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| Lemon and Waldmeister Ice-Pop |
Introduction:
This
week, we’ll be looking into something that has been entering the spotlight more
and more in recent times – urban foraging. Gathering ‘wild’ foods in city
spaces is becoming a hot topic and attracting attention on multiple levels. It
is surprising just how many forageable foods are to be found in urban
landscapes. But, these specific spaces present specific challenges when it comes
to foraging – namely how to do so safely and (to a lesser extent) legally (JUST
KIDDING! Sites of Forage does not promote illegally harvesting food [but in
defense of myself people who I know, sometimes it is hard to tell in
which spaces it is legal to harvest food and in which spaces it is not {because
really, at least from what I have people who I know have discovered and
depending on the city’s own laws, urban foraging is neither really illegal or
legal}]). In any case, the good news is that this Sites of Forage post will
present some does and don’ts when it comes to urban foraging – both on the
safety level and the legal level.
I
also have to mention that Sites of Forage will be taking a hiatus after this
post. I’m flying back home to enjoy the last bit of ‘summer’ vacation while I
still can and visit some loved ones who I haven’t seen in over a year. When I
get back, I will be starting a new semester and hopefully an internship where I
will be plenty busy. Therefore, Sites of Forage may change format a bit in the
future. But, for those of you who have been tuning in, hey Mom and Dad! In all
seriousness, thank you for keeping up with this blog and learning about the
intricacies of wild, foraged food knowledge. I hope you are looking forward to
future posts as much as I am.
______________________________________________________________________________
Foraging:
So,
I know what you’re wondering about urban foraging: Is it really as easy as
going into my neighbor’s yard, digging up their entire garden, and cooking with
all that ‘foraged’ produce at home? And an answer is: Yes. But a non-sarcastic
answer is: No, sort of, but definitely not that.
Here’s
the thing about urban foraging: It is extremely difficult to find concrete
answers like: Yes, it is legal, or: No, it is not legal. But, here’s another
thing: writing with colons is super fun. The point is this: In most places,
urban foraging is not strictly legal but also not strictly illegal. Therefore,
I will now present to you some guidelines when it comes to urban foraging that,
when followed, benefit all parties involved and do not bring unfairness or harm
to anyone or anything; something which, regardless of legality, is at its core the
most important thing to respect when urban foraging or doing anything, for that
matter.
1.
Public
property:
a.
Be
conservative. When cultivating food on public property (parks, roadsides,
etc.), be extremely conservative when doing so. Essentially, take only what you
need and not much of it. For example, let’s say you randomly find whole bushes
of a variety of Thai basil (of all things) just outside the ******** building
in Bergheim, Heidelberg (I’m not revealing all my secrets. Thai basil is
expensive). The only real usable parts of that plant are the leaves. Therefore,
harvest only the leaves instead of cutting off entire branches, and only
take as much as you need for the Pad-Kee-Mao that you want to make.
b.
Be
discrete. I know that you want to wear a neon dinosaur costume and cover
yourself in Christmas lights before picking apples in a park, but you just
can’t do that. Regardless of urban foraging technically not being illegal,
being discrete and not attracting attention or frowns from strangers who for
some reason have a problem with you picking apples that are just eventually
going to rot on the ground is generally a good idea.
2.
Private
property (here we go!):
a.
Avoid
doing it. There’s just something about it that doesn’t sit right with me. If I
had a beautiful fig tree, I would be living my greatest dream. But, I also
wouldn’t be too happy if some people took ripe fruit from it just because the
branch was hanging over the sidewalk. Harvesting food from other people’s
property is not respectful and for sure can get you in trouble. That said…
b.
Ask
permission. Most people I have known who have a fruit tree or a garden
literally beg other people to take produce from them. The fact of the matter is
that even if I did have that beautiful fig tree, I probably couldn’t eat all
those figs by myself…actually that’s a terrible example. If anyone in the
world, except for me, had that beautiful fig tree, they probably couldn’t eat
all those figs by themselves. So, stalk that fig tree and pass by every now and
then until the owner is outside, and simply ask if they wouldn’t mind you
taking a handful or two of fruit home. Even better, offer to harvest all the
ripe figs for them in exchange for taking some of them home. I bet you they
will say yes, and if they don’t…
c.
Wait
until nightfall. Just kidding, seriously just respect their wishes; or harass
them by coming back every day in varying, cheaply made DIY costumes, pretending
to be someone else every time, and ask permission until they finally cave into
whichever character resonates the best with them. But you have to commit, if
you want those figs.
So,
those are the guidelines that I personally follow for urban foraging.
Regardless of whether legal or illegal, following these rules will ensure that
you forage respectfully in urban environments and (probably) won’t get in any
trouble.
As
for safety, heavy metals and pollution are a factor that one needs to consider
for urban foraging. I’ve read contradicting material about how harmful exhaust
can affect the quality and edibility of plants gathered from city settings. So,
all I’m going to say is this: Use a little common sense when determining
whether or not something is safe to eat. Avoid things growing low to the ground
and right next to busy streets that receive a lot of traffic. In any case, I
doubt that you will be eating urban foraged foods every single day or enough to
make you sick from whatever may or may not be harmful to eat. Be scrupulous and
have some common sense when cultivating in the city.
 |
| Waldmeister (Galium odoratum) |
With
regards to this week’s wild, foraged food (WFF), the recipe features something
that typically is not found in urban settings; but I stumbled upon it in a park
– Waldmeister. There isn’t really a name for this plant in
English, but Waldmeister is pretty common here in Germany and very often found
in sweet applications like gummy-candy or even vibrant green slushies at
festivals. Although most likely artificial in these two examples, the leaves
and flowers of actual Waldmeister smell and taste very ‘foresty’, but in a
sweet-perfuming way. Since it is valued for its application in sweet recipes,
Waldmeister must typically be boiled like a tea and then sweetened with sugar
to form a syrup that can later be used to flavor sweets and desserts – as we
will see in the recipe section of this post.
 |
| Waldmeister (Galium odoratum) |
______________________________________________________________________________
Urban Foraging:
Sites
of Forage has already discussed in several posts the overall trend that WFF
knowledge is steadily declining. However, one phenomenon has been gaining
attention in recent years and may be working to reverse this. Urban foraging –
gathering ‘wild’ food in city spaces – presents unique opportunities in
boosting WFF knowledge in urban landscapes to respond to contemporary issues of
sustainability, food-insecurity, and human rights to nature.
In
order to shed light on the peculiar ways in which urban foraging affects WFF
knowledge and responds to these issues, this analysis will discuss how this
practice is pivotal to reversing the trend of declining WFF knowledge, how it
recasts conceptions of human rights to nature and city planning, and finally
the opportunities that urban foraging presents to the role of WFF knowledge in
tackling contemporary issues.
Reversing the Trend
of Decreasing WFF Knowledge
As
discussed in previous posts like “Economics and Wild Foraged Food Knowledge”,
foraging and the WFF knowledge that goes with are largely unique to rural
populations[1].
In search for better economic opportunities, younger people often leave their
rural homes to relocate to more urban places[2].
This creates a disruption in the ‘vertical transfer’ of WFF knowledge where
elders pass on knowledge to younger generations[3] –
a method of cultural transfer vital to the longevity of WFF knowledge.
Contrary
to this, urban foraging represents a way in which people can get in touch with
WFF knowledge in spite of their city landscapes linked to the decline of WFF
knowledge. Ethnobotanical surveys conducted in US American cities attest that
urban foraging is a practice alive and well[4].
Multiple individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds partake in urban
foraging with varying motivations. For example, while nearly all gathered foods
are for personal use, urban foragers are “motivated by many non-material
purposes: maintaining cultural practices, sharing knowledge, building
community, engaging in spiritual practices, connecting with nature, supporting
stewardship, having fun and recreating, and developing alternative food and
health systems”[5].
Thus, urban foraging presents to people of different backgrounds a wide variety
of incentives to engage with WFF knowledge.
From
this unique urban setting, equally unique types of WFF knowledge and ways to
access them begin to appear. For example, knowing how to harvest sustainably to
optimize the longevity of WFF is paramount in cities where these resources can
easily be overharvested and depleted[6].
In addition, city factors like exhaust, chemicals, and pollutants must be
acknowledged when determining from which spots are safe and healthy to harvest[7].
This
urban setting also requires new ways to access WFF information, since vertical
transmission from older generations is no longer possible for many city
residents. The internet has thus become a valuable resource of sharing and
transmitting WFF knowledge, especially for urban foraging[8]. For
example, Mundraub (https://mundraub.org) is a website that allows users
in Germany to register forageable plants which are then displayed on an
interactive map[9].
Urban foragers using Mundraub thus have descriptions and locations of
plants with information of how to identify, harvest, and use them at their
disposal quickly and conveniently.
In
these ways, urban foraging contributes a significantly to the sustainment of WFF
knowledge. Although urban areas and their growing economies attract younger
populations and represent a dying out of WFF knowledge, urban foraging and
these tools of knowledge dissemination are contrarily working to reverse this
trend.
Rights to Nature
and City Planning
In
addition to counteracting the overall decline in WFF knowledge, urban foraging
is also changing the way we conceive human rights to nature and city planning.
In order to evaluate how this change came about, a turn to the historic role of
city parks is in order.
McLain
et al. explain the significance that city parks took on in the 19th
and 20th centuries in the USA[10].
“Attractive urban green spaces” were seen as “essential elements of healthy,
functional cities” and were valued for their aesthetic and rejuvenative
qualities as “antidotes to the demands of labour in offices and factories”[11]. Essentially,
parks were a vital place where people living and working in urban environments
could enjoy their leisure in natural settings[12].
This conceptualization of parks enforced separate “notions about which human-nature
interactions belonged in the city and which in the country” – harvesting and
cultivating belonging rather in the country paradigm and not in urban parks
where the practice may disrupt their aesthetic and tranquil value[13].
With
the increasing establishment of city parks, their construction and maintenance
became large undertakings, and structures of professional care for parks began
developing[14].
This effectively reinforced the idea of citizens as accepted users of parks but
not as qualified co-producers in their development and maintenance[15].
However,
the concept of sustainable development became popular in the late 1980s with
administrators beginning to “experiment with green space policies that
explicitly seek to integrate social, economic, and ecological concerns in urban
environments”[16].
Thus, the question of citizens’ involvement and relationship to the nature
in these urban parks began to be recasted and reimagined. At the forefront of
this is the issue of urban foraging.
Thus,
urban foraging proposes a relatively new take on conceptualizing citizens’
involvement in affairs dealing with public green spaces and whether or not
foraging is a legitimate and acceptable practice within them. This presents the
issue of people’s right to nature. Many informants in the ethnobotanical
surveys explain that urban foraging is a way in which they “assert their rights
to the natural resources that support their wild food and health practices” –
taking on a political tinge to the practice[17]. Urban
foraging is thus a way to reassess the long-standing restrictions on foraging in
public spaces as well as the practice’s role in evaluating human rights to
nature and its potential in city planning.
Opportunities
with Urban Foraging
This
new assessment of urban foraging’s role in human rights to nature as well as
its potential in city planning reveal certain opportunities to respond to
pressing issues of our modern day. This concluding section will discuss how the
practice can help achieve goals in sustainability, respond to humanitarian
issues, and finally how this all relates back to WFF knowledge.
In
addition to the inherent ecological benefits of eating locally grown,
cultivated, and consumed food, urban foraging presents the opportunity to
educate people in wild plants and how to sustainably harvest them[18].
When urbanites begin seeing bits of nature as valuable spots that grow food, an
interest in the conservation and promotion of these green spaces ensues. Public
involvement with and their new appreciation for green spaces in cities can have
beneficial results in achieving sustainability goals, but a vital prerequisite
to accomplish this successfully is an education in WFF knowledge.
In
addition to sustainability, urban foraging responds to humanitarian issues that
concern people in urban environments and beyond. It is a viable option for
those who are economically disadvantaged and may not be able to afford fresh
produce. For those facing this food insecurity – such as the one of every five
children in Seattle[19] –
urban foraging may play a vital role in addressing hunger. As one study points
out, urban foraging is likely a key to ameliorating the “paradoxical
coexistence of wild food abundance [and] elevated rates of hunger”[20].
Keeping
these opportunities in mind, we see a new dimension in WFF knowledge that Sites
of Forage has yet to discuss. In order to promote people’s involvement in their
urban green spaces, manifesting their right to nature, and responding to issues
of sustainability and humanitarian issues like hunger via urban foraging, an
education in WFF knowledge is necessary. Urban foraging thus presents the
opportunity to influence social change in both city populations and their
institutions with a dynamic use of WFF knowledge. Therefore, not only is WFF
knowledge something affected by its localized setting – as we’ve seen with new
ways of accessing information specific to urban foraging and a
reconceptualization of how citizens appropriately interact with green spaces –
but WFF knowledge also has the ability to mutually influence these localized
settings in which it exists.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sites of Forage
Recipe:
Lemon and
Waldmeister Ice-Pops
Depending
on wherever in the world you are reading this, summer is coming to a close.
Within the past few days in Heidelberg, autumn has already greeted us like a
slap in the face. With the grey skies creeping in, it is time to bid farewell
to the dogdays of summer with probably the most iconic summer-time treat –
ice-pops.
This
recipe pairs the familiar tartness of lemon with the herbal sweetness of
Waldmeister for a refreshing treat to be enjoyed in the summer heat or in
tender, loving memory of the summer heat as you struggle against the wind the
dust flying into your eyes as you bike home across a grey, cold Neckar. Ice-pop
molds can be purchased very cheaply online if you can’t find them in stores. As
an alternative, waxy paper cups with the classic popsicle sticks is decent DIY
substitute.
Ingredients:
1 good handful of Waldmeister,
leaves with stems and/or flowers
250 ml water
250 ml sugar
400 ml lemon juice
Method:
Place
Waldmeister and water in a small pot and place over high-heat. Once boiling,
turn down heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sugar and stir until
dissolved. Take off the heat and strain out the Waldmeister, pouring into a
separate vessel. Let cool for 30 minutes at room temperature. Add lemon juice
and stir to combine. Pour into ice-pop molds (makes about 4 standard size pops)
and place into freezer. Freeze until solid (at least 4 hours, but check to make
sure). Run warm water over the molds to release the ice-pops and enjoy.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Acerbi,
Alberto, and Domenico Parisi. "Cultural Transmission between and within
Generations." Journal of Artificial
Societies and Social Simulation 9, no. 1 (2006).
Geng,
Yanfei, Yu Zhang, Sailesh Ranjitkar, Huyin Huai, and Yuhua Wang.
"Traditional Knowledge and Its Transmission of Wild Edibles Used by the
Naxi in Baidi Village, Northwest Yunnan Province." Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 12 (February 05 2016):
10.
Kaliszewska,
Iwona, and Iwona Kolodziejska-Degorska. "The Social Context of Wild Leafy
Vegetables Uses in Shiri, Daghestan." Journal
of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 11 (August 11 2015): 63.
McLain,
Rebecca J., Patrick T. Hurley, Marla R. Emery, and Melissa R. Poe.
"Gathering “Wild” Food in the City: Rethinking the Role of Foraging in
Urban Ecosystem Planning and Management." [In English]. Local Environment 19 (2014): 220-40.
Poe,
Melissa R., Rebecca J. McLain, Marla Emery, and Patrick T. Hurley. "Urban
Forest Justice and the Rights to Wild Foods, Medicines, and Materials in the
City." [In English]. Human Ecology 41
(2013): 409-22.
Signorini,
Maria Adele, Maddalena Piredda, and Piero Bruschi. "Plants and Traditional
Knowledge: An Ethnobotanical Investigation on Monte Ortobene (Nuoro,
Sardinia)." Journal of Ethnobiology
and Ethnomedicine 5 (Feb 10 2009).
[1] Maria Adele Signorini, Maddalena Piredda, and Piero Bruschi, "Plants
and Traditional Knowledge: An Ethnobotanical Investigation on Monte Ortobene
(Nuoro, Sardinia)," Journal of
Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 5 (2009).
[2]
For more information, see:
Yanfei Geng et al., "Traditional Knowledge and Its Transmission of
Wild Edibles Used by the Naxi in Baidi Village, Northwest Yunnan
Province," ibid.12 (2016).
Iwona Kaliszewska and Iwona Kolodziejska-Degorska, "The Social
Context of Wild Leafy Vegetables Uses in Shiri, Daghestan," ibid.11 (2015).
[3] Alberto Acerbi and Domenico Parisi, "Cultural Transmission between
and within Generations," Journal of
Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 9, no. 1 (2006).
[4] Rebecca J. McLain et al., "Gathering “Wild” Food in the City:
Rethinking the Role of Foraging in Urban Ecosystem Planning and
Management," Local Environment
19 (2014).
Melissa R. Poe et al., "Urban Forest Justice and the Rights to Wild
Foods, Medicines, and Materials in the City," Human Ecology 41 (2013).
[5] Poe et al.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[10] McLain et al.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13]
Ibid.
[14]
Ibid.
[15]
Ibid.
[16]
Ibid.
[17]
Poe et Al.
[18]
Ibid.
[19]
Ibid.
[20]
Ibid.
