Leda Meredith - The Forager’s Feast: How to Identify, Gather, and Prepare Wild Edibles

DEDICATION

To everyone who ate something that grew wild today,
something you harvested with care, prepared
creatively, and shared with love.

Odds are that you dont have to forage for edible wild foods in order to survive. In the 21st century, more than half of humanity lives in cities or suburbs. The cultural knowledge of which plants, algae, and fungi are safe to eat has been relegated to a hobby. Or has it?

Ive witnessed an unmistakable surge of interest in foraging over the past few years. Participation in foraging tours is at an all-time high, not just for mine, but also for colleagues with whom Ive discussed this upsurge. Book publishers (including this books publisher) are seeking foragers who can write, restaurants are making a big deal about the wild ingredients in their menus, and tens of thousands of foragers and wannabe foragers have joined social media groups devoted to the topic.

Why the surge in interest? I believe it is because foraging encompasses an entire crossroads of immediate concerns.

Lets start with the obvious: its free food. Economic fluctuations in the 21st century have been epic so far, and with every downturn there has been an upswing of interest in self-sufficiency. Knowing what you can pick for free and serve for dinner tonight is the ultimate in DIY skills.

Another branch of the crossroads is foodie interest in tasty ingredients that might not be available for sale anywhere. When was the last time you picked up a pint of juneberries at the supermarket, or paid cash for cattail laterals? You didnt, unless you paid for a dish at one of the many restaurants now employing professional foragers to bring them unusual ingredients, or unless you went out and foraged your own.

Foraging is also topical for anyone concerned about environmental footprints (which should be everyone nowadays). Done correctly, foraging actually improves the balance of local ecosystems by reducing the number of invasive species and encouragingthrough correct harvesting methodsslow-growing and endangered species.

As far as eating local and organic, buzzwords that reflect widespread concern for both environmental issues and personal health, nothing is more local than the edible weed growing in your backyard. And nothing is more organic than a wild plant thriving without fertilizers, herbicides, or other human intervention (assuming it was collected from a location free of such chemical products).

Wild foods are often nutritionally superior to their cultivated counterparts, making physical health yet another reason to forage. Besides the fact that youll be outside getting some exercise (never a bad thing), youll be eating foods like lambs quarters, which has three times the calcium and more than double the vitamin C of its genetic cousin, spinach.

There are other, less tangible but equally valid reasons for foraging. It sounds hippy-dippy, but a direct connection to nature and your immediate environment is something you can experience quite tangibly through foraging. The benefits of that connection include a state of well-being that is both peaceful and exuberant. If you dont know what I mean, think about picking blackberries on a warm summer morning and trying not to eat them all before you get home... compared with purchasing an expensive pint of blackberries in a plastic container from the refrigerated section of the supermarket.

For all of these reasons and more, I am delighted that you are enthusiastic enough about foraging to have picked up this book!

The Foragers Feast includes recipes that range from classics such as garlic mustard pesto and wood sorrel soup, to inventions that may pique the interest of even the most jaded gourmet forager such as popped amaranth crackers, pineappleweed cordial, and wild kimchi powder.

In order to make room for all the recipes, I had to limit the number of edible wild plants I profile in the book. Included here are only plants that are widely distributed (in most cases more than one continent) and easy to identify. In other words, if you live on planet Earth I guarantee that some of these plants are growing wild near you and that you will be able to recognize them with 100 percent certainty with the help of this book.

Essential to 21st-century foraging is an understanding of how your harvesting impacts the natural environment. Each plant account offers tips on how to harvest that ingredient while ensuring there will be plenty more to come back for next year. The ecosystem will actually be better off because you foraged there.

The Foragers Feast has everything you need to help you easily find, safely identify, sustainably harvest, and deliciously prepare dozens of the most widespread edible wild plants. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your foraging adventures.

Start with the Which Wild Edible Where and When section. This will make you a much more successful forager than you would be if you wandered out with no clue as to which plants you can find in that particular location during that exact season. For example, if you set out in spring looking for ripe blackberries in a spot fully shaded by evergreen trees, you are doomed to frustration: blackberries are a summer fruit requiring at least partial sunlight. You might be able to identify the blackberry canes without their fruit, and that will make you a super-efficient forager come summer, when you can beeline for the blackberry patch. But youd be going home empty-handed on that early spring day.

If you checked the seasonal guide when you headed out in April, you saw that fresh spruce tree tips were in season in spring and youd have been able to verify whether those evergreen trees shading you out were, in fact, spruce trees. Bingo! Now, instead of wasting time hunting for out-of-season berries, youre going home with a bag full of one of natures tastiest seasonings, available for only a few weeks early in the year.

But the most important thing is to double-check the characteristics of the plant youre looking at with the description in this book. Yes, the photos are helpful, but matching the description is more important.

FORAGERS RULE #1

Always be 100 percent certain of your identification before consuming any wild edibles, seaweed, or mushroom.

Theres a saying that there are old foragers and there are bold foragers, but there are no old, bold foragers. Take that to heart. Although I want to encourage you to get out there and forage, I also want you to be safe. What does that mean? It means that all of the identifying characteristics of the wild edible must match the description given in that wild edible's entry. But dont worry: identifying wild edibles isnt actually that hard.