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| My collection of carry-along guides. |
Anyway, foraging season is just starting now, and I'm really looking forward to it this year because I have what I feel are the trifecta of foraging guides. I have the Peterson guide to medicinal plants which I used a lot last year when I was focusing more on making plant medicines, and then two Sam Thayer books (The Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden) which are really zeroed in on where I live (Thayer lives in the same area as me, which is something I can't say for the vast majority of other foraging books I've read).
A while ago I saw a post on a forum from a forager who was frustrated that he could not possibly forage enough food to live on even if he were able to dedicate much more time to it. The reason people feel this way is because even people like me--who was raised into foraging--get it drilled in our head that edible plants are hard to find, so we overlook the amazing bulk of food out there in favor of trying to find a few delicacies. Here in Wisconsin, most foragers are looking for morel mushrooms, puffballs, asparagus, fiddleheads, ramps, hickory nuts, and if you're dedicated enough to get a license and equipment, manoomin (wild rice). And while you can make a lot of great meals with these ingredients, you will have one monotonous diet if you try to live off of just these, and most foragers don't even look for all of them. Flipping through Thayer's books I see plants I already recognize, some I wondered what they were but never figured it out, and realize that they are abundantly edible.
Yesterday when I acquired The Forager's Harvest I noticed that a plant I'd seen carpeting the woods everywhere is actually ground bean and has an abundance of... well, beans. Literal beans. Everywhere. And I never knew this and therefore never foraged them. Earlier when I was looking through Nature's Garden I found out the gorgeous berries I pass on the trail I frequent are autumnberries, which are abundantly edible and in fact appropriately edible as they are invasive and eating them prevents their spread.
A friend of mine invited me over to their house soon so we can trade foraging knowledge; the land they live on has ramps, nettles, and garlic mustard they will be helping me identify and I'll be walking with them to see if there are any plants there I can identify for them. This is super exciting to me because sharing wild plant knowledge is a huge part of my praxis that I don't get to use very often.
I'm planning on making a commitment to eating a large percentage of my food wild this year (it's a part of my personal rewilding project, which is inextricably woven into the type of Paganism I practice which is based on moving toward the most ancient... when I can). I just got my fishing license and will be fishing to get a lot of my meat, and am considering hunting more animals too. The problem is that I can't really keep a firearm in my house and so I need to go to my parents' land to get mine whenever I go. I'm thinking that for each season I do choose to hunt I can dedicate a weekend to it. Anything I can't get myself, well, my family hunts and is always happy to give me meat. As usual, of course I'll be deer hunting. All that said, my wild menu should be quite diverse as long as I can stick with it.
I'll be gardening, too. I already mentioned in an earlier post I'm doing a Three Sisters garden (I already started it!) as well as walking onions, rhubarb, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, watermelons, and lettuce. I'll also be growing several herbs and a variety of tobacco. I would prefer, though, to get more from foraging than gardening.
Happy Trails,
-- Setkheni
