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Taking a step beyond gardening and urban fruit collection, these intrepid foragers eat wild urban goodness (all veggie). There is much to enjoy in Chicago, except for the heavily dog pee covered patches:
Urban foragers are people who eat
what grows naturally from a very unnatural place— a city. In this
all-vegetarian Sky Full of Bacon podcast, urban foragers show us how
they find food all around them, and we nibble our way through a
remarkable wilderness literally in the shadow of Chicago’s skyscrapers.
...Feeling a little cabin feverish this
winter? This Sky Full of Bacon podcast (shot in September and October)
will take you back to a sunnier, somewhat greener time as we
explore the city looking for growing things to eat— from fruits to
herbs to medicines.
Sky Full of Bacon 07: Eat This City from Michael Gebert on Vimeo .
Nance Klehm's recipe for the dandelion-burdock tea that she brought along for our forage:
dandelion-burdock coffee
this rooty brew is highly
benefical for the liver, “the great absorber” of stress, alcohol and
other unhealthy things. we need to support it in its work and this is a
delicious way to do it!
dig dandelion and burdock
roots in early spring or late fall. if spring, wash and use greens for
salads, soups or stirfries, if fall, compost the tops or use them to
mulch a perennial in your yard. wash roots and cut into small pieces.
spread on a cookie sheet and roast for two hours in a 175 degree oven -
occasionally stirring to roast evenly. you will need a lot of them, and
there are a lot of them out there, so digdigdig.
to brew: put one 1/4 cup of
roasted root in a one quart jar and pour boiling water over the top,
cap and wait 4 hours or overnight. roots take a long time to extract
their beneficial minerals. in contrast, a shorter brew is only colored
water and carries none of the rich flavor or medicinal benefits. you
can drink this at room temperature, iced or gently reheat it if you
prefer it warm.
nance klehm will post her
‘living kitchen’ classes and monthly ‘urbanforage’ walks for 2009 on
spontaneousvegetation.net in late march.
Much of the groundwork was laid for this urban foraging back in the 80's by "Wildman" Steve Brill:
A funny thing happened to me when I was collecting dandelions one day in Central Park. Two tour participants were undercover city Park Rangers attending the tour!
Foraging for wild berries in Toronto by Stephen Leckie has loads of useful links!
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