Wild about foraging
Why forage?
There are many compelling reasons to gather from the wild: for health, for economy and for connection.
To keep healthy
The cultivated foods we buy in shops today have been bred for the commercial market, which values size, sweetness, colour, storability and uniformity. Nutritional value isn’t always high on the list of priorities, and consequently many modern cultivars have a lower nutritional value than their ancestors. Wild foods are often more densely packed with nutrients, and a wild-food diet can offer greater species variety.
To save money
In both the short and long term, foraging can save dollars. Relatively few people in this country will live entirely off what they gather, even for a short time, but if you have a pantry stocked with cheap staples you can combine them with many fresh, richly nutritious wild ingredients to make a wide range of dishes.
While I was writing the first edition of this book, money was tight for my family. But I had stores of rice, pasta, flour, sugar and beans. By spending money on only a few extra essentials and foraging for the rest, I killed two birds with one stone:
