Is foraging entering the mainstream?

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Is foraging entering the mainstream?
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cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 10:03 am Post subject: Is foraging entering the mainstream?

Ten years ago, if I was seen by people picking mushrooms, the normal response was to walk on as if I hadn't been seen.

Fifteen years ago, I had a distressed old lady rush out to tell me that the plums growing by the bridle path, ouside her garden, were probably poisonous.

This morning I had a guy, one of the majority of people who have stopped and looked this year, ask me what sort of mushrooms I was picking and how could I know that they're edible. A week or two ago I had an audience of six people, in two different groups, stop and question me about the mushrooms I was picking on a local bit of fenland. Not scared, like they all used to be, but really genuinely interested.

Earlier this year I was interrogated by a chap who was really interested in my plums (ooer), and the number of queries I had about a basket load of cherries was again quite surprising.

Are the British becoming happier to eat wild food? And, importantly, are they becoming more -responsible- about their wild places because of that?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 10:42 am Post subject:
That would definitely be good news

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 10:44 am Post subject:
I think the programmes like A Cook on The Wild Side have helped enomously in creating interest. Of course basic berry picking has never been that far off the main stream. jema

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 10:58 am Post subject:
I just wonder whether the people who were interested in Cab's foraging actually went on to forage for themselves. It's my opinion that we are more knowledgable about these things but possibly less likely to act it. Wild mushrooms may be on the menu but they are probably Sainsburys and dried! Personally I see less and less people doing simple things like blackberry picking

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 11:00 am Post subject:
dunno Certainly there seemed to be a lot of competition for the Sloes this year. It was well hard work getting what i wanted. jema

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 11:04 am Post subject:

I don't seem to have any competition for picking anything much at all, at least not yet. Except, of course, if I choose to go up to Thetford Forest, to which muhroomers seem to flock.

But the thing I'm noticing is that people are at least stopping and looking, they're taking an interest in what's growing around them. I'm no longer viewed with suspicion as I tie a bunch of watermint together with a string of goosegrass, I seem to be viewed with amazement, even envy, and people are -asking- what I'm doing with real enthusiasm.

I dunno, maybe I'm imagining it, but my experience is that things are slowly changing.

anneka

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 158

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 2:23 pm Post subject:

I agree, recently people I know have certainly taken time to collect blackberries and apples some even have made a trip out specifically looking for mushrooms.

They all though have small childeren, it's my guess that the foraging has been brought on by looking to their childrens health and education, these practices for them are a family pastime. Going for a walk and picking fruit, going home and baking it then sitting down and eating it. Given time and financial restrictions, this is a good day out at a minimum cost. My godson in particular will pick blackberries for hours as he loves Bramble Jelly, and at 3.5 years old fully understands that his jam supply is relative to berries picked at a certain time of year. Hopefully though it will teach the children something about food that may otherwise have passed them by.

Otherwise my best guess would be that foraging has become more acceptable through 'foodie/lifestyle' programmes/magazines, not the domain of bobble hats wearing hippies any longer. Whilst some people will not spend hours pouring over identification books for some plants and fungi, they are happy to pick blackberries, and probably more eager to get a 'free' lesson when it comes to other species.

Anneka

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 3:29 pm Post subject:
I suspect that Antonio Carluccio's stuff has probably been a big influence. After all most people's aspiration is to be an italian peasant. (except without sharecropping, with a computer, mains electricity, a large car, etc.) Cheers, Sean

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 3:50 pm Post subject:
and broadband jema

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 7:20 pm Post subject:

Quote:

suspect that Antonio Carluccio's stuff has probably been a big influence

We've been on a few organised forays and fungi studies. On one, where the aim was teach people about fungi and not which ones are edible or poisonous, there was quite a loathing for Antonio as the fungi experts blamed him for damaging places such as the New Forest. After asking them to explain themselves they were worried about over 'shrooming for sale in the posh restaurants.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 04 8:07 am Post subject:

Problem is that the New Forest and the few other patches like it in the South East of England tend to be hit quite hard by commercial pickers, who don't necessarily pick very sensibly. Carluccio gets blamed for that as he's a big name who does a lot with wild mushrooms on telly and in his restaurant, but in truth I don't think he's any more responsible than most of the other restauranteurs.

I haven't got a good solution to this I'm afraid, and it's the main reason why I'm nervous about foraging entering the mainstream. On the one hand, people who gain something from a habitat will be the ones most likely to protect it, and I'm totally in favour of people going out to learn about what's there. That, I think, is really important. On the other hand there's a real risk of over exploitation.

His book 'Antonio Carluccio Goes Wild' is an excellent read.

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 04 8:29 pm Post subject:

It doesn't seem to have caught on too much on my deepest darkest corner of Essex, i have foraged for sloes, crab apples, damsons, blackberries and all kinds of mushrooms for most of the summer and haven't seen anyone else out at all. (apart from once, when I drove past some magnificent parasols on the common, only to drive back past 10 mins later, at 7.30 in the morning, to find them gone!!!!) I'm lucky in that going out on horseback I can get to places off the beaten track a bit. I have also made friends with a local land owner who allows me to forage in her woods and hedgerows, with the proviso that I give her 50% of my haul. I got the idea from a local shooter who does the same on her land.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 04 11:34 am Post subject:
She sounds like a good egg

Richy Rich

Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 31
Location: Coventry - Warwickshire....

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 1:24 pm Post subject:

I get to see very opposite ends of the spectrum and I can assure you that for just as many people that take an interest in wild food there are PLENTY - PLENTY who are aghast at the thought of looking for and eating wild food ...

The food industry seems to have added a stigma to resourcing and producing your own food - as if it is tainted etc.

Yet in my mind - to assume other people are going to be as caerful with food preparation as you are is ignorant. Yet common joe thinks this is the case -even when they think �6 for steak and chips BRILLIANT...

Richy.

Res

Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 1172
Location: Allotment Shed, Harlow

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 05 9:07 am Post subject:

Hi Richy,
You should have seen the looks and heard the comments a work when I can in from the car park and slapped some chickweed into a cream cheese sandwich, even from a veggitarian, who said "now thats weeds!".

Some people have just got no sence of adventure. Mind you with all the humbug about "you cant eat this, you cant eat that, it'll give you cancer", it's no wonder that people have become blinkered/scared.

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