So, my wife and I have decided to try eating nothing but wild foods that we have gathered, or will gather over the course of the next several days.
We’ve agreed that our little experiment will last just five days; the length of the average middle-class American work-week. Truthfully, we’ve been adding wild foods to our diet for over a year now. However, subsisting on them completely, even for a few days, can be quite a change from what most people in our society are used to! And so I want to say just how proud am of my wife for taking this challenge on with me!
That said, the health benefits and the enjoyment of reconnecting with our environment and where our food ultimately comes from far outweighs any momentary shock at trying something new.
The most important thing, is knowing what we’ll eat before hand. We, or I rather, have spent a lot of the last year getting to know the foods our local habitat provides, and so a kind of rhythm has developed in my mind; “This time of year, that is growing, or that is available.” That rhythm is what’s important. It’s very organic, I mean, its extremely easy to pick up and build in your subconscious.
This time of year, we’ve already picked several bags of acorns, pecans, walnuts and mesquite beans from the Fall and we’ll use them to make flour and porridge, among other things. There is also an abundance of winter greens growing everywhere now that the rains have come and so we’ll add fresh salads with wilds nuts to our menu. We also still have some frozen fruit that we picked back in the Summer which will be great with any acorn or mesquite flatbread we make. There is also a full deer in our freezer, wild game playing a major part in the winter diet of all foragers.
In all, we shouldn’t have any shortage of food, and our imagination can (hopefully) provide the variety and intrigue that American eaters are used to. We’ll take as many pictures of our meals as we can and post them here along with any updates so hopefully we might inspire other people too!
A Natural Place 