My Foraging Heart

I love to run in scenic locations. Hiking is amazing. But I have a tiny problem that seems to take hold of me when I am in these beautiful serene places. It may be a disease, or a primal urge that has been rooted inside of me since the beginning of man...I am a forager. I look at the forests and see food. Food everywhere, from dandelions to ferns. From blackberries to wild hazelnuts.

I sometimes dream about a month long vacation where I am taught to live in the wild, eating nothing but wild plants. Could it be that I am a serial eater? That the one thing that drives my creativity to highest level is food preparation? I don't know what it is, but yesterday, it hit me again. It is August, we have hit the tip of blackberry season here in Washington, and if they are ripe, I will find them. Matthew and I decided to go to our local park to go running. Matthew is quickly becoming a champion runner, and I don't mind the jog, I hope in a few years to do races together.

We get to the park and start right away, I have to really concentrate on running, otherwise, I am scanning the forest for bright berries. We ran for perhaps 3/4 of a mile, when Matthew and I start to walk. Then, It happens. I see trailing blackberries (the sweetest of the blackberries in my opinion), I steer right off the paved path. As I pick the berries, I narrate to Matthew what I am doing what berry it is and how to find it. I tell him you have to be careful of spiders, and poison ivy, oak or stinging nettle that might be coexisting with the bramble bush...I tell him he must NEVER eat a berry he cannot recognize, and if he can recognize it he must still be weary of pesticides. I do translate this into five year old speak. Even still, I am nervous that I may be instilling a dangerous habit in my son.

Despite my reservations, I am addicted. (In fact as I write this, I tell Matthew that later we should walk down the street to the blackberry bushes with our pails). So, as I find these blackberries, something else catches my eye. Black Raspberry. Jackpot! I quickly start picking the berries. I then discover there is a few thimble berries near by. Soon I had a berry salad courtesy of my local park.

It effects me running most. I love to run by Capitol Lake in Olympia. While I run listening to my music, it takes all my will power not to stop running and start foraging. I could see a ripe bunch of berries from a mile away. A few of my favorite finds are Huckleberries, Black Raspberries and Thimble berries. I am overjoyed when I find a wild blueberry bush. But it doesn't stop at berries. Wild asparagus, wild onion and hazelnuts are other eye catchers.

Do they have support groups for this? Or should I harness my instincts and run with it? I know the dangers and I am always cross-referencing my finds with books and Internet searches...I keep telling myself in the case of survival, I should be able to at least make it through summer with my berries.