7.26.2010

Gleaning/Foraging



Ever since I joined the gleaning club (ie: a few of my friends and I go about looking for food to forage), I see food everywhere. I don't just see it as something tasty though. I see the colors hiding in branches and in bushes. It seems miraculous to me that I won't starve, that my basket could always be full. I've made a subconscious sport of looking up and around me for bits of orange, or red, or purple. I've started to recognize the difference between a cherry tree and a plum tree. It has made my life more interesting, pretty, and deliberate. Three things I like.

I love going out on my bike and acting nonchalant while I search neighborhoods for trees with nobody to take care of them. I've started a collection in my sidebag of leaves and unripe fruit so that I can remind my self and go back soon when the pickings are good. So far this year I've collected wild grain and winnowed it with some friends; picked wild currant berries; caught two fish (well, Carl caught them, but I was there); found wild onion roots growing in our very own yard; pruned an abandoned apple orchard; ate plentiful from my garden (it didn't die!); ate local apricots, cherries, and plums; and now I've found a secret road full of neglected fruit-laden trees. There are few things more satisfying than plucking your own dinner from the ground or from a tree. Some might call me a hippie, I prefer pioneer woman. Look outside today and see what you find, there are plump apricots bursting from branches all over Provo right now!

I will probably write about this again, a lot of times. It really spins me, makes me excited, gets my goat, etc... I would love to hear your stories, or advice, or places to go, or if you have fruit trees, or gardens that you want us to come glean!


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

hm. makes my mouth smile.

shelly said...

Where we used to live, there was a favorite, neglected pomegranite tree that I would forage. They definitely didn't mind being neglected -- they were pefect -- every time! (They weren't being marketed like they are now and as valuable as gold. I'll bet it's not neglected any more!)

shelly said...

Ironic. I spelled "perfect" pefect.

Brooke S. said...

Pioneer away, I say!

NEC said...

Pioneers were the original conservationists.

Mr. Christopher said...

I'm definitely lacking in foraging skills. Weeds and plants all look the same to me.

l'écureuil said...

what you wrote here made my soul happy. what a beautiful awareness to have of the world and all of the gifts the world offers all around us!