It used to be that primitive wilderness skills were the province of rural, bearded men with a fascination for musket loaders and taxidermy.
Urban forager Becky Lerner displays none of these qualities. Her First Waysblog is a digest of “urban foraging and other wilderness adventures” and shows that the audience for this brand of adventure is growing much broader as green-minded city folks try to live lightly and eat locally. It doesn’t get much lighter or more local than eating weeds off the sidewalk.
Last week Lerner described making sun tea from local leaves and flowers. Another time she made “coffee” from baked and ground dandelion roots. And she has extolled the virtues of munching raw sprigs of purslane, a succulent plant often found sprouting through sidewalk cracks. Purslane, Lerner writes, is “rich in iron, vitamins A and C, and believe it or not, omega-3 fatty acids!”
“Wild food is free, healthy, local, and can save your life in an emergency,” she proclaims. “My goal is to inspire and empower my fellow human beings as we work together to build a better world. Through foraging, it is possible to stay close to nature, even in the city!”
(Thanks, Earth First.)
Source: First Ways
Image courtesy of Becky Lerner.