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020: Foraging w/ Weed Lady Nance Klehm
Sidewalk salads and train track Tylenol
Listen now | 20 minutes, 15 seconds
We're not talking gardens or dumpster diving. This is a discussion of the riches that grow in our highway medians, city planters, backyards and rail lines. Expert forager, Nance Klehm, sheds light on the city's bounty, from medicinal plants to tasty greens. Getting to know the foraging landscape takes some time and energy, but gives back in complex flavors and a better appreciation of plants. Plus it's free! Nance's as elusive as some of these plants, so email us if you want to go on one of her foraging expeditions and we'll pass your information along.
Published on Sept. 3, 2008 at noon, as part of the The Little Green People Show.
Beth O. commented, on September 3, 2008 at 7:22 p.m.:
Does anyone know anything about wild hops? Can you safely use ones grown in the city -- and can you use them to make beer?
Hank from Highland Park commented, on September 3, 2008 at 8:46 p.m.:
I made the bergamot tea suggested on the show. It was surprisingly intense. Now I want to try catnip, but it's too late in the season for me to find the plant to buy and plant myself. Does it grow wild, or is it always what Nancy called "intentional?"
shane commented, on September 4, 2008 at 1:44 p.m.:
Hi Beth O:
We've done some work with and bought some equipment from the Brew & Grow before. They seem to know everything there is to know about beer. Might be a good place to start asking questions about hops? We'll reach out to Nancy, as well, see if we can get her to weigh in.
Brew & Grow
1824 N. Besly Ct.
Chicago, Illinois, 60622
(773) 395-1500
nance commented, on September 5, 2008 at 6:35 p.m.:
hmmmm.
i think beth o's question is about what soil it grows in, not the type or how to use it. one of the best advices in foraging is use your own judgement.
i grow hops and i have also found it growing along some of our transportation lines... one of my vines is ready and the other will be ready in a week or so. so now is the time to pick or to look for and pick. and yes - you can use hops for beer bittering or several wild plants - ground ivy (creeping charlie) and mugwort were quite common before the church hoisted hops at us to calm us down.
and hank... wild bergamot has several cultivated sister bergamots that are pretty common landscape plants. their domesticated taste is more mild than the wild (surprise!~)
catnip abounds in our urban landscape. i mean really all over the place - check parklands, fencelines, scrubby patches, etc. talk a long outdoor perambulation, locate it and cut and dry it for tea through the winter!
Laurene commented, on September 8, 2008 at 5:49 p.m.:
Foraging is something that some people do in the forest preserves and it is, I think, illegal. It seems to make sense to prohibit this since people picking wild native plants from the preserves would not allow the forest preserves to serve their mission of restoring and restocking the native flora and fauna of the region...Lots of great forage foods can be found in very public places, even city parks and street scapes. But some do not, like wild ginger. Should a new category of public lands be established? Do we need publicly backed "forage lands?
Jill commented, on September 9, 2008 at 9:43 p.m.:
Where would these lands be? Would they be deliberately stocked with wild ginger and ginseng and serviceberries, the way our lakes are stocked with fish so that anglers have something to catch?
Weaver Mom commented, on September 10, 2008 at 10:09 a.m.:
Forage with your kids and make some natural dyes. Grab a white t-shirt (organic cotton of course) and try a tie dye project this fall. Who knew that so many opportunities exist in the cracks of sidewalks and around the areas we live. Dandelion (root) can actually offer more than just a bad taste on your child's sucking thumb! Makes a light red color dye instead. This Fall pick up some acorns and boil them. They will make a brown color. If you have a Sassafras anywhere, get the leaves and go for the orange. Even grass can make a green. In general, I'd say you could try almost anything. Google natural dyes and you can find out how to do it. In the meantime, love how much of nature one can use to brighten our lives.
Britt commented, on September 16, 2008 at 4:08 p.m.:
Anyone out there know of any good foraging magazines specific to plants? I'd like to do more. Several of us mycologists and mycophiles recently started up a mushroom magazine (Fungi; http://www.fungimag.com) and we have had several articles on mushroom foraging, but I'd also like to learn more about plants too.
Thanks!
Jill commented, on September 17, 2008 at 2:35 p.m.:
That's the best-looking fungi magazine I've ever seen! Thanks for the link.
I don't know of any Foraging Times magazine, but if there were, would it have an annual list of the Forage 500? Might there be a Martha Stewart Foraging? Or Foraging Illustrated? No, no, I have it! Foraging Digest. Get it, digest?
laurene commented, on September 19, 2008 at 11:44 p.m.:
I don't know of a foraging magazine but think the best book is still the old one by Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Wild Asparagus.
Pete commented, on September 22, 2008 at 9:55 a.m.:
Nance said on the show that dandelions and burdock are the most-overlooked, most useful common plant. I know I can find them all over right now, but is there anyway to preserve them for the winter? Does freezing 'em work? Chop them up and, I don't know, mix them into butter or oil or something? Dry them?
Laurene commented, on October 12, 2008 at 5:10 p.m.:
Hi Pete -
It is my undertanding that dandelions remain green, even under the snow, all year round, so maybe they dont need to be harvested and frozen? Have you tried finding them under the snow? Maybe I will try this winter, after sipping a little dandelion wine which is aging now.
I freeze lots of already cooked greens and they remain fine and tasty, even if a little overcooked from the freeze and reheat process. Let us know if you try dandelions or burdock.
By the way I have found burdock root to be really hard to harvest...ideas?