Friday, May 6, 2011

Urban Foraging


Another workshop I really enjoyed at the Boston Skillshare was "foraging for edible wild plants," led by Nick Patch. (For more foraging info: Nick's website, local forager David Craft, Wildman Steve Brill.)

I don't think I'll be replacing a measurable share of my vegetables with foraged ones any time soon (we're making do with Russo's, and fortunately, less than a month until our new CSA starts!), but the workshop really gave me new eyes for a lot of little city plants that I used to overlook or dismiss as weeds.

Above is some delicious wood sorrel (looks like clover but with heart-shaped leaves, tastes like strawberries) foraged from near the Alewife T station, and below are some unidentified wild-onion-like things from along the Minuteman Bike Path. (Not pictured: An experiment in dandelion petals baked into bread. Didn't add nearly enough for anyone to notice.)

4 comments:

  1. Our Somerville backyard is a veritable foraging heaven. We have wood sorrel, weedy-onion-grass-chive-stuff, nettles, and mint!

    I'm trying to figure out if we can make it look landscaped instead of like a vacant lot while we at from it. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure if Russo's is on a well-traveled route for y'all or just worth the experience, but if you're looking for something closer to home for these "between times," Dave's Fresh Pasta has Enterprise produce as well as storage crops from Maine... I've been living off that since Red Fire ended. (the ravioli definitely make that a worthwhile stop too.)

    Happy Spring and return of market time!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, good call! We live right by Dave's, but I've never really investigated the produce (always assumed it was very expensive). Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pekmez, not sure how I lost your comment (I blame the Blogger outage), but just wanted to say that our black-plastic-covered yard is very jealous of yours!

    pekmez:

    Our Somerville backyard is a veritable foraging heaven. We have wood sorrel, weedy-onion-grass-chive-stuff, nettles, and mint!

    I'm trying to figure out if we can make it look landscaped instead of like a vacant lot while we at from it. ;-)

    ReplyDelete