The Magic of Foraging
By Julie Dennewitz, CGC Horticulturist
I owe a massive part of my love for nature to one British author and a children’s book series. No, not that one. So much of my reverence for plants—and wild edible plants especially—comes from a fantasy series called Redwall. In the Redwall books, a community of friendly forest animals live and work (and eat) together while protecting their home from villainous invaders. The author, Brian Jacques, wrote the stories after reading to students at the Royal School for the Blind. He included vivid descriptions of the characters and surrounding countryside. But where his prose truly shines is when describing the great feasts that the heroes gather for in every novel.
Dandelion cordial, wild oat cakes, mushroom pasties, rosehip and elderberry wine, acorn scones iced with clover honey, blackberry pudding, cowslip and parsley liqueur. These fantastical meals danced in my head as a child. What are these foods? Where can I find them? Not at the grocery store—I’d never seen a dandelion or acorn there. They must grow wild! I started foraging in the fields and woods behind my home, pretending I was a simple fieldmouse gathering ingredients for the Midsummer Banquet.
And so, foraging started as a game of make-believe, but I quickly discovered that our natural world is bursting with unique and delicious offerings that can never be tamed or cultivated on a commercial farm. As I got older, I learned about the native plants valued by Indigenous Americans: hickory, sochan, sunchoke, pawpaw and so many more. When we know what to look for, we are never without food.
Is adding dozens of edible native species to the GrowFest lineup just an excuse to satisfy my inner child? Maybe. But I’ve never grown out of those days of wandering the countryside, filled with wonder and gratitude at the bounty around me. As our wild places continue to be threatened by development and invasive species, its essential that we protect these opportunities for people of any age to connect with the land and discover its treasures. We must promote native plants wherever we can. And in an increasingly artificial world, reviving traditions of responsible, sustainable foraging can allow us autonomy over our bodies and our diets.
When we grow and harvest our own food, we are less likely to be wasteful because the value feels so much higher. We are more inclined to gift extras and to share with our neighbors. We naturally recreate the generosity that so enchanted my young heart while reading the Redwall stories years ago. To sit together and share a meal—a meal gathered a prepared with one’s own two paws—is a sacred act as old as time.
If you’re looking to reclaim some of that childhood magic of berry-picking; or you want more access to healthy, local, sustainable food; or you simply see the value in planting native, GrowFest has you covered this year. We’ll have both well-known garden plants as well as less-common native perennials, trees and shrubs to help you grow your own backyard food forest worthy of the finest woodland feast.