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wild:wild_food [2026/04/10 19:14] – Adding info, adding on foraging commons Otto Haguewild:wild_food [2026/04/22 06:06] (current) – [What are the benefits of wild food?] Otto Hague
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 There are health benefits too, as seasonal food matches the body’s needs. For example the spicy peppery leafy greens that arise in spring are good for renewal after the winter, and clean out the digestive tract. Our prehistoric ancestors browsed on wild foods from their local area, gaining the nutrients needed for healthy immune systems. Store-bought food has been bred for transport, appearance, and sweetness, not nutrition, so wild food often contains more nutritional value than store-bought food (Stark et al., 2020) and also poses a lower risk to diabetics. Collecting wild foods is also thought to have a therapeutic value and is a great incentive to enjoy the countryside. There are health benefits too, as seasonal food matches the body’s needs. For example the spicy peppery leafy greens that arise in spring are good for renewal after the winter, and clean out the digestive tract. Our prehistoric ancestors browsed on wild foods from their local area, gaining the nutrients needed for healthy immune systems. Store-bought food has been bred for transport, appearance, and sweetness, not nutrition, so wild food often contains more nutritional value than store-bought food (Stark et al., 2020) and also poses a lower risk to diabetics. Collecting wild foods is also thought to have a therapeutic value and is a great incentive to enjoy the countryside.
  
-Collecting, processing and eating food from your landscape, in the season it grows, can provide a real sense of connection to the land and time of year.+Collecting, processing and eating food from your landscape, in the season it grows, can provide a real sense of connection to the land and time of year. An interesting exercise is to start writing down a personal foraging calendar, based on what wild foods //you// can find in //your area//, and when. This will "tune you in" to the changing of the seasons in your specific landscape. 
  
 Plus it's free! Plus it's free!
 +
 +<WRAP center centeralign>
 +<figure>
 +{{personal_foraging_calendar.jpg?direct&300}}
 +<caption>
 +_A personal foraging calendar is built piece by piece, as you encounter wild foods in your landscape. They take information floating around in books and on the internet and ground-truth them in your landscape._
 +</caption>
 +</figure>
 +</WRAP>
  
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-Getting a good book or two will really help - especially if you can take them with you when you go out foraging. It can be a good idea to have a field guide and a wild food book - as field guides are often much more accurate for identification, but don't necessarily tell you whether you can eat things. We recommend the [Bloomsbury //Concise Foraging Guide// by Tiffany Francis-Baker](https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/concise-foraging-guide-book-tiffany-francis-baker-9781472984746?pid=9826646622481), and [Collins Gem //Food for Free// by Richard Mabey](https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/food-for-free-book-richard-mabey-9780007183036?pid=9779819446545). Don't buy any random book, as nowadays there are [LLM-generated "guides" for sale that might well kill you](https://civileats.com/2023/10/10/ai-is-writing-books-about-foraging-what-could-go-wrong/).+Getting a good book or two will really help - especially if you can take them with you when you go out foraging. It can be a good idea to have a field guide and a wild food book - as field guides are often much more accurate for identification, but don't necessarily tell you whether you can eat things. We recommend the [Bloomsbury "Concise Foraging Guide" by Tiffany Francis-Baker](https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/concise-foraging-guide-book-tiffany-francis-baker-9781472984746?pid=9826646622481), and [Collins Gem "Food for Free" by Richard Mabey](https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/food-for-free-book-richard-mabey-9780007183036?pid=9779819446545). Don't buy any random book, as nowadays there are [LLM-generated "guides" for sale that might well kill you](https://civileats.com/2023/10/10/ai-is-writing-books-about-foraging-what-could-go-wrong/).
  
 Anyone can pick their own wild plants and fungi; however there are some simple principles, and laws, that must be followed, for your own safety, and the preservation of plant populations. Anyone can pick their own wild plants and fungi; however there are some simple principles, and laws, that must be followed, for your own safety, and the preservation of plant populations.
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 - Be aware of where you're treading - be careful of damaging other plants as you reach for the juiciest blackberries! Try to damage the plant you're picking from as little as possible. - Be aware of where you're treading - be careful of damaging other plants as you reach for the juiciest blackberries! Try to damage the plant you're picking from as little as possible.
 +
 +There is a philosophical or spiritual angle to foraging, if you would find it useful. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/) is a professor of ecology and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In her book //Braiding Sweetgrass//, she brings up the idea of asking plants for consent: is that blackberry within reach? Does that elderberry cluster overhang a deep river? If you cannot access the forage without trouble (climbing, injuring yourself), the plants are not consenting. Using the concept of plant consent keeps you safe and prevents overharvesting.
  
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 +----
  
 ===== Wild Food Commons ===== ===== Wild Food Commons =====
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 Here are some examples of community management of wild food resources: Here are some examples of community management of wild food resources:
- +### Example 1: The cultivated landscapes of Turtle Island
-**Example 1:** +
- +
-**The cultivated landscapes of Turtle Island**+
  
 There is an abundance of examples of communally managed landscapes, built for foraging, from Turtle Island (North America). Many communities of First Nations people would burn, cut, and tend the landscape in ways that created food-rich forest-gardens that do not resemble the labour-intensive agriculture of the colonisers. For decades, and even now, this has been misconstrued as First Nations people being “backwards,” and the landscapes of Turtle Island being “untouched wilderness.” There is an abundance of examples of communally managed landscapes, built for foraging, from Turtle Island (North America). Many communities of First Nations people would burn, cut, and tend the landscape in ways that created food-rich forest-gardens that do not resemble the labour-intensive agriculture of the colonisers. For decades, and even now, this has been misconstrued as First Nations people being “backwards,” and the landscapes of Turtle Island being “untouched wilderness.”
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- +### Example 2: Online knowledge sharing with fallingfruit.org
----- +
- +
- +
-**Example 2:**  +
- +
-**Online knowledge sharing with [fallingfruit.org](http://fallingfruit.org)** +
  
 [Fallingfruit.org](http://fallingfruit.org) is an online resource where people can drop pins on a map, signifying (urban) food resources. Each pin contains information on the food (species, if it is on private property, etc) and people can leave reviews to corroborate the information. It is a global knowledge-sharing platform, enabling anyone anywhere to let their local community know what food grows where.  [Fallingfruit.org](http://fallingfruit.org) is an online resource where people can drop pins on a map, signifying (urban) food resources. Each pin contains information on the food (species, if it is on private property, etc) and people can leave reviews to corroborate the information. It is a global knowledge-sharing platform, enabling anyone anywhere to let their local community know what food grows where. 
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----- +### Example 3: “Forestizenship” and the extrativistas in Brazil
- +
- +
-**Example 3:**  +
- +
-**“Forestizenship” and the //extrativistas// in Brazil**+
  
 //Reservas extrativistas// (RESEX) are state-owned lands in Brazil where access and use rights are given to predominantly indigenous communities (Pinzón Rueda & Ruiz Murietta, 1995). The communities make their living off these lands through small-scale gardens and extraction of forest resources. Their close, long-term, and often spiritual or moral connections to the forest results in these communities defending the RESEX from encroachment, including to the death, as in the case of the murder of forest-defenders [Ze Claudio and Maria do Espírito Santo](https://brazil-crimes.org/ze-claudio-maria_en.html).  //Reservas extrativistas// (RESEX) are state-owned lands in Brazil where access and use rights are given to predominantly indigenous communities (Pinzón Rueda & Ruiz Murietta, 1995). The communities make their living off these lands through small-scale gardens and extraction of forest resources. Their close, long-term, and often spiritual or moral connections to the forest results in these communities defending the RESEX from encroachment, including to the death, as in the case of the murder of forest-defenders [Ze Claudio and Maria do Espírito Santo](https://brazil-crimes.org/ze-claudio-maria_en.html). 
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----- 
- 
- 
-**Example 4:**  
  
-**//Thengapalli//** **and the** **//jungle loko//** **in Odisha, India**+### Example 4: Thengapalli and the jungle loko in Odisha, India
  
 Singh (2013) describes a community in Odisha, India, that is protecting its forest, even while economic and legal incentives push them in the other direction. The community respects and cares for the forest, and in exchange, foraging is a prominent part of their lives and provides psychological, spiritual, and physical nutrition. Much like the //extrativistas// of the RESEX, the community considers the forest and the act of caring for the forest as fundamental to their identity. They know themselves by the term //jungle loko//, “forest people” or //jungle-jati//, “forest caste.” Singh (2013) describes a community in Odisha, India, that is protecting its forest, even while economic and legal incentives push them in the other direction. The community respects and cares for the forest, and in exchange, foraging is a prominent part of their lives and provides psychological, spiritual, and physical nutrition. Much like the //extrativistas// of the RESEX, the community considers the forest and the act of caring for the forest as fundamental to their identity. They know themselves by the term //jungle loko//, “forest people” or //jungle-jati//, “forest caste.”
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 - [[lifo:food|Low-impact food & drink]] - [[lifo:food|Low-impact food & drink]]
 - [[comg:commoning|Commoning]] - [[comg:commoning|Commoning]]
 +- [[sofo:social_forestry|Social forestry]]
  
  
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   - Brown, I. F. (2001). Extractive Preserves and Participatory Research in as Factors in the Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin, in McClain, M. E., //The Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin//. Oxford University Press.   - Brown, I. F. (2001). Extractive Preserves and Participatory Research in as Factors in the Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin, in McClain, M. E., //The Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin//. Oxford University Press.
 +
 +  - Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). //Braiding Sweetgrass//. Milkweed Editions.
  
   - Pinzón Rueda, R., & Ruiz Murrieta, J. (1995). //Extractive Reserves//. IUCN - World Conservation Union.   - Pinzón Rueda, R., & Ruiz Murrieta, J. (1995). //Extractive Reserves//. IUCN - World Conservation Union.
  • wild/wild_food.1775848450.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2026/04/10 19:14
  • by Otto Hague