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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 32429
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Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 10:03 am Post subject: Is foraging entering the mainstream? |
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Ten years ago, if I was seen by people picking mushrooms, the normal response was to walk on as if I hadn't been seen.
Fifteen years ago, I had a distressed old lady rush out to tell me that the plums growing by the bridle path, ouside her garden, were probably poisonous.
This morning I had a guy, one of the majority of people who have stopped and looked this year, ask me what sort of mushrooms I was picking and how could I know that they're edible. A week or two ago I had an audience of six people, in two different groups, stop and question me about the mushrooms I was picking on a local bit of fenland. Not scared, like they all used to be, but really genuinely interested.
Earlier this year I was interrogated by a chap who was really interested in my plums (ooer), and the number of queries I had about a basket load of cherries was again quite surprising.
Are the British becoming happier to eat wild food? And, importantly, are they becoming more -responsible- about their wild places because of that? |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 45672 Location: Essex
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jema Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 28235 Location: escaped from Swindon
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Jonnyboy
Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 23956 Location: under some rain.
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jema Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 28235 Location: escaped from Swindon
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 32429
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Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 11:04 am Post subject: |
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I don't seem to have any competition for picking anything much at all, at least not yet. Except, of course, if I choose to go up to Thetford Forest, to which muhroomers seem to flock.
But the thing I'm noticing is that people are at least stopping and looking, they're taking an interest in what's growing around them. I'm no longer viewed with suspicion as I tie a bunch of watermint together with a string of goosegrass, I seem to be viewed with amazement, even envy, and people are -asking- what I'm doing with real enthusiasm.
I dunno, maybe I'm imagining it, but my experience is that things are slowly changing. |
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anneka
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 158
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Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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I agree, recently people I know have certainly taken time to collect blackberries and apples some even have made a trip out specifically looking for mushrooms.
They all though have small childeren, it's my guess that the foraging has been brought on by looking to their childrens health and education, these practices for them are a family pastime. Going for a walk and picking fruit, going home and baking it then sitting down and eating it. Given time and financial restrictions, this is a good day out at a minimum cost. My godson in particular will pick blackberries for hours as he loves Bramble Jelly, and at 3.5 years old fully understands that his jam supply is relative to berries picked at a certain time of year. Hopefully though it will teach the children something about food that may otherwise have passed them by.
Otherwise my best guess would be that foraging has become more acceptable through 'foodie/lifestyle' programmes/magazines, not the domain of bobble hats wearing hippies any longer. Whilst some people will not spend hours pouring over identification books for some plants and fungi, they are happy to pick blackberries, and probably more eager to get a 'free' lesson when it comes to other species.
Anneka |
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sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
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jema Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 28235 Location: escaped from Swindon
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Treacodactyl Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 25795 Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 32429
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nettie
Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 5888 Location: Suffolk
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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 04 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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It doesn't seem to have caught on too much on my deepest darkest corner of Essex, i have foraged for sloes, crab apples, damsons, blackberries and all kinds of mushrooms for most of the summer and haven't seen anyone else out at all. (apart from once, when I drove past some magnificent parasols on the common, only to drive back past 10 mins later, at 7.30 in the morning, to find them gone!!!!) I'm lucky in that going out on horseback I can get to places off the beaten track a bit. I have also made friends with a local land owner who allows me to forage in her woods and hedgerows, with the proviso that I give her 50% of my haul. I got the idea from a local shooter who does the same on her land. |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 45672 Location: Essex
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Richy Rich
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 31 Location: Coventry - Warwickshire....
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Res
Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Posts: 1172 Location: Allotment Shed, Harlow
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