Forage!

Foraging !

Little furry creatures do it, and so can naked upright apes.

I searched online for a definition of Forage and was surprised to see a fair bit of variety in the definitions, and some were limited to to talking about grasses, for animals, only.

Forage.

The search. The hunt. The need. The wonder.

Foraging. To search busily for provisions.

I prefer the idea of searching... with wonder and love, for naturally growing things in our environment, that can sustain us.

Hunters and gatherers. Our legacy.

In modern times it has become easier to purchase drying-out garlic that has been stuffed into uniform mesh sleeves and then shipped half-way around the world, instead of pushing a few small cloves into the ground in September, then relishing a miraculous harvest in June.

Foraging.

Our last, and first, and most primal source of local food. And it is free.

To forage. To hunt. To gather.

Let us respect.

Dandelions

Morels

Fiddleheads

Burdock. Oh yes, the roots. To cleanse and heal. The roots.

Burrs, stuck in your sweater.

Hair.

Golden retriever fur.

There goes the afternoon...

What can we find to eat, wandering in the parking lot?

What will we step over, to get to our next shopping basket?

In the deepest cold of winter, the deer come by and eat bark. Trim the cedars. Just a little herb. To survive the winter. The radiance of spring. Tender shoots peeking through the seemingly unrelenting gravity of soil.

Bursting with life.

You can have Kraft Dinner if you want to.

Me... I am eating my weeds.

With pleasure.

( public service notice - please forage responsibly... I see many stories online about eager-foragers damaging the sustainability of what they found growing for free... so ... no more for next years.. or the years after that ... )