She snips stalks from a weed with downy leaves and white powder commonly called goosefoot or lamb's quarters.';I collect a lot of this,'; said Klehm, 43. ';It's indistinguishable from spinach when you cook it. I never, never grow spinach or other greens except kale. Everything else I forage.';
Klehm is among a small group of urban foragers across the United States who collect weeds and plants from city streets and gardens to use in meals and medicines. Some are survivalists while others are environmentalists or even gourmands seeking new flavors for cooking. Klehm leads small groups of about 20 people a few times a year on urban forages in Chicago. In New York, Steve Brill's walks in Central Park attract 50 or more people every weekend.
';People have a lot of different reasons,'; said Brill, who wrote a book on edible plants and posts information on foraging at www.wildmanstevebrill.com.
';They're freegans, vegans, foodies, environmentalists,'; he said. ';It's definitely more middle class than working class.';
Urban foraging in the United States is more a choice than a necessity. Most foragers see both the health and environmental benefits to eating a more natural diet.';I do this to slow down, to not follow the grid, to skip out of technoconsumerism. I do this to realize that the health of my body is connected to the health of the land,'; said Klehm, who has a website at www.spontaneousvegetation.net.
She also teaches groups how to compost food and cooks with solar ovens. Stacy Peterson went on Klehm's recent forage because she was curious and she loves urban gardening.
But urban foraging isn't without risks. Klehm describes several plants as mild laxatives, while others are psychotropic, or even poisonous.There are also environmental concerns in the city, such as lead and pollutants in the soil. Brill advises people not to forage within 50 feet (15 meters) of major roads because that is where heavy metals tend to accumulate. But urban foragers are quick to point out that food bought at the grocery store may not be without herbicides and pesticides. ';Adjacent to where I was doing a tour was a peach orchid. They came with trucks with nozzles larger than I am tall and clouds of chemicals went onto these peaches,'; Brill said.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20090728/77鈥?/a>If you chose to be an urban forager, what would you forage?
I've eaten a fair few of our native plants. Pig nuts are a badgers favourite and they taste like raw potato. I often thought of cooking some to see if they would be nicer. I try to collect wild raspberries or blueberries every year to make some jam. It's the best jam you can get. Beats any supermarket jam by a mile. Last week I had a few wild mushrooms when out fishing. Absolutely delicious fresh and raw. Mind you, I don't live in a particularly urbanised area. It's the second least populated part of the UK.
Edit. Having been a wildlife surveyor, I think I know my shrooms.If you chose to be an urban forager, what would you forage?
Apart from the odd basket of blackcurrents in the hedgerows nothing.
Why people would eat something they have no knowledge of like those mushrooms etc and then wonder why they end up down the emergency room with a stomach pump is a mystery. Also I catch anyone in my garden they'll be getting done for tresspass after a tongue lashing. What they really are is skint, they're a bit like those people who eat roadkill and rummage through bins to cook food that has expired. the proper herbalists must have their own gardens.
Corpses.
maybe i should fire the gardener and allow these people to forage in my front lawn. it should fill their nutritional needs, with all the weeds and various kinds of bugs in it.
i'd no doubt be the one who picked a poisonous plant, mistaking it for a nutritional one!
Celebrity dustbins.
The Redtops pay well. No questions asked.
Except in court.
cardboard, bottles, things from the fruit cart when the guys not looking, outside the city i just found a ton of blue crab but it's in the hudson and i wouldnt eat that. back in the day there was a big caviar business about 50 miles north of manhattan in the hudson too. and 3 foot stripers i heard, high mercury content, can eat but not too much. there's rasberries easily found and are in season now. I know where turkey and deer are but i dont hunt. but i'm ready though if society collapses, i know little about edible plants and assume you cant eat most of them or even if you did it wouldnt do you much good as we cant digest a lot of these green leafy things. when i was younger too i liked these things, i think they were butter cups, a little white flower and you drink the nectar like it was a little cup.
ladies knickers
If I was going to do that I'd do it properly and go out into the woodland or into the great outdoors to do it. Not in a city centre to make some statement about ';skipping out of tecnoconsumerism'; or other such nonsense.
I don't think that is a good idea but if I did I wouldn't even have to leaver my yard.I have wild honey suckle,Dandelions,Polk salad and elder berry bushes at the back of my property,just growing there.I throw a little compost out there once in awhile,they all come back plentiful the next year.
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