Foraging

© 2010 Joshua Stark

I must admit, though I grew up in a pretty rural place, I've never been much of a forager.  Of course we 'chewed' sweet anise (fennel) and sourgrass (sorrel) when I was a kid, ate figs off the trees along the sloughs,  and ran around with blackberry-stained shirts and fingers every Summer.  We also helped ourselves to neighboring farmers' baby corn (they didn't mind).  But mostly, I fished, and walked with a dog and a gun and called it hunting.

The past couple of years, though, after meeting up with Hank at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, I've become nearly addicted to foraging.  Greens have been my biggest revelation - first with nettles, and then with mallow - and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming elderberry and gooseberry seasons.  Elderberries had become very rare around here, but in the past ten years they have taken off, probably as a result of efforts to re-establish the endangered blue elderberry beetle. 

I've also been glad that Hank introduced me to a great foraging blog, Fat of the Land, where Mr. Langdon Cook last week had a great post on how to "commit a radical act".