Nature Note #97: Three Cheers for a Future Forager
Over the holidays I received three books that will hopefully spark my confidence in becoming more outdoor oriented and in tune with nature as this new year dawns. While I have always had an interest in the natural world and knew about certain wild foods like "sour grass", cattail roots, and pine needle tea, I'd never made a concerted effort to try and make it part of my life. Looking around at the world, we humans are causing a lot of problems. Global climate change, overfishing, and habitat destruction are just some of those problems and as a result, I've been thinking a lot about my role in the world and what skills and abilities I have to make it a better one if at all possible.
I know one thing I'm good at is writing and expressing my love of nature and my interactions with it through this blog. Another thing I'm good at is teaching others about the natural world. When I was a teacher naturalist intern with Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, my main goal was to have every individual that I taught come away with one fact that they had learned on their trip. While I didn't quiz them or expect all of them to have learned something that day, just having the experience of being outside and learning about the pond's inhabitants, what parts of a habitat an animal needs to survive, or whatever was changing with the seasons gave me the chance to share something I loved with the kids, their parents, and their teachers.
With regards to myself however, I want to provide not only for myself, but also for others when it comes to food and forage. I have spent the last few years going through more or less the same cycle of getting excited about being more outdoors in my foraging, not doing it as much as I should, and then concluding that because I didn't put that much effort into it, that it wasn't really for me to start with or that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be after all. With regards to activities like hunting, preparing wild foods, and foraging, I think what made me feel like I was facing a wall was that I didn't have to confidence to pursue what I was interested in and try to give it a go myself. What really changed for me was how I look at pursuing goals and achieving them. I do this by breaking the goal down into a series of manageable steps before pursuing that interest. As a result, I've managed to apply this to everything including my work life, cooking habits, and coping skills.
The books that received were a good starting point for me in terms of becoming inspired to go out and look for my own meals. While I've read other material on similar subjects, it was three in particular that inserted that spark of inspiration to give it a try once more. Hunt, Gather, Cook by Hank Shaw is a fabulous read by a man who, ultimately, really loves food and the pleasure it brings to eat it. The book covers three main sections by dealing with wild edibles, seafood, and finally, game animals. It includes introductions on each food mentioned as well as ways to catch it, grab it, kill it, and ultimately, cook it. What makes his book unique is that it approaches wild foods from both a culinary and beginner oriented angle. By returning the focus towards the acquisition of food and providing a meal, it reaffirms the importance of having a connection with nature and with knowing where and how your food came to be. He blogs frequently at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and was a critical push towards making me reconsider hunting as a means of food acquisition.
The other two are equally excellent reads covering consuming wild goods for wildly different reasons. The Forager's Harvest by Samuel Thayer covers over 30 different types of wild edibles that can be found over most of North America, what parts are safe to consume, and at what time of year is the best time to pick. I was drawn to it because of the simplicity of the book in its approach to introducing those with a basic knowledge of wild foods to some of the more familiar denizens of our backyards, parks, forests, ponds, and fields. It is especially useful for me as it provides one with a starting point for plants to focus in on and learn to identify. I'm fairly keen to get harvesting on some of the plants mentioned, but I'll get to those later.
The other book is called Eating Aliens by Jackson Landers and despite its wacky title, it discusses a very important topic from a culinary point of view. Invasive species are a huge detriment to ecosystems and can often force out or consume native species to the point of extinction. As a response, Landers makes the suggestion that eating certain invasive species like nutria (Myocastor coypus), feral hogs, and giant Canada Geese (Branta canadensis maxima) will help to maintain and even save threatened wildlife from being pushed out by these invaders. While Landers mentions more aquatic invaders than terrestrial, the mere mention of other invaders like armadillos, green iguanas, and even starlings as a potential food source and means to reduce or even eradicate the species from the continent shows how much variety there is to be had despite the trouble that such species cause.
So after all this, where does this leave me? What can I gain from this effort to try and diversify my diet with wild edibles, fish, and eventually, wild game? That's what I'm eager to find out. I want to go out and experience it firsthand. I want to have my own adventure in the wilds around me whether it be looking for lambs quarters (Chenopodium spp.) and dandelion leaves (Taraxacum spp.) in the spring, or catching bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) and pumpkinseeds (L. gibbosus) for a fry up, or ultimately hunting game for the first time. I want to have that experience and I know it isn't just going to come to me. So here's to this year and whatever adventures come my way!
I know one thing I'm good at is writing and expressing my love of nature and my interactions with it through this blog. Another thing I'm good at is teaching others about the natural world. When I was a teacher naturalist intern with Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, my main goal was to have every individual that I taught come away with one fact that they had learned on their trip. While I didn't quiz them or expect all of them to have learned something that day, just having the experience of being outside and learning about the pond's inhabitants, what parts of a habitat an animal needs to survive, or whatever was changing with the seasons gave me the chance to share something I loved with the kids, their parents, and their teachers.
With regards to myself however, I want to provide not only for myself, but also for others when it comes to food and forage. I have spent the last few years going through more or less the same cycle of getting excited about being more outdoors in my foraging, not doing it as much as I should, and then concluding that because I didn't put that much effort into it, that it wasn't really for me to start with or that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be after all. With regards to activities like hunting, preparing wild foods, and foraging, I think what made me feel like I was facing a wall was that I didn't have to confidence to pursue what I was interested in and try to give it a go myself. What really changed for me was how I look at pursuing goals and achieving them. I do this by breaking the goal down into a series of manageable steps before pursuing that interest. As a result, I've managed to apply this to everything including my work life, cooking habits, and coping skills.
The books that received were a good starting point for me in terms of becoming inspired to go out and look for my own meals. While I've read other material on similar subjects, it was three in particular that inserted that spark of inspiration to give it a try once more. Hunt, Gather, Cook by Hank Shaw is a fabulous read by a man who, ultimately, really loves food and the pleasure it brings to eat it. The book covers three main sections by dealing with wild edibles, seafood, and finally, game animals. It includes introductions on each food mentioned as well as ways to catch it, grab it, kill it, and ultimately, cook it. What makes his book unique is that it approaches wild foods from both a culinary and beginner oriented angle. By returning the focus towards the acquisition of food and providing a meal, it reaffirms the importance of having a connection with nature and with knowing where and how your food came to be. He blogs frequently at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and was a critical push towards making me reconsider hunting as a means of food acquisition.
The other two are equally excellent reads covering consuming wild goods for wildly different reasons. The Forager's Harvest by Samuel Thayer covers over 30 different types of wild edibles that can be found over most of North America, what parts are safe to consume, and at what time of year is the best time to pick. I was drawn to it because of the simplicity of the book in its approach to introducing those with a basic knowledge of wild foods to some of the more familiar denizens of our backyards, parks, forests, ponds, and fields. It is especially useful for me as it provides one with a starting point for plants to focus in on and learn to identify. I'm fairly keen to get harvesting on some of the plants mentioned, but I'll get to those later.
The other book is called Eating Aliens by Jackson Landers and despite its wacky title, it discusses a very important topic from a culinary point of view. Invasive species are a huge detriment to ecosystems and can often force out or consume native species to the point of extinction. As a response, Landers makes the suggestion that eating certain invasive species like nutria (Myocastor coypus), feral hogs, and giant Canada Geese (Branta canadensis maxima) will help to maintain and even save threatened wildlife from being pushed out by these invaders. While Landers mentions more aquatic invaders than terrestrial, the mere mention of other invaders like armadillos, green iguanas, and even starlings as a potential food source and means to reduce or even eradicate the species from the continent shows how much variety there is to be had despite the trouble that such species cause.
So after all this, where does this leave me? What can I gain from this effort to try and diversify my diet with wild edibles, fish, and eventually, wild game? That's what I'm eager to find out. I want to go out and experience it firsthand. I want to have my own adventure in the wilds around me whether it be looking for lambs quarters (Chenopodium spp.) and dandelion leaves (Taraxacum spp.) in the spring, or catching bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) and pumpkinseeds (L. gibbosus) for a fry up, or ultimately hunting game for the first time. I want to have that experience and I know it isn't just going to come to me. So here's to this year and whatever adventures come my way!
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