Foraging and Remembering
Posted in Classes, foraging, gardening, invasive species, local food, wild food on Jul 6th, 2010
Perused one of my local wild spots yesterday, with an eye out for the surplus. I’m looking for things whose cup overfloweth, if you know what I mean. So at this time, mostly overripe (we got about 1% of the harvest) wild artichokes (Cynara cardunculus) open up into these amazingly beautiful [...]
Posted in Culture, Plants, ethnobotany, foraging, gardening, invasive species, local food, permaculture, wild food on May 23rd, 2010
Cynara cardunculus, or artichoke thistle, is the wild version of the commerical artichoke. But get this, they taste the same, and have delicious hearts, but they are armored with thistle spikes. Considering eating a whole artichoke down the heart is a slow food and fun ordeal already in our culinary traditions, [...]
Posted in Plants, foraging, invasive species, local food, wild food on Dec 12th, 2009
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Posted in Plants, gardening, holistic health, local food on Nov 30th, 2009
David Wolfe has called these fruit, (not actually berries) Incan berries. So you can buy them at Whole Foods or whathaveyou, often as Incan Berries. You can even go to this site and go to products and buy them.
They are also known as:
poha,
Cape gooseberry
ground cherry
golden berry (or goldenberry).
These superfoods [...]
Posted in Plants, foraging, gardening, local food on Nov 27th, 2009
One of the big things I try to teach my students and coach my clients on, is the importance of choosing the right plants. Most people only know a handful of plants to start with, and have eaten about as many. So they typically want to choose plants that are
1. already [...]
Posted in Plants, ethnobotany, foraging, local food, wild food on Nov 26th, 2009
You roast them until dark brown, almost black. Like dark roasted coffee or dark chocolate. They contain caffeine like stimulants and an extraordinarily rich flavor profile.
They are related to avocados, in the Laurel or Lauraceae family, and their fruit when fully ripe can be eaten like an avocado. [...]
Posted in Plants, Uncategorized, ethnobotany, foraging, gardening, local food, wild food on Oct 24th, 2009
If all the acorns around you have got your feeling a little squirrely, here’s the short, short version of what you can do:
If you have Valley Oak or similar acorns (they are cream colored “white” as opposed to yellow), crack them easily with a nutcracker or a rock against a hard surface. Grind [...]
Posted in Plants, foraging, local food, wild food on Oct 18th, 2009
It is another masting year for the Valley Oaks (Quercus lobata) here in the Bay Area, CA. They don’t have them as much by the coast, you really need to go to Contra Costa county East of the hills to really see it. Lafayette, Orinda, and Walnut Creek are especially covered. The ancient trees, seriously, [...]
Posted in Plants, ethnobotany, foraging, local food, wild food on May 6th, 2009
I have a huge crop of wild oats standing in the open space around me. Does anybody have any idea what to do with them? The husk seems mighty.
I recently learned from Green Deane that some East Coast natives used to grind the nuts of Prunus [...]
Posted in gardening, holistic health, local food on May 3rd, 2009
This is the best drink ever! And it’s the most beautiful green color I have ever seen. Nettles are very high in chlorophyll, way more than even kale and spinach. They are very much like a superfood. Have you ever had that feeling after too many days [...]
