Wild herb gathering for health, fun, trade and profit

[josephusminimus]

Almost anywhere a person finds himself/herself outside urban areas the forests, the deserts, the grader ditches are filled with plantlife non-science, non-medicos somewhere use as traditional remedies, food seasonings, religious rite components.&nbsp; Learning to recognize these herbs is relatively easy, particularly with field guides available.&nbsp; Learning their potential values, uses&nbsp;and methods of collecting and preservation is a bit more complex, but relatively clinical.<br /><br />But for the person willing to do it, gathering wild sage and bundling it for smudging, for instance, can bring in some bucks by selling it, either to individuals, or to stores carrying it.&nbsp; Or possibly on Ebay or craigslist.&nbsp; The demand is greater than the supply and becomes more so with every passing year.<br /><br />Sacred 'mountain smoke' is another combination of herbs with a market on Native American reservations.&nbsp; Or hambasa, a food seasoning of a particular mountain parsley.<br /><br />This isn't something of interest to the general stereotype user of this forum I'm gradually forming in my opinion-matrix, but there's a possibility a silent faction of readers matching some other profile or stereotype would find the activity amusing, worthy of pursuit.<br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[josephusminimus]

<br /><img src="http://www.brassunicorn.com/productimages/buproducts/sage/whitebundles.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.brassunicorn.com/leaderpages/sage.html">http://www.brassunicorn.com/leaderpages/sage.html</a><br /><br />here's a for instance.&nbsp; Sage bundles.&nbsp; Retailers will usually pay the supplier [the person who gathered and bundled the sage] 50% of the retail price of the bundle.&nbsp; White sage bundles at the linked site retail for $7.50.&nbsp; In the area of Taos, Santa Fe and Sedona they'd probably be higher today.<br /><br />But the stores have huge difficulties getting consistent supplies, even though it's a common herb and abundant on BLM, USFS lands in the area, even in the grader ditches, to be cut and bundled with no objection from anyone.<br /><br />

 

[Rollin]

I would love to have the&nbsp;knowledge&nbsp;to go out ID and&nbsp;forage&nbsp;for wild&nbsp;edible&nbsp;plants. I bought a field&nbsp;manual&nbsp;last year just for this purpose. All I can say is this is a major undertaking to say the least!<br /><br />According to the field manual I&nbsp;possess, forging can be VERY risky to the&nbsp;inexperienced. The author&nbsp;recommended&nbsp;that the forager cross reference several sources (field manuals)&nbsp;before&nbsp;committing&nbsp;to consuming any wild plant.&nbsp;Even then there could be the risk of mistaken&nbsp;identity... His&nbsp;recommendation&nbsp;is to learn for an&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;forager in person.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />One thing I learned in the book that I found interesting was that even though you have&nbsp;successfully identified a certain&nbsp;edible&nbsp;specie, that&nbsp;doesn't&nbsp;necessarily&nbsp;mean it is at the stage where it is ready for harvesting.&nbsp;Some plants are&nbsp;poisonous&nbsp;or bitter/&nbsp;inedible&nbsp;during&nbsp;different&nbsp;stages of there life cycle.<br /><br />This seems to be a lost art that was so common to the&nbsp;indigenous&nbsp;peoples across the globe. In my&nbsp;opinion&nbsp;gathering would make for a great&nbsp;hobbie&nbsp;if someone had the time to do the required&nbsp;research. &nbsp;And like Jake stated, gathering could be a&nbsp;potential source of income/food supply if you know what you were doing.

 

[josephusminimus]

I would love to have the&nbsp;knowledge&nbsp;to go out ID and&nbsp;forage&nbsp;for wild&nbsp;edible&nbsp;plants. I bought a field&nbsp;manual&nbsp;last year just for this purpose. All I can say is this is a major undertaking to say the least!<br /><br />According to the field manual I&nbsp;possess, forging can be VERY risky to the&nbsp;inexperienced. The author&nbsp;recommended&nbsp;that the forager cross reference several sources (field manuals)&nbsp;before&nbsp;committing&nbsp;to consuming any wild plant.&nbsp;Even then there could be the risk of mistaken&nbsp;identity... His&nbsp;recommendation&nbsp;is to learn for an&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;forager in person.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />One thing I learned in the book that I found interesting was that even though you have&nbsp;successfully identified a certain&nbsp;edible&nbsp;specie, that&nbsp;doesn't&nbsp;necessarily&nbsp;mean it is at the stage where it is ready for harvesting.&nbsp;Some plants are&nbsp;poisonous&nbsp;or bitter/&nbsp;inedible&nbsp;during&nbsp;different&nbsp;stages of there life cycle.<br /><br />This seems to be a lost art that was so common to the&nbsp;indigenous&nbsp;peoples across the globe. In my&nbsp;opinion&nbsp;gathering would make for a great&nbsp;hobbie&nbsp;if someone had the time to do the required&nbsp;research. &nbsp;And like Jake stated, gathering could be a&nbsp;potential source of income/food supply if you know what you were doing.

<br /><br />Hi Rollin:&nbsp; If anyone was likely to actually pursue this line of interest your post would be worth considerable discussion.&nbsp; But the readers appear to generally be urban-type folks involved in other matters.<br /><br />Prudent knowledge of what a person puts into his mouth is certainly advisable.&nbsp; But learning the potentially poisonous plants likely to be found in a given locality's a relatively simple matter.<br /><br />A few generations ago half the kids in rural America were gathering poke salads to be carried home to eat, or to eat while camping and fishing.&nbsp; Most of us could recognize and name by local lingo the name of every plant we saw, knew whether it was good for anything, dangerous to livestock, whatever.<br /><br />Trying to know everything about plants in all regions would definitely be a big job of work, though.&nbsp; The pre-fear-era field guides advised caution of a lessor degree than you've described.<br /><br />I suspect mushrooms and fungus of various kinds are the reason for the more broadbrush application of cautionary advice.&nbsp; Mushrooms are an entirely different matter.<br /><br />On the other hand, smudge bundles aren't for eating, sage isn't going to be mistaken for any other flora, is abundant, and I anticipate it being a piece of my future income.<br /><br /><br />Edit:&nbsp; Probably if I were a neophyte interested in doing some of this I'd get myself an inexpensive&nbsp;digital microscope with a USB connector to the comp.<br />QX5 Microscope - Digital Blue QX5 Digital Microscope<br /><a href="http://www.compuvisor.com/qx5diblmicom.html">http://www.compuvisor.com/qx5diblmicom.html</a><br /><br />I'd use it to take a pic of the plant in question and compare it to the plant illustrated in an Audobon or similar field manual.&nbsp; Shoot a quick spectroscope analysis to them for comparison and a solid verification of the plant ID.<br /><br /><br /><h1 class="entry-title">DIY Build OpenSource Spectrometer for Cheap</h1><a href="http://geeknizer.com/diy-build-spectrometer-for-cheap/">http://geeknizer.com/diy-build-spectrometer-for-cheap/</a><br /><br />

 

[twokniveskatie]

Rollin-
I have been learning quite a bit about foraging. I had a lot of the same concerns as you. I have some online friends and resources that have helped a lot. I'll dig up some links for you.

I started out with a Petersons guide to edible wild plants. There are quite a few plants that have no poisonous look-alikes. That gave me confidence to strike out to new stuff. I have quite a few favorites that rival anything available in a grocery store as far a taste and nutrition.

My iPhone has been a great resource. My foraging app by wild man Steve Brill is loaded with pictures and info. Cost me $9 but has way more info than any printed field manual, with many more pictures at different stages of growth. I also have an app called leafsnap where you can take pics and email to a database for help identifying something.

I'll dig up some links for you. One of my favorite teachers is Rebecca Lerner, who specializes in urban foraging.

 

[twokniveskatie]

Rebecca'a blog is a good place to start. she will have references to other knowledgable people, like Sam Thayer and Urban Scout. Scout has long taught people on the streets of Portland how to start fires with a bow drill. Google him, he's a friend of mine.

Here is Rebecca's site:

http://firstways.com/

ETA: you can sign up for her blog by email. Facebook is a great resource for foraging groups too.

 

[Rollin]

Thanks for the link Katie! Looks like a great blog site and I will be looking for those on facebook also.&nbsp;<br /><br />

 

[stude53]

Katie, <br /><br />If Scout has long taught people how to start fires with a bow drill on the streets of Portland, I hope he also taught them <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> to start those&nbsp;fires in urban areas. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/nono.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><img src="/images/boards/smilies/rofl.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><img src="/images/boards/smilies/rofl.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><img src="/images/boards/smilies/rofl.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br />Bob<br /><br />

 

[mad*sparrow]

wow! this is something I've wanted to persue all my life!Yul Gibbons was my hero

 

[josephusminimus]

wow! this is something I've wanted to persue all my life!Yul Gibbons was my hero

Those Yuel Gibbons books covered the subject fairly well.&nbsp; Took a lot of the mystery out of it all.