Found food: Foraging in the Valley
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On the front steps of John Root's home in the Orchard Valley section of South Amherst, two large bowls overflow with greens plucked from the ground just hours earlier.
However, this harvest doesn't come from Root's garden. Instead, it's a collection of wild plants he foraged on a walk to the nearby Hampshire College campus.
The first bowl contains purslane, which Root discovered growing on a compost pile. He says it has thick, juicy leaves and is high in omega-3 fatty acids. He adds that it is found all over the world and is popular in some immigrant communities as a no-cost way to supplement a diet.
Amaranth and lamb's-quarter fill the second bowl and, like purslane, are excellent foods, Root says.
"All three have phenomenal nutrition, which is par for the course for edible wild plants," he says as he munches on a handful of the lamb's-quarter. "This is not a survival food, it's a delicacy, as far as I'm concerned."
One of Root's favorite foraged foods is stinging nettle. He says it is particularly delicious and nutritious because the protein in its leaves come from the stinging chemical, an amino acid.
A vegan, Root started foraging back in the 1970s. He was inspired after reading naturalist Euell Gibbons' book "Stalking the Wild Asparagus."
The foraging movement dates back to at least the 1960s, when many people were searching for ways to become more self-reliant.
It has increased in popularity as a global food crisis has unfolded, fueled by the demands of a growing population. The locavore movement and a jump in retail food prices have also prompted interest in foraging.
Between March 2007 and March 2008, worldwide food prices increased by 43 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. Higher food prices have the greatest impact on poor and food-insecure populations, who spend 50 to 60 percent of their income on food, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
In the Valley Root leads about eight to 10 foraging walks each year. Recent walks included visits to the Simple Gifts Farm in North Amherst, Brookfield Farm in South Amherst and Red Fire Farm in Montague. While many of the walks are free for participants, they are funded by using Cultural Council grants. He also barters for shares at local community-sustained farms.
On a walk Root is usually able to point out 20 or more wild edibles, offering suggestions on how to use them. Greens like dandelion leaves and violet leaves can be steamed or sauteed, he says.
There is also lamb's-quarter, easily identified by its powdery white leaves.
Root advises foragers to look for sunny locations where mowers have not been used.
There's food on "whatever is not mowed" and "wherever there's lush vegetation," he says.
In May, more than 130 people attended "Where the Wild Things Are," a series of foraging walks in Berkshire County.
Angela Cardinali, the marketing consultant for Berkshire Farm and Table and Berkshire Grown's "Farmed + Foraged" program, which sponsored the walks, says this was the third year of the event. Feedback was so positive that the program may be offered again in September, when different wild edible plants are growing.
"Foraging, in general, is becoming a topic more popular nationally," Cardinali says.
Meanwhile, other foraging programs are available throughout New England.
Russ Cohen, for instance, author of "Wild Plants I Have Known ... and Eaten," offers about 40 programs a year, ranging from foraging walks to off-season slide shows.
Cohen has been foraging since the early 1970s. In his sophomore year of high school in Weston he took a class on edible botany and by his senior year he was teaching the class.
"That was the spark that ignited the lifelong passion I've had," Cohen says.
Most of Cohen's walks are sponsored by garden clubs and nature groups. Cohen says he focuses on 25 to 45 species of edibles the seasons they are available, their flavor and their nutritional value. He also offers tips on how to prepare them.
Many of the foraging walks take place at farms, though at a distance from the cultivated crops.
"I love to forage in farms," Cohen says. "Any farm presents good foraging opportunities, especially organic farms."
Organic farms are preferable for several reasons, he says. The fields aren't slathered with chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, and the soil is typically well-nourished with natural amendments like compost and manure. So not only do the crops benefit, but so do the weeds that foragers are there to gather.
"I advise people to form a symbiotic relationship with their local organic farm," Cohen says. "If you time it right, you can find weeds to feed whole armies."
While farms are excellent places to forage, they aren't the only places. Residential areas can also offer excellent foraging, Cohen says.
During a recent lunch hour away from his job at the state fish and game department in Boston, Cohen went to a park and picked a quart of Juneberries.
Places like community ball fields also offer opportunities, Cohen says. During a child's game a parent could forage around the perimeter for berry bushes and nut trees, he says.
The next local opportunity to learn about foraging will be at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association conference on the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst from Aug. 12-14. More than 225 workshops will focus on organic food production - including foraging.
"We will have different presenters who can open people's eyes up to the little-known properties of plants we pass by every day," says Ben Grosscup, the educational events coordinator for the conference.
A couple of local foragers will be featured at the event. Brittany Wood Nickerson of Amherst will lead a seminar on the use of wild plants for both food and medicine and Mira Nussbaum, an herbalist and teacher from Montague, will give a workshop titled "For Love of Nettle."
Nussbaum focuses her foraging on knotweed, nettle, grapevines and common garden weeds like lamb's-quarter and amaranth.
"Most of the plants I use for cooking are what others still see as invasive," she says.
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However, foraging isn't for everyone.
"It takes a significant time commitment to go out and pick and process and prepare," Cohen says.
While he does a fair amount of foraging, Cohen says that much of what he consumes is purchased at supermarkets and farmers markets. He does bring picked weeds to his lectures. "I like to prove that this food can be amazingly good," Cohen says.
The foragable foods in New England do not provide enough protein and carbohydrates outside of the warm-weather months, Root explains.
"I could subsist on them, but I have to buy carrots and onions," he says.
And the hobby also comes with a warning. There are some poisonous plants out there. Participating in a foraging walk or workshop can help people gain the knowledge they need to decipher which plants are edible and which should be avoided.
"It's easier to learn the toxic, poisonous plants, because there's not that many of them," Nussbaum says.
And to someone who would turn up his nose at the idea of eating found food, Root says you don't know what you're missing.
"I think the inhibitions have to do with, 'Oh, you're eating those weeds?' " says Root.
Perhaps the driving force for people who practice foraging is the feeling that they are getting back in touch with nature.
"For me, foraging enriches all the time I spend outdoors," Cohen says. "There's something tangible and visceral about foraging. You are connecting to the outdoors through your taste buds."
Root says he, too, better appreciates the sights and sounds of nature thanks to foraging.
"This is simultaneously soothing and satisfying, the discovery and then the gathering," Root says. "Why not tune into these things and appreciate beauty?"
Scott Merzbach can be contacted at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
