Why Eat Wild Foods?

There are many reasons to learn about, find, gather, and eat wild foods. The primary reasons I put forth are that it’s fun, it satisfies a variety of human needs, and this food is good for you spiritually, intellectually, and physically.

Getting involved with wild foods taps into your adventurous spirit, satisfies the drive to be more self reliant, and fulfills the desire to connect more intimately with the earth and its bounty. It sets you on a path to be a student of the plant world, an investigator, an observer, a history detective. You find yourself spending more “dirt time”—learning the secret life of plants.

There is a lot of joy in finding that original recipe for sarsaparilla, making that first acorn muffin, or serving your friends an omelet made with wild greens.

Wild foods provide a fun, knowledge-based recreational activity that meaningfully engages the heart and mind. The gathering of substantial sustenance directly from the earth, as opposed to finding a sanitized plastic-wrapped product in the produce section of a supermarket, has a great impact on the soul. It brings us closer to the earth and to our distant ancestors, and it engenders feelings of confidence and self-reliance. Knowing enough to forage, harvest, and eat your own wild food is a very primal experience. The study and use of wild foods can realistically become a lifelong outdoor recreational, educational, and culinary activity—new fun, new food, and new fascination for a lifetime.

Here are some practical additional reasons why people will benefit from learning about and eating wild foods.

Wild Foods Are Good for Your Family

All of the benefits gained by you as an individual are amplified in a family setting. If you are a parent who enjoys wild foods, it has the added benefit of being really fun for kids at any age. Spending quality time together as a family, exploring nature close-up while investigating, gathering, and cooking the plants will be times you and your kids will never forget. Involving kids in the whole process, from identifying and collecting to preparing and eating, will engage their curiosity and begin a lifelong family activity.

Kids today are isolated from food systems. In a meaningful way, wild foods will teach them where food comes from. And there’s the added benefit of exercise. Let’s face it, childhood and adult obesity rates are epidemic in North America. In today’s video game-, television-, and computer-focused sedentary existence, this outdoor activity can help to provide the kinds of physical exercise and dietary contributions that both parents and children need to foster a healthier lifestyle.

Treating Nature Deficit Disorder

Children today are isolated from food systems—ignorant of exactly what food is, where food comes from, and how it gets into the forms we see in the supermarket. Adding to the problem is their isolation from nature itself, no longer spending much time in it because of a constant barrage from “awfulizers” hyping fear of everything to the general population.

“Awfulizers”—sensationalized media, manipulative and pandering politicians, and laws that scare parents into monitoring and micromanaging their kids every second of the day—add up to kids who no longer play freely with their peers in neighborhoods and local woods. The hobby of wild foods is one way that parents and their children can play together in nature. Even in an atmosphere of fear, kids can get more exposure to nature.

Wild Foods Provide Motivation for Students

Most kids who love the outdoors and spending time in nature are fascinated by creatures like frogs, lizards, turtles, and snakes. Plants get slighted in our school systems because they don’t move, hop, slither, or bite. Kids today do not know why they should care about plants. But if they see plants in a new light, one that goes beyond just learning taxonomy and morphology, then they will be motivated learners. Here are some of the concepts that may help motivate students:

These concepts make plants more interesting, more rewarding. Plants become something to discover, to play with, to cook with, to eat and enjoy. And once they try wild foods, students may feel that primal connection that only comes from getting sustenance directly from something foraged from nature.

This motivational logic goes beyond grade school to college. Many students have to take botany as part of their curriculum. If these students have additional motivation other than “it is a requirement” to learn about plants, they will do so happily. And, in the end, they will learn more.

Wild Foods Are a Great Social Activity

Back in the late 1960s and early ’70s, many people got excited about wild foods because of Euell Gibbons, a wild foods expert. The excitement generated in his fans and readers resulted in the creation of many clubs, festivals, and social events centered around wild foods. Some of them are listed at wildfoodadventures.com.

The hobby of wild foods is a great social venue for people who love the outdoors, food, cooking, plants, and recreational survival. These group events are a great way for enthusiasts to share information and experiences, and to enjoy the company of like-minded people. Social networks also exist in cyberspace. A Yahoo e-mail group titled ForageAhead caters to the wild food community. Potlucks, wild food parties, dating centered on wild foods—so much is possible on a social level.

Wild Foods Are Good for the Earth

From a “love your mother” perspective, wild foods are a fantastic venue for motivating people to become better caretakers of the earth. First, the study and active use of wild foods brings you closer to nature in an extremely intimate way since you are gaining sustenance directly from the earth. You see all land—not just farmland and your garden—as a potential source of food. So any kind of pollution becomes all that much more apparent. Second, edible weeds are the ultimate in locally grown sustainable foods. They can be a component of simple living, voluntary simplicity, permaculture, and reduced-consumption lifestyles.

Wild Foods Are Good Nutritionally

Many people believe that wild foods are worth pursuing because of their tremendous nutritional content. And there is no question that wild foods represent a wonderful source of nutrients. Indeed, many raw food proponents believe that wild foods are the ultimate foods.

I firmly believe that it can do nothing but good for North Americans to be eating more fresh leafy greens and vegetables. That isn’t to say you cannot select a healthy diet from the fresh greens and vegetables currently available in the supermarket—indeed, you can. What the edible plants in this book provide are new options, lots of nutrients and new phytochemicals, diversity in the diet, free food, and a focus on including more fresh and diverse vegetables. Nutrients in Wild Foods delves more directly into nutrition and health issues.

People of all dietary sensibilities will benefit from the greater culinary and nutritional variety offered by wild foods. Omnivores will benefit by including more fresh plant life. Vegetarians, vegans, and raw foodists will benefit from more food choices that don’t cost them an arm and a leg.

Wild Foods Are Good for Your Wallet

If you are living on a limited or fixed income, fresh supermarket vegetables can take a serious chunk out of your paycheck. The use of easily accessible edible weeds can spare your money for other things and expand the variety of your diet. Wild foods can be a hedge against inflation and fluctuating food prices, an alternative or addition to some store-bought foods, and an improvement in the quality of everyday life. If you think civilization will crumble some day, and you and Mel Gibson will be fighting it out for that last can of beans, the study of wild foods will help you become more self reliant. And in the process of saving money, you’ll be having lots of fun—at least until the coprolites hit the fan.

Wild Foods Are Good for Farmers and the Economy

What!?? Weeds good for farmers? Well...yes. Farmers, particularly small farmers, are barely scraping by these days. Many are losing their farms because they cannot compete with the megacorporate farms growing conventional crops. Small farmers could start specializing in more niche crops like some of the wild foods in this book. They could also benefit by using gleaners who harvest wild foods. Feeding Yourself and Society covers this idea in more depth.