Wild Food by Stephen Watts

Wild Food - What is it?

All things are connected. We are never separate from any other being in the universe. So first of all I want to find out what is meant by wild. Wild is a fluid term like the term organic.

Most people tend to think of organic as "free from..." rather than "including ...". Likewise people tend to think of Wild as "undisturbed" systems rather than "ancient interactive" systems.

Our relation to "food" goes back a long way... So to bring us back to food we can distinguish between that which is freely provided from those ancient systems and call it "wild" and that which is placing some force to resist the natural world (eg forest clearing) and call it "cultivated". This poses the question of how "natural" is human interaction with Nature? To breathe is to interact with Nature.

So if we consider the entire human race as one living organism that the earth created and is its self a part of the earths being then everything we do is "natural"- is Nature. We cannot err....or can we? What about hunger? What about pain? What about death? Did man become hungry and so find food, or did he find food and so find hunger? Did he live and so find death, or did he die and so find life?

We seem to have been programmed (in our nature...) to seek life and avoid death - maybe Adam's knowledge which he received from the apple was the awareness that he could choose life and avoid death. But to return again to food we could say that systems which maximize efficiency (low input - high output) are more natural than the reverse.

A tree grows towards the sun to maximize yield resisting the pull of gravity yet tends to centre its weight over the trunk for stability, minimizing gravitational resistance. When the wind blows the branches have to be strong yet flexible.

People do the same. We harvest sunshine through the food we eat, and centre ourselves on and about fertility (rich soils) for continuity. One example of an efficient food system is in fruit. It grows on trees abundantly and is easy to hand harvest. When one defecates one is planting seeds (if we consume the seeds, and they are viable seeds), continuing the life of the tree. It is in the interest of the tree to make the fruit as tasty as possible, to ensure its reproduction.

We can therefore see how each species creates its own landscape (home), an intricate set of relations in order to survive. Deer graze on young sapling trees to create glades where the grasses can grow thick and fast. Everything gardens.

Wild food therefore can be seen as harvested sunshine (energy) from self regulating systems. The harvesting of wild food has been called foraging. So is foraging in veg shop bins considered “wild” food? This point shows us the fact that wild food can be seen from many different angles. Even blackberries which we call wild, will have probably co -evolved with human settlements, humans choosing the fattest tastiest berries for food and “sowing the seed” at the edge of the community.

Some restaurants pay people to go out to the country side to harvest gourmet things like wild asparagus and charge a huge price for it. This in my view is abusing a system yet foraging in bins is working with a system.

The edge effect

Many “wild” foods are not native to our country. Ground elder was brought over as a vegetable by the Romans and has become “naturalized”. Many “wild” foods live off the fertility of cultivation, at the edge of human settlements, nettles being just one of them. Cities create shelters (microclimates) for “wild” food to thrive in. Fig trees grow on the banks of the river Don (seeded by the workers who used to eat figs) surrounded by factories, which when they were pumping out tons of heat, used to produce early ripe figs.

Nutrition and health

Food is only as good as the soil it is grown in. Food is the soil it is grown in. Some of the waste of cities is very damaging to soils and caution should always be taken when foraging in cities. In addition there are atmospheric car fumes which pollute wild food. But to put things in perspective if you live in a city you’re far from pollution free just through breathing, regardless of what you’re eating.

Consider everyone who lives in London! People adapt to their environment. Aim for the most “organic” sites. Even just a little bit of wild food can make a huge difference to your health. Washing food is wise.

Here I would like to make the distinction between cultivated and uncultivated. Food which has been less hybridized contains more life force. It is capable of supporting a higher state of health. But since most of us are not familiar with these foods then we must start ever so small, and gradually increase.

Not only does your body need to get used to these new foods but also your ego. It is equally important to feed your mind. Just spend a while imagining which foods you identify with….. Those who get really into foraging have more time than those who spend there time trying to grow tender vegetables, provided they have efficient systems. Nutritionally perennials are richer than their equivalent annuals. They require no work other than to harvest, which admittedly can take a while if you’re not used to it.

If you want to read more about perennial foods read Plants for a Future by Ken Fern, and check out the Agroforestry Research Trust Website. Also check out www.funkyraw.com for excellent advice on nutrition and recipes using wild food.

Herbal Medicine

In Herbal Medicine there is a saying that the cure is never far away. This to me points out two vital points for the survival of humans into the future. Firstly that the origin of medicine is “food”, and secondly that our relationship to the natural world is still deeply imbedded in our being, a knowledge that we don’t need to be taught but just needs to be re-learnt. Good teaching will only speed up the process.

Many of the most used herbs are the weeds which people struggle to destroy with weed killer, weeds which have manifested to protect the Earth’s soil from rain erosion leaching nutrients into the rivers. Nature is constantly longing to cover up bare ground, holding onto the fertility of the land.

Why I eat wild food….

Apart from all the above reasons, which would easily be enough to make one want to include wild foods in their diet, the main reason is PLEASURE!

Free food and wild foods are self-sufficiency topics covered in our book, Low Cost Living.

For more information on the book see
Low Cost Living

Wandering through the woods munching on the most amazing, unusual flavours, completely taken away by the beauty of my surroundings, lost in my being inside it all, is paradise to me! Or if I’m hungry and have no food, pockets empty, or am in a rush, I just have to keep my eyes open and my wits about me and foods present themselves. The feeling of being connected to the earth through participating in natural systems is something I now find difficult to abandon.

One day in December just before Christmas I was out present shopping and was feeling in need of nourishment. I wandered off the main street and headed towards a small local store, surrounded by terraced housing, in the hope that it might have some tasty ripe fruit inside.

Well, the Spirit of Christmas was obviously watching because just before I reached the shop I saw, leaning out of someone’s front garden, a well established apple tree, naked against the winter sky, yet still holding onto ripe golden apples.

Many had been left to rot on the ground so I assumed that the remaining good fruit was also neglected for the birds. I abandoned present shopping and spent the rest of the evening climbing the tree to harvest about 2-3 full carrier bags of tasty ripe apples (pineapple flavour), leaving some for the birds, and cycled home at dusk to enjoy a fruitful day’s Christmas shopping!

Articles On Wild Food, Edible Plants etc

• Wild Foods by Stephen Watts
• Everything Is Food!
  • Edible Plants by Stephen Watts
  • Edible Plants - Trees by Stephen Watts
  • Edible Plants - Fruit Trees & Shrubs by Stephen Watts
  • Edible Plants - Blackberries by Stephen Watts
  • Edible Plants - Perennial Greens by Stephen Watts
  • Edible Plants - Herbs by Stephen Watts

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