Learning the Art of Food Foraging (an excerpt from Tom King @ MotherEarthNews.com)
Whether an aspect of sophistication or a gut reaction to grim economics, foraging has indeed captured the public’s attention. On television, the Survivorman teaches armchair survivalists how to make a meal of plantain leaves and incautious lizards, while in alleyways across the country, groups of radical urban foragers known as “freegans” protest our wasteful, consumerist culture by dumpster-diving for their dinners. Foraging is the new green — and in these tough times, knowing how to find a salad in a parking lot could be a useful trick.
“Foraging is really no different than grazing,” says Kelly Kindscher, associate scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey. “You need to leave enough leaf material so the plant can produce more. Take too much, and the population dies off.”
Ramps, for example, require several years to recover from a single harvesting. The rising demand from chefs and savvy foodies over the past decade has pushed native stands of ramps into decline. Given our economic zeitgeist, it isn’t hard to imagine hordes of people trampling the countryside, harvesting wild plants like strip miners — decimating species, destroying habitat and frantically hastening our own demise. Could we go so far as to eradicate even the dandelion?
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