This past weekend under beautiful skies at Riverside High School, over 20 people joined me for a wild foraging event! The first part of the day, we walked the campus and identified a dozen different edibles including daylily, plantain, curly dock, burdock and milkweed. We sat and discussed the many reasons why someone would want to incorporate wild edibles into their diets and the specific nutrient content of each plant. We also discussed when to harvest and how to prepare each plant. It is always interesting for met to find out the various reasons people are embarking on this journey which seems to be growing in interest. I do it for many reasons. The nutrition and medicine are a big part of why I love to cook with wild edibles but it's also knowing exactly what is in my food. When you harvest your own food, you have a lot more control over the amount of chemicals you are consuming. I also do it for the exercise and just the sense of empowerment that such an activity brings.
But my favorite part of the day was the second half of the class where we actually created a meal in the classroom that featured wild edibles. We created Wild Spinach Pie, Wood Sorrel Hummus and Daylily Dessert. The food was amazing and quickly consumed by the class.
This coming fall I'll be doing an in-depth series on specific wild edibles and teach everyone how to identify, collect and prepare acorns, burdock, sumac and dandelion. For more information, go to www.resiliencytraining.net.
