"Wildcrafting is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or 'wild' habitat, for food or medicinal purposes. It applies to uncultivated plants wherever they are found, and is not necessarily limited to wilderness areas." -Wikipedia
I had always just called it 'picking berries,' but I learned recently that the act
of gathering food in an uncultivated setting is actually called wildcrafting. Of course, humans have been wildcrafting since the dawn of our existence and only in the last century have Westerners forgotten their hunter/gatherer roots. Wildcrafting is now gaining a resurgence in popularity as people are searching for cheaper and healthier foods that are independent of the modern, corporate agricultural system. With rising food costs and an impending food crisis, it is important to scope out wildcrafting sources now in preparation for our uncertain future.With an open mind and a bit of exploring, urbanites, suburanites, and country folk alike can find wildcrafting opportunities close to home. Although the official definition of wildcrafting includes only uncultivated plants, I consider cultivated plants that are abandoned or unmaintained to be worthy wildcrafting foods. City parks, peoples' yards, streets, near businesses, and uninhabited industrial areas are only a few of the urban spots to find cultivated or wild foods. Since moving to Bozeman, I've been having fun searching both in town and out in the mountains for free edible foods. Last Fall I picked wild rose hips as well as cultivated rose hips from a rosebush in a back alley then made rose hip sauce (high in vitamin C). I plan to pick more soon from the alley bush and dry them for making tea.
When a friend left on vacation during the height of raspberry season, I jumped on her invitation to pick from her bushes. She does nothing to maintain the bushes and the bushes weren't mine, so I consider the 8+ quarts that I picked to be wildcrafted. I also painstakingly picked 2 quarts of sour cherries from a tree in her yard. I froze them and plan to make a cherry dessert sometime this winter. There are sour cherry trees in peoples' yards all over town that I noticed were totally unpicked. If I didn't have my friend's tree to pick from, I think I would ask to pick from someone else's tree and I hardly doubt that they'd mind.
Bozeman has an extensive off-road running/biking path and I've spotted hop
s, chokecherries, asparagus, and service berries along the sides of the trails. This one popular in-town hill with a running trail on it was loaded this Summer with service berries. I thought that they were huckleberries at first, but was informed that they were service berries (they also go by many other names). We picked about 10 quarts and made two desserts and froze the rest for using in smoothies. Its pretty cool that these delicious berries grow on public land within walking distance of my apartment. Check out that incredible view from our service berry picking spot- that's the public library and the Bridger Mountains in the background.When I went to Maine for vacation this August, I got back to my original wildcrafting roots. Up at the lake where my
family's summer home is located, there were still lots of wild, high bush blueberries ready to be picked. In all of my years of living up there, I had never picked blueberries so late in the Summer, so Mark and I lucked out. We slowly canoed around the lake shore and stopped to pick blueberries from the boat. We also picked a ton of wild blackberries, which grow along the logging roads and in old cut areas of forest. We found one blackberry patch that seemed to go on forever. I'd never seen so many blackberries before.Now back in Bozeman, I am engulfed in apple season. There are crab apples all around town, many in public places or beside businesses where nobody would mind if they were picked. I picked a big bag from a tree in a park across from City Hall and made my first ever crab apple jelly. Unfortunately, the jelly didn't quite jell and instead is a thick, sweet juice that I've been pouring into smoothies. There are tons of apple trees around tow
n. I picked a bunch from a tree in an obscure corner of a school yard and plan to make apple butter soon. If I hadn't found this source, I think I may have mustered up the courage to ask a neighbor if I could pick the apples from their tree. I see so many apple trees in peoples' yards where the apples just fall to the ground and rot. If I were to ask first, I bet homeowners would let me pick from their trees.My wildcrafting experiences have been a lot of fun and I am motivated to find new places and types of food to gather. Maybe I'll try picking elderberries and choke cherries next year and make jam. What other types of edible foods are growing in Bozeman or in the woods that I don't even know about? Its exciting to think about and research.
Have you ever wildcrafted? Is there a fruit or nut tree near you that you're tempted to pick from? What types of free, edible foods grow in your area?
10 comments:
First, let me say that your photo from the hill with the service berries is beautiful. I can't believe you have access to a view like that right in town! Jealous.
I don't wildcraft but there are plenty of fruit trees in the city on public property that ought to be picked. I think people don't realize that food isn't only a rural/agricultural thing, it's everywhere around us. I'd like to find someone who can show me how to wildcraft herbs to make teas!
Hi Andrea. I have a view of those mountains from my apartment. I feel very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place.
Wildcrafting for herbal teas is a great idea. I know that there are many different medicinal herbs that can be harvested in town or out in the mountains. A friend of mine who is an herbalist takes people on guided hikes to show them which wild plants can be eaten and ave medicinal properties.
Ahh...I'm envious of your proximity to such places. Being able to collect food from your surrounding areas is such a wonderful thing. I miss the days when I used to live WAY up in northern Wisconsin and we would collect and preserve wild blueberries from the pine barrens (a few 5-gallon bucketfuls without making much of a dent in the berry supply!), maple syrup in the winter (averaged 40 quarts per season!) and the best - wild ricing. There is nothing on earth like the real, natural, wild rice - not the black, hard patty-grown stuff. Our local wild rice was long, softer, greener, and incredibly delicious. All you needed was permission to harvest from someone on the reservation. Once we collected it, we took it to a woman on the reservation who would chafe it for us (picture a BIG fire and a fan) and then keep1/4 of what we made as her pay. Can't beat that. Between berries, syrup, and rice I made some awesome trades for other things. Those were good days. :)
Hi Aimee! Wisconsin sounds like a bountiful place. I recently read The 100 Mile Diet and one of the authors describes visiting Minnesota or Wisconsin (I don't remember where) and meeting locals who collected wild rice. I didn't even know that such a thing was possible. I've seen photos of rice patties, but I don't think I could recognize a wild rice plant if I saw one. Wild rice sounds amazingly delicious and I bet going through the entire process of picking and preparing the rice really gives you a sense of connection to your food.
Its rather sad to me that I don't know what a rice plant looks like even though I eat rice frequently. It was only recently, since moving to Montana, did I learn what a wheat plant looks like. Wheat is probably the most consumed food in America (maybe behind corn byproducts?) and yet I bet there are so many people that do not know that bread comes from flour which comes from wheat. It was also only recently that I learned that straw is the stalk of a grain plant and that straw is different from hay. Modern agriculture has left most people ignorant of what food really is.
I look so serious picking those service berries.... jeez lighten up warden!
Yeah, I feel so lucky to have had the chance to go wild ricing for so many years...I know it's a thing few people have the opportunity to do or learn about.
Wild rice is actually a grass! It grows in the lakes (obviously) and is anywhere from 5-7 feet tall (above the water surface level.)
Basically you take a huge sheet and drape it into a canoe to cover as much of the bottom of the the canoe as possible.
One of you has a huge pole to push/guide the canoe through the grass. The other person sits holding two long sticks and as you pass through the grass, you reach out with one stick, gently gather a bunch of tall grass, fold it over into the canoe, and with your other stick tap, tap, tap it to knock the ripe grains into the canoe. Right stick, pull, left stick tap...and switch...and repeat for a few hours.
The rice has a LOT of spiders crawling through it - big leggy things - we tried to send as many of them back to the rice as possible!
When you're done, gather up the sheet into a huge bundle and somehow maneuver it into a box, sturdier bag, and into the back of your car....off to the rice lady who will winny and chafe it to remove the husks and hulls. One or two trips like this could stock you for well over a year. incredible!
I bet you are right about a lot of people very likely not knowing that their flour actually comes from wheat - or what wheat looks like for that matter.
It was only since I started doing animal rescue stuff in Brooklyn with cats that I learned there is a difference between straw and hay! Animals eat hay and sleep in straw - and for good reason: straw is hollow, and so it provides insulation and warmth even when wet - perfect for stuffing into winter cat shelters.
Yeah, I feel so lucky to have had the chance to go wild ricing for so many years...I know it's a thing few people have the opportunity to do or learn about.
Wild rice is actually a grass! It grows in the lakes (obviously) and is anywhere from 5-7 feet tall (above the water surface level.)
Basically you take a huge sheet and drape it into a canoe to cover as much of the bottom of the the canoe as possible.
One of you has a huge pole to push/guide the canoe through the grass. The other person sits holding two long sticks and as you pass through the grass, you reach out with one stick, gently gather a bunch of tall grass, fold it over into the canoe, and with your other stick tap, tap, tap it to knock the ripe grains into the canoe. Right stick, pull, left stick tap...and switch...and repeat for a few hours.
The rice has a LOT of spiders crawling through it - big leggy things - we tried to send as many of them back to the rice as possible!
When you're done, gather up the sheet into a huge bundle and somehow maneuver it into a box, sturdier bag, and into the back of your car....off to the rice lady who will winny and chafe it to remove the husks and hulls. One or two trips like this could stock you for well over a year. incredible!
I bet you are right about a lot of people very likely not knowing that their flour actually comes from wheat - or what wheat looks like for that matter.
It was only since I started doing animal rescue stuff in Brooklyn with cats that I learned there is a difference between straw and hay! Animals eat hay and sleep in straw - and for good reason: straw is hollow, and so it provides insulation and warmth even when wet - perfect for stuffing into winter cat shelters.
Aimee: That's so cool. Thanks for sharing how wild ricing works. Sounds right right up my alley, canoeing and spiders included!
I LOVE wild crafting. I too consider abandoned fruit trees and bushes to be wild crafting. I harvest a lot from the wild. We have collected blue elderberries, rosehips, serviceberries, apples, and more! I highly recommend asking people if you can pick from their trees, in the past I have posted on the local bulletin board asking if anyone has fruit trees they don't want to harvest, I have gotten great responses, and have picked hundreds of pounds of apricots, apples, and cherries. I can't stand to watch them all go to waste, and often other people don't want to see it go to waste either. And if you don't have fruit trees of your own, its a great way to have a fresh harvest! Keep enjoying your wild harvest adventures!
Hi Stacey! Thanks for stopping by. I like the idea of reaching out more to pick others' fruit. Maybe I could post an ad on Craigslist.
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