It's often in your own back yard - observe

I read a really good article the other day written by a forager from The Botanist pointing out how we often approach foraging as a destination activity and tend to not realize what we have under our noses in our own back yards (http://www.thebotanist.com/articles/foraging-starts-home).

It made me realize how many edible free plants I have growing in the publicly accessible field that is literally meters behind my apartment. It's crazy because foraging has been on my radar for a couple of years now, but even though, I have been blithely walking by a number of fruit and nut trees for a good 4 years now and just not registering their presence. Or registering some of them but not really making an effort to follow their progress attentively enough to gather the fruit/nuts.

I have not been observant.

So in penance for my sins, I have set myself a task this season to really truly look closely at one of these trees on a weekly basis. Notice the leaves and branch structure. Pay attention to the flowers as they bloom and are pollinated. Watch the fruits begin to form and ripen. Remain attentive to the right moment to start picking the fruit (before some other observant soul gets to it).

Walking through the field this afternoon, I chose to track the Mirabelle Plum.

So here we go.

Week 1 - 07 April 2015: 

To fear pee or not to fear pee?

I find that once you get wild edible plants on your radar, you realize that, even in an urban environment, there is an abundance of free, tasty and nutritous plants all around you. Just there for the picking.

This revelation of abundance is unfortunately offset by the (quite reasonable) concern that your wild edible may very well have been peed on and not be safe to eat.

I recently participated in a lively exchange on a foraging page about some concerns I personally had about eating some hairy bittercress growing out of one of my balcony containters. Specifically,  due to the fact that my cat makes it her business to do her business in my plant pots, I was worried that the hairy bittercress might not be fit to eat. This in turn brought on a whole discussion about wild plant foraging and the whole pee/poo question.

Some of the people posting comments were in the squeamish camp like myself, a couple of people were  of the pronounced manly-man chest beating variety that openly derided me and my ilk for fearing a bit of wee, but by and large the comments were helpful and constructive.

Based on that exchange, as well as a bit of web research, I came away from this with the following helpful tips/thoughts when foraging for wild edibles:

1. Location, location, location:
Common sense, but, don't forage in locations that you know are dog walk central;
Don't pick from the base of city trees;
Avoid plants that have been pooed near/on like the plague (again, common sense that one).

2. Pick up:
Pick plants that are above the level that a cocked leg can aim (say, above knee level)

3. Check for "burns" on your plants:
If in doubt about your location, location, location, you can check for burns on your plants. Apparently urine being very acidic will actually burn the leaves that have been urinated on. For me personally, this was a very helpful tip in that I really like having this visual indicator. My imagination tends to be a bit on the active side, so being able to look for something like this is really reassuing to me.

Here is a great video from Chris Phyto explaining how to check your plant for pee burn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGRgT6MwNZ4

Using the advice in this video, I was able to quickly detect pee burn on a bit of hairy bittercrest growing on a sidewalk near my work:

Hairy bittercress(En)/Cardamine hérissée(Fr)/Cardamine hirsuta(L)

4. Wash it or cook it:
Unless you are confident about the area that you are foraging in, wait to nibble until you have washed or cooked your plants.

5. Really how clean is what you buy at the store?:
I found the following text from Berkeley Open Source Food (http://forage.berkeley.edu/) to make the point well:

Organic foods are grown in manure and compost. Conventional produce is grown with fertilizer and pesticide. All food can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, and organic and inorganic residues. E. coli O157:H7 contamination of commercial vegetables has killed people in the US and Europe. Any food can be contaminated before or after it is picked, in transit, in storage, and in preparation.
You might consider washing food before you eat it, whatever the source. 

So there you have it ladies and germs. Food for thought.

Myself, the information I have gathered has made me feel more confident about safely foraging plant foods. Not cavalier. But more confident in my ability to spot clearly contaminated specimens, and in parallel, more motivated to search out gathering areas that are more off the beaten path.

My own little piece of dirt!

Having never as an adult had a yard, and only in the past few years having had a balcony, my gardening realities have been a far cry from my gardening ambitions.

Not to knock the good old balcony container garden! There are plenty of advantages to growing in containers, and you can do much, much more with a balcony than most people would think, but as proud as I am of my balcony garden, I have always pined for a bit of proper dirt.

In January as I drooled through the Baker Creed Heirloom Seed Catalogue I had to force my eyes and heart away from those things that aren't possible or practicle to grow in a container.

Big warty galeuse d'eysine pumpkins ... sigh. Luciously ruby red rhubarb plants ... oooh. Melons with rambling vines ... get behind me satan!

Working hard to stamp envy from my heart, meekly, I would go back to perusing the lovely, but compact plants that could thrive in my pots.

Then today I got a call telling me that I had just hit the urban lotto jackpot and was being allocated my own little parcel of dirt in the community gardens just behind my apartment building!

It was such a surprise and I was so overbrimming with happiness and excitement about the news, that I think the nice lady who called to give me the news just might think that I am slightly mentally deranged.

Now my mind races forward with this new endeavour. I have never had a real garden space to grow in before! Oh, the plants! Oh, the possibilities!

Books have been ordered! Plans will be drawn! Seeds will be planted! Botanical stores will be visited!

Oh, joy! My own little piece of dirt!

Eureka! Ramps!

We were walking though one of the small woods on the fringe of Geneva yesterday, crunching through the dead leaves and enjoying the green slowly rearing its head, but I was frustrated.

I took a weekend course a couple of years ago to learn to identify and cook comestible wild plants and the one I most loved, the simplest of them all, was "l'ail des ours". "Bear garlic". Ramps.

Why wasn't I finding it? The conditions were right. It was nice and boggy. Had I forgotten everything I had learned? Such a basic and simple beginner plant.

And then finally I saw it. A few lone leaves poking up. I made my way though the mud, picked one, crushed it between my fingers and smelled. There it was, that lovely mild but unmistakeable odour. Ramps.

Thumb and foreginger stained green, beaming, I made my way home.

Ramps(en)/L'ail des ours(fr)/Allium ursinum(L)

Later today I walked along one of the rivers and eyes peeled, found my beloved plant again. This time in a good sized drift of leaves.

I was tempted to pick some but in the end opted to leave what I found.

Sometimes, knowing something is there is better than having the thing.

The beginning

Let's start with the crocus. After months of cold, the sun comes out, the temperature moves slowly up and you can feel Spring coming in your bones. You turn your head to the sunbeams like a sunflower. Rabid cravings to eat greens start to seize you. And the crocuses start popping up.

I saw my first ones a week ago on my bike. It was early morning and I was heading to work. And there they were on the side of the bike path. Little banners of hope and renewal.

And something woke up in me. 

This winter was particularly hard for me on a personal level. I set me feet in the new year feeling shaken and uncertain. Worn down. But the sight of these first flowers reminded me how wonderful things can come out of dirt.

So we start.

Spring crocus(en)/Crocus de printemps(fr)/Crocus vernus(L)