Foraging

By: AMy kikuchi

CYBN Social Media Coordinator
​Amy has a Master of Environmental Science from the University of Toronto and is passionate about harvesting healthy and delicious plants found around Ontario. Check out her website for more content! 

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I started foraging a few years ago.⁠

It started with seeking out elusive and expensive things like morels and ramps, but over time, I came to the realization that I didn't have to travel deep into the woods. I could forage in my own yard. ⁠
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⁠It's always an adventure, and there is something so human about foraging and eating the food you have picked yourself. So many of us are disconnected from the products we buy, consuming things that come from halfway across the world, harvested by people we will never meet...makes you think.

Foraging has many benefits:⁠

• It gets you outdoors
• You can experience and taste new things
• Increases food security
• Reduces your carbon footprint
• It's fun!

Keep in mind, there is always a risk of overharvesting. Only harvest what you are going to eat or use...unless they are "weeds" or invasive plants, then harvest away!​​

Foraging can be fun, educational, and sustainable if done properly. Here are some basic rules before you start.

1. ⁠Know the laws and/or bylaws of the area you are foraging in; for example, the Toronto Parks Bylaw prohibits foraging in city parks and ravines.⠀
2. Make sure you get permission from the landowner before foraging on private land.
3. Be sure you know what plant you are harvesting!
4. ​Only harvest from areas that haven’t been contaminated or sprayed.
5. If it’s your first time trying a new plant, only have a little bit first. You never know what you may be allergic to!​
6. ⁠Finally, make sure to harvest sustainably, only taking what you need…Unless you are removing weeds or invasive plants.

We, as a larger society, have forgotten which plants are edible. We also seem to have forgotten that harvesting wild plants isn’t anything new or fancy. Indigenous people have been doing so for thousands of years. 
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⁠If we can see nature as part of our culture, if we see can open our eyes to all the delicious plants around us, if we can relearn what we have forgotten, perhaps we will become a society that better prioritizes and protects nature.⁠

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