Urban Foraging

Our knitting circle has been having some interesting discussions about "local" cuisine. One knitter's husband was interested in some cookbook about squirrels, sparrows and other urban game. While this is totally not my boat, I have been reading about raw vegans using dandelion greens from their backyards. I love this idea and I swear I've seen dandelion greens for sale at the market. They're everywhere and mostly considered a nuisance, but are really high in calcium. Kate says they're too bitter for her taste, but you can always load up on salad dressing. So, I came home from work one day having picked some and some mulberries from a nearby tree. Kate was horrified. Having grown up in New York, she naturally distrusts anything that may have grown in the ground or from a tree. She convinced me to throw out the dandelion greens because of not knowing what pesticides might have been involved and because of the complete lack of mosquitos in the area due to the West Nile scare a few years ago. She said I could eat one mulberry and if I survived the night I could have another one. I used to eat a ton of the things as a kid, but she doubted my ability to recognize plant life. Needless to say, I survived the mulberries, but remembered that they aren't very tasty. I still might make a pie. We bought a chive plant at the New York Botanical Gardens and placed it high above the cat's reach. We haven't killed it yet (we both have black thumbs) and have been enjoying fresh chives. The cat knows it's up there and might get neck strain since he a.) loves to eat plant life (he even eats cacti!) and b.) loves to chew on anything long and string-like (see the cat er saga on tooboo.wordpress.com).

All of this reminds me of the scene in the Omnivore's Dilemma where Michael Pollan picks a wild mushroom and then ends up throwing it away because of his mother's voice in his head telling him it was probably poisonous. That scene really irked me, almost more than the scene where he slaughtered his own pig and was able to distance himself from it later and eat it.

I'm still interested in this urban foraging thing, especially now that our kitchen is ripped out. We have no backyard and I'd love to do some raw food sprouting, but like I said, black thumbs. There's supposedly a nature walk in Inwood Hill Park (this one?), which is practically our backyard where an expert shows you which plants really are edible.

Dandelion green videos:
Salad Freaks Out Raw Vegan Chef
Shazzie's SuperFoods are for Real Pt.1 Free and Local
Raw Food Diet goes Wild