries have a wilder flavour than Blueberries and we have to be quick to harvest them before the birds. Julia shows us the right way to pick them – have a bowl of ice cream with you at the bush.

Sheryl shows us how we can put all that mint growing in our Demonstration Garden to good use. This traditional Cuban highball should probably be made after work, not at ten in the morning when we put it together.

“For the past four years, Grubb has been acquainting himself with the medicinal and nutritional qualities of these plants that thrive on neglect, often in poor soils, on marginal land. He is an urban forager: a student of nourishing foods that can be gathered for free in the city. On this glorious morning the weedscape looks idyllic: the hawthorn and wild roses are in flower and birds are singing in the tree tops.”

Link to article “Where The Wild Things Are”.

Link to website “Eat The Suburbs”.