Foraging: trendy or timeless?

Foraging seems to be having a moment, as evidenced by the growing number of books about foraging and the fact that online foragers have built huge audiences. Is this a passing trend or is foraging becoming a standard practice? I suppose one should say a standard practice again, because for much of humankind’s existence, foraging provided the vast majority of calories that people consumed. SBS Food recently had a segment about what it’s really like to forage, which provided some dos and don’ts for those who might be interested in the practice.

The EYB Library contains over 200 books about foraging, including Wild Food – A Complete Guide for Foragers by Roger Phillips, The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora by chef Alan Bergo, and the classic Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons. The last book was the one that introduced me to foraging over twenty years ago. After I moved from the prairie to the forests, I became fascinated by the amount of food you could find in the woods.

In addition to the recipes in the books, the EYB Library also has 148 online recipes for foraged foods, including the Clammy goosefoot forager’s salad dressing from Into the Weeds by Tama Matsuoka Wong pictured above. My favorite items to forage in my neighborhood are wild black raspberries, purslane, and chamomile. If I am in the woods I seek out redbud buds, yellow birch (the tender bark on twigs has a wintergreen flavor and is great to munch on while you are hiking), witch hazel, and morels. If you forage, what are your favorites?