Foraging for Beginners: Tips Tricks and Fascinating Facts

Foraging as a Way of Life

Foraging is a way of life that we left behind when the world became fast-paced, and market-driven. There is a new interest in it thanks to a few cool people who help the world enjoy spontaneity and an occasional ‘Eureka’ moment of simple joy.

Stuart Ovenden, a sworn forager, calls his home town a ‘seasonal wild supermarket’, where you get all the things you need for free! In the crevices and cracks of Mother Earth, in her soft and lush meadows and bushes, he has nettles, hop, leek, elderflowers, lime leaves, walnuts, hawthorn berries, wild cherry plums, and much more, all edible and palatable, sprouting and blossoming as if exclusively being there for him, depending on which season he is in.

Foragers teach us a valuable life lesson: in all pursuits, you just have to look and find.

Nettles sting but once cooked, they are delicious. So the forager picks them up using gloves. Wild garlic is a forager’s delight when added to a spring salad. Blackberries are abundantly found in the wild in the autumn. Before we explore this further, let’s have a revisit of foraging history that begins with our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

History of Foraging

The history of human foraging dates back to the earliest humans on earth. Scientific evidence shows that the sex division of labour happened during the late Stone Age when men went hunting, because they were biologically stronger, and women went foraging into the pristine woods and meadows to find some additional nutrition for the family. History has consistently shown that women have been the ultimate foragers. Social scientists remind us that effective foraging requires network memories, memories collectively stored by a group, and shared in each season. The Ba Yaka tribe in Congo as a society knew of 32 medicinal plants but no individual knew the entire 32 plants.

Societies Where Foraging is Still Part of Life

Malaysia has a rich foraging tradition that lives on even in modern times. In Malay coastal areas, people still forage for dog conch, spider conch, sea urchin, sea cucumber, sea grape, jelly seaweed, mussel, clam and cockle. Cockles are shellfish, an essential part of the routine Malaysian menu.

It was mainly women, rowing small wooden boats, who went foraging near the coral reefs in Malaysia. On mainland of Malaysia, the Durian fruit was the lucky find of a forager as in an earlier period, it was not cultivated but grew only in the wild. This is why in Malay language, there is a coinage, ‘Durian Runtuh’, which means, a fallen Durian literally, but is used to describe an unexpected good fortune. When the commercial cultivation of Durian became rampant, all the local varieties disappeared from the land and the platter. The shift from foraging to agriculture thus, in certain aspects, impoverished the variety and luxury of taste that people had before.

Urban Foraging

#cottagecore and #goblincore are two Tiktok foraging hashtags that have won more than 70 million views. Alex Nicole Nelson known as BlackForager on Instagram is a forager of Ohio and she has 479000 followers who learn from her how to find food in Ohio by way of foraging, and how to cook it. Gordon Walker is another Tiktok content creator whose social media name is FascinatedByFungi. He has 238000 followers and he gives away edible mushroom identification tips. There are regional field guides about the wild flora of each state available in the US. There are also foraging apps such as iNaturalist and Seek to help those who want to forage in and around their places. Foraging classes and guided tours are also popular in cities such as New York.

Why this renewed interest in foraging? In rural areas, the remnants of foraging still exist because it is a frugal and effective economic strategy for a household. In foraged food items such as truffles, there are elements of surprise and luxury that make the very act of foraging a joyful experience. Excessive consumption and food indulgence culture that our markets promote have taken out the simple happiness of eating for many of us. Despite environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, there is still plenty of food out there in nature for us to gather and relish.

Forager’s Most Favourite Finds

Steve Brill, who is a foraging guide and teacher in New York prescribes the ‘foolproof four’ rule for mushroom foragers. One should stick to four mushroom varieties, giant puffballs, morels, chicken of the woods, and chanterelles. These are unmistakably identifiable edible wild mushrooms.

Dandelions might be the most collected edible weed from the wild by foragers. They can be put into salads, brewed to make herbal tea, and fried to make fritters. The species of plants and fungi available for foraging differ vehemently across the globe. For example, in Asia, a forager will be looking for leafy vegetables, gooseberries, mushrooms, jack fruits, sun berries, blackberries, cashew mango, and colocasia stem. In Africa, a forager will be delighted to find Samphire, Kruipvygie, or a Confetti bush.

Pollution and Foraging

Pollution is the most important negative factor to look out for while foraging, especially in urban areas. It is better to avoid places where pesticides and weedicides are used rampantly. Foraging from heavy traffic regions is also risky as many studies found high levels of toxic substances in wayside plants. A study published in 2015 by Wellesley College and Boston’s League of Urban Canners had a contrary result to cite. They studied the presence of heavy metals, arsenic and lead, in edibles foraged from urban areas and the results showed only a low level of such contamination in foraged food items. Fruits and nuts showed even lower levels of toxin presence when compared to tubers, roots, and leaves.

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Foraging, Society and Politics

The early laws that were in place in the US against foraging were mainly devices used by colonisers to keep away the Native Americans from the land and to control the natural rights of the Native Americans on land and forests. Later indigenous people had to fight legal battles to win back their foraging rights on Federal land. Still, there are many restrictions in place. It is important to practise moderation while foraging as many wild plants are food for other animals also. Mindless foraging can destroy the ecological balance of your environment. One thumb rule is that even if the whole plant is edible, only take some parts of it at a time.

A Forager’s Tools

The tools that a forager should have for foraging include,

a. Carry bags

b. Small jars for berries

c. Paper bags for mushrooms

d. A pocket knife

e. A pen

f. A notebook to note down names and details if needed.

The ultimate tools of a forager are their senses, sight, touch, and smell, mainly. There are many poisonous lookalikes to edible plants and fungi. Only with some level of training or self-training that we acquire the ability to identify the right plant.

Nutritional Value

The plants and fungi that are usually foraged are rich in micronutrients, which are rare and people do not get them usually from their regular food. Dandelion leaves have more calcium in them than spinach. Purslane and Red Clover have more magnesium in them, which is crucial for humans to fight off many diseases. Chickweed and Hairy Bittercress contain a good nutritional level of zinc. Nettle leaf and Purslane have good levels of potassium in them. Yellow Dock and Seaweed have beneficial iron content. Dandelion leaves have more Vitamin A in them than carrots.

The most fulfilling moment for a forager will always remain, more than when they eat a foraged food item, the moment when they locate and identify an edible plant or fungi in a surprise discovery. Foraging is a window to our innate connection with nature, a reminder that life need not be money-driven in all its nuanced necessities, and a rare opportunity to spend time with nature in a relaxing and meaningful way.

References

Foraging: A Beginner’s Guide, Stuart Ovenden,bbcgoodfood.com

The Role of Foraging in Malay Cuisine, Khir, Johari, https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg

A Beginner’s Guide to Urban Foraging, Chase Dibenedetto, Mashable.

Return to the Wild: The Chef Bringing Foraged Food to the Table, Rachel Wood, CNN.

Is Food Foraged in Cities, Safe to Eat? Christina Boyes, civileats.com