I do go enjoy the time I go out to forage in the hills, mostly in the spring and early summer. Those are good times for my floral and food work as I like to bring wild elements into my preparations. Nature is a teacher, a presence and a preserve in my life. I walk and talk to trees and feel as if I can feel through my feet and my eyes moss, lichen, new plants stirring.
minded folk begin to gather and get excited about local food then things start to get interesting. A food family might form. No matter how much of the rugged homesteader, or even urban homesteader, you fancy yourself, having a food family in place really is preferable to doing it all alone. When people come together local flavor is amplified and gets so much bigger and better.
The work of my hands is among the plants of the understory, my fingers have a deft facility for the smaller plants and flowers. Being in nature, immersing myself in what the Japanese call forest bathing is how I get out of the cave of practical necessity (aka kitchen) and spread my wings. If you are new to foraging I highly recommend taking a few herb walks with an experienced herbalist and having a good plant identification book at hand.
By connecting people like points of light in a community we reap myriad rewards as we discover that Suzanne bakes amazing sourdough bread, Meriko has an abundance of Plums, Nellie would like someone to come and help her pick lemons, Tom has vegetables and fresh herbs to share, and Elizabeth can tell you where to forage for wild Elderberry. What about creating a scholarship to send a promising baker in the community to apprentice with a master baker? What about getting people excited about growing heirloom squashes? Or raising goats? With a little built-in or planned redundancy, you simply create more local food security.
Creating a food family can be fun. One of the first things I do when I bring people in the community together is to let them taste and experience local foods for themselves. Once like225