Activity 3-4: Eat from the Park
Motivation
While it may not be obvious, some of the plants growing in your chosen park are probably edible. The power of sharing food to build and sustain relationships is recognized by human cultures around the world. For a few years before the pandemic my family hosted regular open table meals that brought eclectic groups of friends and family together, and whenever someone in our community is going through a rough patch, we are always happy to prepare a meal for them. Similarly, by sharing in the food provided by plants in your chosen park, you can honor those gifts and strengthen your relationship with the givers.
While it may not be obvious, some of the plants growing in your chosen park are probably edible. The power of sharing food to build and sustain relationships is recognized by human cultures around the world. For a few years before the pandemic my family hosted regular open table meals that brought eclectic groups of friends and family together, and whenever someone in our community is going through a rough patch, we are always happy to prepare a meal for them. Similarly, by sharing in the food provided by plants in your chosen park, you can honor those gifts and strengthen your relationship with the givers.
What to do
While it's probably fine to sample a taste, it may not be legal or safe to eat directly from your park. I recommend identifying food-producing plants in the park, then finding those foods elsewhere, preferably at a farmer's market, co-op, or other source of local produce. If you do want to try food directly from the park, check local foraging regulations and be sure the plants have not been treated with dangerous chemicals.
The most obvious food-producing plants you might find are fruit and nut trees, such as apples, cherries, and walnuts. You might also find raspberries or blackberries, especially if the park has wilder areas. If these trees or vines live in your park, watch for when they ripen, then seek out their counterparts and make a pie, salad, or any other recipe. A more subtle edible gift is maple syrup. If maple trees live in the park, you can recognize syrup season in early spring when the sap begins to run down the bark in dark rivulets. Try tasting a bit of the subtly sweet sap on your fingertip.
In many parks, you may need to get more creative. In addition to fruits, the leaves and flowers of many plants, including several considered weeds are edible. Check out the resources below for guides, tips, and recipes. If all else fails, one of the most popular foraged plants is dandelions, of which every part is edible. What park doesn't have plenty of those?
You can also share food with your park by bringing food to the park. Have a picnic in the park, maybe with a dish featuring a plant that grows there. Consider sharing with the land by sprinkling some water or offering a few crumbs. (Don't leave too much, though, it's not good for wildlife to get used to human food.)
While it's probably fine to sample a taste, it may not be legal or safe to eat directly from your park. I recommend identifying food-producing plants in the park, then finding those foods elsewhere, preferably at a farmer's market, co-op, or other source of local produce. If you do want to try food directly from the park, check local foraging regulations and be sure the plants have not been treated with dangerous chemicals.
The most obvious food-producing plants you might find are fruit and nut trees, such as apples, cherries, and walnuts. You might also find raspberries or blackberries, especially if the park has wilder areas. If these trees or vines live in your park, watch for when they ripen, then seek out their counterparts and make a pie, salad, or any other recipe. A more subtle edible gift is maple syrup. If maple trees live in the park, you can recognize syrup season in early spring when the sap begins to run down the bark in dark rivulets. Try tasting a bit of the subtly sweet sap on your fingertip.
In many parks, you may need to get more creative. In addition to fruits, the leaves and flowers of many plants, including several considered weeds are edible. Check out the resources below for guides, tips, and recipes. If all else fails, one of the most popular foraged plants is dandelions, of which every part is edible. What park doesn't have plenty of those?
You can also share food with your park by bringing food to the park. Have a picnic in the park, maybe with a dish featuring a plant that grows there. Consider sharing with the land by sprinkling some water or offering a few crumbs. (Don't leave too much, though, it's not good for wildlife to get used to human food.)
Resources
The Beginner's Guide to Foraging (Backpacker.com) - A brief introduction with some basic guidelines, including responsible harvesting, and overview of a few common edible plants.
Foraging at home (University of Minnesota Extension) - Covers three "weeds" commonly found in Minnesota yards--dandelions, wood sorrel, and purslane--with descriptions and edible usage ideas.
Forager | Chef - Includes detailed guides for many specific plants. Each guide covers identification tips, notes about lookalikes, and ideas for preparing and eating. Also includes lots of recipes, organized by type--leafy greens, nuts and starches, and wild fruit.
Grow Forage Cook Ferment - The foraging and wildcrafting section is organized by season, with individual plant guides again covering identification, lookalike notes, and usage. The site also includes general foraging tips and information, and (per the title) resources for gardening and fermenting.
You may also want to check out foraging workshops or other events in your area to get hands-on tips from local experts.
Suggested Reading
Braiding Sweetgrass chapters: "The Gift of Strawberries" and "Maple Sugar Moon" - The word for strawberry in Potawatomi is ode min, heart berry, because they were said to have first grown from the heart of Skywoman's daughter. Wild strawberries are a pure, sweet gift from the land. John Denver has a lyric, "only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes." One might add wild strawberries to that list. Rather than a straightforward exchange of money for an object that concludes as soon as the items change hands, the giving and receiving of gifts creates a bond and an ongoing relationship of gratitude and care. With maple, the relationship runs even deeper because the gift is not complete without peoples' effort to concentrate the vaguely sweet sap into syrup and sugar.
While I have not been fortunate enough to find wild strawberries or make maple syrup, we have grown strawberries in our garden. Unlike the tomatoes and beans, strawberries are perennial plants. I cover the beds with maple leaves in the fall, and while pulling the cold, damp leaves off in the spring is not the most pleasant task, I delight in finding leaves already green and growing underneath. The first morning I can pick plump red berries for breakfast is a seasonal holiday. At the height of picking season, the eight foot by four foot bed produces far more every day or two than my family can eat, so we spread the gift around to our neighbors, partly in gratitude for their help clearing our driveway in the winter. The variety we grow often fruits twice a year, once in early summer and once just before fall sets in. The second batch is smaller, but their sweetness seems concentrated by summer's heat, and they always feel like a special bonus and a reminder to continue the cycle of care by tucking the plants in for the coming winter.
Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: of Eastern and Central North America, Nature's Garden, and The Forager's Harvest, by Sam Thayer - Highly recommended guidebooks for finding, identifying, and preparing edible wild plants. Nature's Garden and The Forester's Harvest each cover a different set of plants. The Field Guide is the most recent and covers a very broad range of plants, focusing on identification.
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings, by Mary Siisip Geniusz - Based on traditional Anishinaabe teachings, Geniusz tells the stories that weave plants and their gifts together with their relatives and their application as food, medicine, and tools.
4-1 Support the Park →
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