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Free Food

When our hunter-gatherer ancestors fed on plants they only had the species that were growing around them. Since then the more palatable and productive plants have been cultivated and selected to provide the food crops we now grow commercially and in our gardens. The original plants are still out there with many others and it is possible to go foraging for them to produce a tasty meal. Because they are not the cultivated variety the edible parts are usually smaller so they require more harvesting time than their domesticated cousins. For example, Sea Beet is the originator of perpetual spinnach and Sea Kale the forerunner of all the Brassicas grown to-day.
This meant that the effort required to obtain the food always had to be considered as spending lots of time and energy to recover small morsels would lead to starvation. Seeds and roots are concentrated packages of energy whereas a greater quantity of leafy growth is needed to provide the same food value. Unfortunately our brains are still 'hard-wired' to consume enough food to support a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and not driving to the local supermarket - hence the current problems with obesity.

The big advantages of picking from the wild is that you know that none of the plants have been subjected to modern cultivation methods using artificial fertilizers and pesticides. They have not been genetically engineered or hybridised to make them suitable for storing and transporting long distances. No airmiles are involved in obtaining them so this is good for the climate. Also the exercise in the fersh air while foraging is good for you and the produce is fresh with all of its vitamins intact.
A plentiful supply of plastic bags and a method of sealing them, keeps the produce fresh. Avoid harvesting on road verges due to the noxiuos substances in vehicle exhaust fumes. Also keep away from fields of commercial crops which will probably have been sprayed and there could have been drift onto adjoining areas. In any case always wash everything carefully. Younger leaves usually have the best flavour.

Mushrooms are probably one of the things which come to mind when we think of gathering food from the wild, but identification is very important as some are poisonous. The majority are edible so it is easier to learn about the ones which are not, than to remember the good ones. Some become edible after cooking as the toxins are destroyed in the process, and for a healthy adult most of the posionous ones cause a stomach upset or a bad dream. There are no records of a death by mushrooms on recent history, but the recommended way is to go on a foray with an experienced fungi collector to learn which are safe to eat. There are many organised mushrooming outings by local groups.
Of the green plants and roots which are posionous, they are usually not palatable or have a smell which tells us that they should not be eaten, eg. Ragwort. As with mushrooms many can be rendered edible by cooking or following a soaking to remove the toxins or to make the bitter plants more pleasent. However it is most advisable to know the full identity of anything gathered from the wild and to comsume only a small quantity of known plants in case you are allergic. Some toxins, though not damaging in small amounts can build up in the body and damage organs such as the liver.
There are many field guides available to help with identity, but as for mushrooms an experienced forager is the best identifier. Some of the poisonous plants are quite similar to edible cousins, eg. Hemlock, Conium maculatum is an Umbellifer with Chervil-like leaves.

To start your forage for some free food you need go no further than your own garden. Many of the plants which are treated as weeds can be harvested and eaten raw or cooked. Some, such as Ground-elder have been taken around the world as people migrated, and though originally cultivated as a culinary or medicinal herbs, have become naturalised to such an extent that they are now a pest. There is often a clue in the botanical name, many of the plants which have a medicinal or culinary use have the species name officinale/is.

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Here are some of the weeds which can become free food.

PLANT	EDIBLE PART	PREPARATION	WARNING
Borage	leaves and flowers	in salads, cook leaves with cabage or soups
Chickweed Stellaria media	foliage	in salads or sautéed in a little oil with a splash of soy sauce
Cleavers Gallium aparine	seeds, leaves and stems	cook young shoots as a spinach roast seeds and grind for a coffee
Common Sorrel Rumex acetosa	leaves	in salads	not too much as the oxalic acid they contain can be toxic
Dandelion Taraxacum officinalis	all parts	leaves in salads, flowers to make wine, roots dried, roasted and ground for caffine-free 'coffee' or sautéed in oil
Fat Hen Chenopodium album	leaves and seeds	cook leaves as a spinach, eat seeds as a whole grain or grind into a flour	can be toxic in large amounts, cooking reduces the potency.
Ground-elder Aegopodium podagraria	all parts	young leaves in salads or cooked as a spinach, roots dried and ground into a flour.
Hairy Bittercress Cardamine hirsuta	leaves have a Rocket-like flavour	in salads
Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica	young shoots and leaves	cook as a spinach, as soup, infused as herbal tea	do not eat mature, flowering plants, they can cause kidney damage.
Thale Cress Arabidopsis thaliana	leaves have a mustard flavour	in salads
Wild Garlic (Ramsons) Allium usinum	all parts	leaves in salads or cooked as a spinach, use bulbs as for cultivated garlic

Hedgerows and woods are a good place to forage in the autumn. At this time most of the fruit and nuts are maturing. There are blackberries, haws on whitethorn, sloes on blackthorn, elderberries, wild strawberries and rosehips. Nuts include hazel, beech brash, acorns and sweet chestnuts. There is plenty of competition from birds and rodents for the plentiful supplies. Also it takes lots of time to harvest enough to make a meal.

In the garden are many of the cultivated ornamental plants which can be eaten. Day Lilies, Hemerocallis sp. have edible flowers which taste just like lettuce. Nasturtium flowers and leaves add a tang to salads. Oregon grape, Mahonia sp. yields bunches of small grape-like berries which can be eaten raw or made into a preserve.

If you live near to the seashore many of the shellfish are at hand, especially when the tide is out. Care must be taken as there can be some nasty bugs lurking within and some people are allergic to shellfish. Local authorities usually post warning signs when harvesting is dangerous.

A good guide for beginners is Food For Free by Richard Mabey, or a few searches on the Web will return hundreds of pages on the subject. If you do not have a plot of land to harvest from, bear in mind that you should seek permission before venturing onto another's property. Take only what you can eat yourself and do as little damage as possible. Leaves and shoots will regrow if the roots of perennials are left.

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