Eating Wild
Earlier this week, for the first time in years — maybe decades — I took a bite of a piece of sourgrass. If you’re from coastal California, chances are you’re familiar with the edible plant, which sports a long green stem topped with a delicate yellow flower. I used to munch on it regularly as a young child. Recently, I’ve been eyeing the tenacious plants again as they crop up all around my yard, thinking back on the thrill I once felt plucking a stem and popping it into my mouth.
It was sourer than I remembered. I puckered and took another taste, and was transported to long-ago spring days spent playing in my yard and wandering the neighborhood with other kids. And that got me thinking about the other wild plants I used to forage. There was miner’s lettuce, another weed in my parent’s yard that fascinated me with, well, its lettuce-like taste. There were the purple periwinkle flowers, which aren’t themselves edible, but whose sweet nectar served up pure joy. There were the wild onion and wild radish — I didn’t sample these quite a regularly, but relished in the knowledge that I could. And of course, I can’t leave out the delightful blackberries, brambles and all.
Some 30 years later, I remember the joy of this amateur neighborhood foraging clearly. It was empowering to know which plants I could and couldn’t eat. It was intriguing to learn that food abounded in natural spaces, not just grocery stores. It was reassuring to know I could find at least some sustenance in the wild should adventure or emergency necessitate it. (I’m not sure what emergency exactly I was envisioning, but I do remember carefully crafting my meal plan.)
My knowledge of wild edibles hasn't progressed much over the intervening decades, but I have started to eye these species once again with something akin to childlike delight. I no longer see them as “weeds” overtaking my garden, but as plants with their own unique offerings. I suspect I’ll soon find myself out walking with a foraging guidebook, contemplating how I might join the ranks of true urban foragers and augment an upcoming meal.
Zoe Loftus-Farren
Managing Editor, Earth Island Journal
P.S: What’s your favorite wild edible? Do share!
Photo by: takasphoto.com
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