When I first heard that we would be going out
to forage, I was beyond delighted!
Imagining
that I would be out there, identifying leaf, stem, and root after the other I
thought that I’d really be something out there. Especially since we got to go
through some foraging books the night before; I had read a little about what to
look for, what to avoid, and I had almost memorized a few of the plants.
Being out foraging I though that I would really
be going back to my Indian heritage, or at least trying to connect. To say the
least I was excited and optimistic!!!
When my group began our foraging, I headed
straight for a clearing of grass where I knew we should have been able to
easily pick out a few edible plants. But after trolling around in the same area
for 5-10 minutes, I soon realized that I had no idea of what I was doing. All
the green just started to run together, and when I thought I had something I
was quickly let down because to me; everything looked exactly the same!
Thus within this short 10 minute I quickly got
a little depressed. So I began to think, hmmmm, the book said lots of things
grow by the stream. So I took my group down the thigh high grass hill and
proceeded to try our luck down by the water. To my dismay I still couldn’t find
a darn thing. Looking at other groups though, their bags already had loads of
stuff while ours only had what we hoped was an edible plant.
So not only my lack of know how, but then the
humidity, O the humidity! It really began to take a toll on me both physically
and mentally. And so about 30min into it, my spirit and level of optimism was
completely depleted.
Though the idea of foraging and getting your
own food sounds like a great way to go; without the right knowhow its almost
impossible to have a very productive first day. I do believe though that if I
had practice I’d get the hang of it and would almost consider making it a
hobby. Or if I had been raised, learning how to identify various plants then I’m
sure I would have had a much better experience.
All in all though my verdict is that foraging can be the struggle of struggles!
I agree with you, foraging can be a struggle and more when we don't know what we are looking for, we also have to be careful and make sure that we don't pick the wrong plant. Although most of them are edible, some plants can be toxic for humans. Beside that, I think that once you learn how to forage, where to forage and what plants do you like and which ones you don't like, foraging can be very entertaining and fun
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