Last night I commented to dh that: 1) I really miss homeschooling (nothing like sending your kids to underscore how great homeschooling is!); 2) I missed ds5’s exuberant energy. He’s seemingly adjusting well to everything, except this boy who used to be happy and excited about everything now is constantly whining, complaining, and crying – I realized yesterday that he hardly ever smiles from deep inside anymore.
This morning the whining started when a sibling gave him a spoonful of sugar in his second bowl of oatmeal, and it wasn’t a big enough spoonful. You would have thought something terrible had happened, the way he began crying and yelling. I asked him to speak pleasantly, and he really seemed unable to.
I explained to him that we don’t go to school when we are sick because it could make people sick, and it’s not fair to the people around us to go to school when we are miserable; it makes people feel good when we smile and bad when we are unhappy. So it became a ‘gan Mommy’ morning (‘Mommy playgroup’ – what staying home with me was termed for the sake of ds2.5 so he would feel like he was doing what everyone else going to school was).
He was upset about not getting to go to school, but within a half hour, he was smiling. Really smiling. I could almost see him unwind and inwardly relax. It was so nice to see. I told him at 10 am we’d take a walk and go to the park, but when we got there, the officials told us they changed the hours for the winter and wouldn’t be open until 3 pm.
I’ve recently noticed that it seems to be prime foraging season here – in the US it was after the winter – and lately I’ve had a hankering to get outside and just harvest something! My motivation for this morning’s outing was that yesterday I noticed some rosehips when I was out with the kids, and wanted to check if there were more so I could prepare a big batch at once. So it didn’t make much of a difference to me where we went, and when ds5 suggested another park, off we went.
We detoured somewhat, scanning the rosebushes that lined the streets. On the way, I showed him what mallow looks like – I don’t usually pick any wild edibles around here that grow on the ground because there are lots of dogs. But it had just rained and we were in an area that didn’t seem to be a dog spot, so we picked some.
Then we entered a big gorgeous park that has a playground but is mostly a huge beautiful natural area, and while the boys were running around I kept my eyes open for rosehips, but instead noticed that some of the olive trees had some ripe olives still remaining. So when they finished running, I suggested we find an olive tree to pick from. But ds5 said, “I don’t want to pick olives, I want to pick carob!” He noticed right then that we were passing a carob tree, so I hoisted him on my shoulder and he picked a few nice long pods. The three of us snacked on them as we went along, and then found some more mallow off the beaten trail.
As we followed the mallow trail, we happened upon a low growing olive tree with a huge rock underneath it. This was perfect since ds5 could reach the olives by climbing on this big rock. Ds2 also wanted to pick, but it didn’t last long since it meant me holding him up high while simultaneously pulling the olive branch down low towards us. I gave him the olives I picked to put in the bag (he was much slower than we were, so this wasn’t really suitable), then switched his job to holding the bag of olives open, but that wasn’t a great job for him either. But I let him keep that job since he felt useful and ds5 and I filled our pockets as we picked, and periodically emptied them into the bag. We ended up with 1 – 2 quarts of fresh olives.
It was a gorgeous day, the sky was a perfect blue and the sun was shining, and it just felt so marvelous to be out doing this. I felt so happy I almost cried – I didn’t realize how much I missed the feeling of being out in nature. And it felt so right to be with my littles, giving them opportunities for self-directed outdoor experiences, so unlike the kindergarten environment where everything is structured and adult-led. I watched ds5 and ds2 find a huge ant hill, try to feed the ants olives, mash some olives with a rock and show me about the dye that resulted, all while soaking in vitamin D from the sun. You can’t manufacture real experiences like this, and there’s something about these kind of things that is good for kids (and adults!) at a deep, soul level.
On the way out of the park, we found an abundance of rosehips concentrated on a few bushes – all the other bushes we found were still in bloom. Ds2 planted himself right next to one and got busy picking, and when I told him it was time to go a few minutes later, he looked at me seriously and said, “I’m not done yet”, and got back to industriously picking the rosehips and putting them in the sandwich bag we had with us. He was so focused and felt so accomplished! I let him pick a while longer, but then we really did have to leave.
On the way home we found a small lemon tree – they weren’t so big and I have lemons at home, but they were happy to be able to pick three of them. We got home with all of our treasures, tired after being out all morning but only one of us ready for a nap (me!).
I don’t honestly find foraging to be about frugality for me. We’re way too big a family and the amounts I can pick are so small that they’re not generally consequential, and the time investment – if looked at it strictly from an economic point of view – doesn’t usually justify the expenditure. But from an experiential and empowerment perspective, it’s definitely worthwhile. I like that my kids can identify plants and food that grow around them, and have a chance to be in touch with the physical world in a real way.
Do you ever harvest food growing in the wild? What kind of things grow locally to you? What do you like about foraging? Do you share my feeling that it’s empowering on a personal level?
Avivah
(This post is part of Monday Mania, Traditional Tuesdays, Fat Tuesdays, Homestead Barn Hop, Real Food 101 and Real Food Wednesdays.)
Such a breath of fresh air to read this post. It reminded me of a recent experience. A friend took me for a drive to the country, and the minute we hit the eucalyptus trees( I live in Melbourne, Australia) I started to calm down and really breathe.
We haven’t done so much foraging in the open because I always feel so unsure of where I can pick – is it private? Sprayed? Misidentified? I converted stretches of my yard to garden (about 250 sqft not counting fruit trees). In LA, we’re blessed with year round productivity and great variety). My kids have been involved with all of this, as well as food prep, and as a result, they have started to recognize plant families when we’re out in nature. I would like to build on this and am seeking good guides to foraging, weeds, native plants, and so on, for my area, but I’ve yet to get past my mental blocks.
We’ve been in a terrible drought for the past 5 years or so, but we usually really enjoy picking Sand Plums from the wild bushes along the dirt roads her in Oklahoma. They make an easy and yummy jelly. We are learning more and more herbs and edible greens that grow wild out here too. Different years seem to propagate different things. It’s nice to be able to glean what the Creator provides.
I find that with things like mallow and wild mustard, I am able to pick HUUUGE amounts that it actually does make foraging worthwhile. I was able to go a month without grocery shopping, by using my store bought veggies the first two weeks after a shop, and foraged veggies for the two weeks after that!!!
I usually am able to pick tons of mallow and wild mustard in very little time, so I find it very worthwhile, especially since my mallow forage spot is just across the street from my house (and the leaves are each the size of my kid’s face so each leaf is pretty substantial).
About rosehips… thats one thing I don’t pick unless I know the owner, because rose bushes are one of the most commonly sprayed things here…
Penny, your idea of a lot and mine are really, really different! A while back I saw a picture of your huge shopping trip for a few weeks of groceries, and I thought to myself, that wouldn’t last us more than a few days! I can definitely see how with a small (and young) family foraging can be substantial. Also, I don’t have any large patches that I’ve found yet, so for me it’s a little here, a little there, which makes it much more time consuming. If you have some great places with large leaves, that’s amazing and totally changes the equation.
When I say huge amounts, I mean huge amounts.. Like enough to fill 5 or 6 large shopping bags, packed… picked in 10 minutes. 😀 Fortunately, we have some giant patches nearby. I’m definitely lucky in that sense!
I was wondering for a while, since you’re in EY (I am as well) don’t you need to worry about trumah and ma’aser when you forage? My husband and I got a pomello from his secular family’s farm and the process was annoying enough that I don’t feel the urge to get free untithed stuff again!
Yes, I do have to take trumah and maaser from everything that we forage; the exception is anything that you eat while you are still outside (eg the carob pods that we snacked on). I agree that for a small amount of stuff, it feels like more effort than it’s worth. I buy vegetables once a week from a source that is questionable as far as these things being taken, so we take ourselves once a week, and I waited a day after foraging to take together with everything else for the sake of simplicity.
We also have challenges here with foraging, one of the reasons being that due to where we are located and climate a lot of the more common plants/weeds both look and are different and some can’t even be found here. Another is suburbia sprawl & spraying, So I only forage from really wild areas, I have been learning about the wild edibles in my area and it is very interesting, there also happen to be quite a few very toxic look alikes growing here so a lot of caution is needed too.
I especially like foraging in my backyard! We don’t get much, not enough for a big family like ours, but it is fun anyway, my younger kids are always looking and were so excited to finds sorrel a few weeks ago. What I do find economical is foraging for medicinals.:) And I also grow and regrow a bunch of herbs that I use in food, for tinctures and salves, etc; I agree that it is so empowering to forage 🙂