Wednesday 30 April 2014

The Foraging Mindset

I'd like to kick off with a brief discussion of something I've come to understand better over my years gathering wild food; the foraging mindset.

When I first became interested in foraging, I did what most people do, buy a book or two, look at all the interesting and tasty species listed and then wander around my local dog walk trying find them all.

This approach is largely fruitless (literally and metaphorically). Looking too hard for specific things, you'll miss what's actually there, and the opportunity to be curious, study and learn for yourself. For me, the thing that's most important is developing what I call the foraging mindset. The key points of this are:
  • Look around you - Discover what's growing in your garden, local hedgerow, riverbank etc.
  • Be curious - Take photos, take samples, look them up in books, online etc. Many people just ask me if something's edible, but miss out on the opportunity to find out more. By looking things up and asking more questions, every find helps you to develop your knowledge and skills. 
  • Learn what grows in certain environments - once you're familiar with your local hedgerows, meadows, etc, when you travel elsewhere you'll have a good idea what species you'll find and how and when to gather them.
  • Harvest responsibly - when you forage locally you'll find a balance with the environment, and you'll learn if you take too much, you'll have none for later, or will decrease the 'crop' for the following years.
  • Be cautious - never eat anything you aren't 100% sure about, whether this be in terms of species or environmental contamination etc, this isn't some hardcore Bear Grylls style survival challenge, it's foraging. Don't take a risk as there are some species of fungi and plants that are deadly poisonous as is demonstrated in the below image - Edible Cow Parsley with the white flowers growing alongside the deadly poisonous Hemlock on the left.



That being said, once you develop this mindset it's easy to add additional information about foraging to this mental book of knowledge and to learn the tools to differentiate friend from foe. You'll forever be developing your knowledge of the environment and I'm here to help you along the way.

P.S. If you have any particular plants you are stuck at identifying feel free to send me a photo with your best guess to @lazy_anarchist, or send to my Facebook page 'Eden Wild Food'.

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