Wisconsin’s Women, Infants and Children’s Program “Approved Foods” brochure is cheerfully decorated with stock photos of vegetables and smiling children. Inside is a well-intentioned (or well lobbied) and utterly misguided attempt to… what? Help people? Make sure those in food assistance programs eat healthy food? Or cheaper food? Continue reading
“Wild Man” Steve Brills and his daughter Violet lead educational foraging tours throughout the greater New York tri-state area, including in Central Park. Steve was arrested 30 years ago in Central Park by undercover agents on charges of criminal mischief for eating a dandelion. “That got me so much publicity that they dropped the charges, and the parks department hired me to teach foraging,” he says.
When not teaching about wild foods, Steve can often be found foraging and cooking wild meals with his eleven-year-old daughter. Violet started foraging at the age of two months and, according to her father, “knows the ins and outs of every single plant.”
I reached Steve and Violet by Skype at their home in upstate New York. They had just come in from a walk in which they found Artist’s Mushrooms and enjoyed a late first snow. They regaled me with jokes, skits, and stories as we talked. Continue reading
Walking into the field with a shovel. Cold hands on the smooth wooden handle. You are warmed by the smell of earth as you dig. Hands plunge into chill earth, searching with strong fingers. Finally, you clutch the wise burdock root, and you feel somehow compelled to bow.
There is something to be said for taking one’s time with plants. They offer so much more to our psyches than most of us living a modern lifestyle can comprehend. Watching a plant through all of its seasons, befriending the little star lady Chickweed and allying yourself with Burdock’s ancient wisdom. There is nothing to describe the joy. It is something like coming home.
But not everyone is up for harvesting burdock, or even devoting much of their busy lives to foraging. Continue reading
The food industry uses all sorts of chemicals in the pursuit of cleanliness. Isn’t it a little ironic that their way of misleading consumers is, well, dirty? Words that mean one thing to the general public often mean something very different to food producers and the USDA. These differences have been deliberately exploited to get you to believe you are making a healthier or more ethical choice by buying a more expensive food product that was made no differently from the rest. Enter misleading food labels. Let’s uncover a few. Continue reading
We awoke as the sun began draping light over the jungle hills. It was our day of challenge: to kayak the other side of Lake Arenal and back. We wanted to carry as little as possible and loaded up on energy before we left. We also chose to pack a few high-energy foods so that we could sustain our energy to meet the challenge.
We also didn’t want to consume popular “energy” products that are loaded with preservatives and refined sugar. Continue reading
Drive past the willow tree, deeper into the valley. There is a tiny bridge where one valley meets the other and the landscape opens like a story. Pull over here. Continue reading
This is a guest post by my mother, Prudence Tippins.
Nicholas asked recently why I’m no longer a raw vegan. It’s a complicated subject for me, and one I’m hesitant to summarize simply. I loved eating raw food. I did it exclusively for almost ten years. There were so many benefits, which I feel compelled to list here again:
But, as it turns out, it stopped working for me right around the decade mark. Continue reading
We cut through the grass with our bodies, merging with the field. The calls of birds alert the other creatures to our presence as we swish and crackle our way through grass that’s taller than we are. At last, we come upon a clearing.
On my path through the internet today, I stumbled upon Sam Thayer, the midwest’s wild food guru. He’s written two guides that I often see on people’s shelves, all at varying degrees of wear. Some are practically falling apart from use.
In the interview, Sam brings up an important point: you don’t have to live on a farm or next to a national park to harvest wild food. City-dwellers have an abundance of wild foods right out their front door. Like anywhere else, you just have to know what to look for.
By Nicholas Tippins
Wild edible plants are healthy, fun, and free. If you live in an area where plants are not treated with chemicals, there’s no reason not to get started today.
Don’t I need to be an expert at plant identification before I can forage and eat wild foods?
The short answer: no. Chances are you already know and can identify wild edible plants. Can you recognize a dandelion? If so, you’re already on your way to becoming an expert forager.
