Wild Berry Cakes for Camossung: A Prayer For Restoring The Garden

August 23, 2019.Reading time 17 minutes.

My family background is pretty diverse (stretching across Europe from Spain, France, Greece to Eastern Europe and Russia) so I harvest and write about the many foods my ancestors have eaten for literally thousands of years. But I also resonate deeply with the food cultures of the Coast Salish Peoples whose territories I occupy. How […]

Garlic Mustard & Olive Oil Bread Dip: Eat Your Invasives!

April 11, 2018.Reading time 13 minutes.

Words cannot say how much I love Garlic Mustard. Not just because of its velvety emerald coloured leaves, not because it is one the most versatile nutritious greens you can possibly eat, not because it is one of oldest food plants and possibly the oldest “spice”, and not because its green garlicky aroma fills me […]

Finding A Way Towards Ethical & Sustainable Community Supported Foraging

January 3, 2018.Reading time 21 minutes.

I’m passionate about reclaiming wild plants and “weeds” as the important ancestral foods and medicines that they are, so I’m thrilled people are reconnecting with our oldest and most primal relationship with the earth – foraging. I’m also a little concerned. While books, courses, educational walks, online resources, websites on wildcrafting and foraging are proliferating, […]

Stewards or Profiteers: Selling The Wild

December 15, 2017.Reading time 12 minutes.

I’ve been foraging for over a decade now, but lately, I’ve noticed a growing number of newly enthused “wildcrafting” entrepreneurs selling their wares. So imagine my surprise when a local wildcrafter recently insinuated that his enlightened approach to wildcrafting and stewardship of the land was opposed to the forager’s clear-cutting ways and take, take, take […]

The Why of Spring Nettle Pie

December 15, 2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

I am standing on the edge of a forest, my gumboots wedged in mud, the sun dappling the ground before me. There, standing in a warm mist, is the object of my foraging quest—spring nettles. But I’m not here because nettles currently grace the Instagram pages of every hipster from Portland to Copenhagen. Nor because […]

Ecofeminism & Ancestral Skills & The Reclamation of Food Magic

November 14, 2017.Reading time 11 minutes.

Okay, so let’s start by going back to the very beginning – women and wild food. Because once upon a time all food was wild – and it was the women who gathered it. And from harvest to preparation to consumption, no aspect of food production was left untouched by magical ritual. Many ecofeminists see […]

Reclaiming the Magical Herstory of Food

March 10, 2017.Reading time 20 minutes.

“When we learned to cook is when we became truly human, but we’ve lost touch with how that food got to our plates.” Michael Pollan in Cooked. As is so often the case with history, the “herstory” tends to get left out – and food is no exception. While there are as many books on food […]

Reclaiming The Radical Legacy Of The Witch

October 23, 2016.Reading time 15 minutes.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about witches. Not just because top ten lists of hot tv witches and sexy Halloween selfies currently swamp my social media feeds, but because my tables and shelves are currently so laden with herbs, plants, berries, phials and bottles that if an inquisitor of old were to […]

Eating Wild: The Missing Link to Optimum Health

February 18, 2016.Reading time 10 minutes.

I love that wild foods are the most nutritious, natural and sustainable of all foods – which is why they are a daily part of my diet. But because I still have to pay for the bulk of my sustenance, I’m ever so grateful to food journalist Jo Robinson and her wonderful book “Eating on the […]

Part 3. Ending The Toxic, Costly and Unnecessary War On Invasive Plants: Who Does The War Serve?

September 28, 2015.Reading time 18 minutes.

This investigative series follows my personal exploration into a big question – is the toxic chemical war we are waging on invasive plants doing more harm than good? To see my introduction to this series click here. In Part One and Two I explored evidence suggesting that, in the long run, invasive plants may be doing more […]

Part 2. Ending The Toxic, Costly and Unnecessary War On Invasive Plants: What is Pristine Anyway?

September 23, 2015.Reading time 14 minutes.

This investigative series follows my personal exploration into a big question – is the toxic chemical war we are waging on invasive plants doing more harm than good? The New and Ever-Changing Wild In Part One we examined evidence suggesting that invasive plants may not be the evil interlopers we’ve made them out to be. […]

Part 1. Ending The Toxic, Costly and Unnecessary War on Invasive Plants: Friend or Foe?

September 21, 2015.Reading time 15 minutes.

This investigative series follows my personal exploration into a big question. Is the toxic chemical war we are waging on invasive plants doing more harm than good? To read the introductory forward to this post click here. Invasive Plants: Noxious Enemy or Remedial Friend? Environmental journalist Fred Pearce was once a do-good invasive fighting conservationist. But […]