Foraging

When Ryan let me know that instead of hunting this spring we’d be foraging in the woods, I

had flashes of Louis C.K.’s comedy special at the Beacon Theatre. In his performance, God

gets mad at a white person for ruining the earth and needing a job in order to eat.

God: “I gaaaaave you everything you needed, you piece of sh*t! What do you need

money for?!”

Human: “Food.”

God: “Just eat the sh*t on the floor! I left sh*t all over the floor! F*cking corn and

wheat and sh*t! Grind it up, make some bread! What are you dooooing?!

Comedy, yes. Truth also. I’ve hiked hundreds of kilometres in my life and never given much

thought to the fact that I could eat the “shit all over the flour.” There are, however, nearly 100

kinds of edible wild plants and another 30 kinds of edible mushrooms in British Columbia

alone. So, whether you want make a feast, reduce your grocery bill, ensure your greens

aren’t sprayed with chemicals and shipped long distances, or survive in the woods, a little

foraging knowledge is your ticket.

After my usual 700-kilometre road trip north, Ryan and I got out our wicker baskets and

headed into the hills about 15 minutes outside downtown Prince George.

It was late spring and in the boreal and montane forests of Western Canada and the

mosquitoes were abundant (heinous even). But so too was a wild, leafy natural garden salad

of greens.

Jennifer Côté of Moose Mushrooms and Mud was our foraging instructor. She told us how to

find and harvest stinging nettle, false Solomon’s seal, devil’s club, fire weed, dandelion and

cow parsnip. She also instructs on foraging for mushrooms and berries.

Jennifer’s motto is “If the land succeeds, we succeed!” She focused on teaching us ethical

harvesting techniques where one forages only ⅓ of a given area and leaves the rest for

wildlife and Mother Nature’s regenerative and natural cycles.

Would one afternoon of foraging training be enough to equip us to later go deep into the wild

and fend for ourselves? We certainly hoped so…

For the next part of our spring adventure, we travelled 3 hours north of Prince George by

4x4, river boat, ad ATV until we reached a remote, pristine river valley inhabited by moose,

grizzlies and wolves. Our mission: Find forest greens to eat and cook up into a wild feast.

Tune in to our next foraging episode to find out if we were successful.