Take a Walk on the Wild Side

It was an early fall day when most plants were just skeletons of their former selves, dry and snapping in the wind. I was just six years old, excitedly exploring the land behind the old Army barracks in which we lived. The Tri-Stan Housing Project were barracks donated in 1946 by the federal government and turned into housing for Tri State University students, where my father was a freshman in engineering. No longer standing, they were replaced by Angola's Commons Park.

Tri-Stan Housing Project, Angola, Indiana.

I made my way along the tree line and into a tangled mess of vines. There on the ground was a round, red ball. A tomato! What was a tomato doing on the ground, attached to this dried up vine? I picked it up and cradled it in my small hands. A tomato! I began to notice the plants in this spot were different than the others I had been walking through. There was more dirt and things grew in straight lines. I soon spotted another dried up vine, and there was a cucumber! What was a cucumber doing growing on a dried up vine? I picked the cucumber and held it in my hand along with the tomato. I was confused and delighted, all at the same time.

Laying in the dirt under a pile of sticks and old plants was a board. I set my tomato and cucumber aside and pulled the old piece of wood out of its resting spot. A perfect table. I brushed off the top of the board and placed it in the sunshine. I set my tomato and my cucumber on top of the old gray plank. What else grew in this magical place?

I began searching everything that poked out of the dirt for something edible. If I didn't see anything above the dirt, I pulled the plant up to see what was under the ground. Imagine my surprise when the bright orange roots greeted me! What were carrots doing buried in the ground? I placed my carrots next to the tomato and the cucumber. A feast!

That was the day I learned that food grew outdoors. I felt like I was a pilgrim, a pioneer. I was having a real Thanksgiving, just me and my tomato, cucumber, and carrots. What magic to discover my very own secret food place!  Thus began my quest for wild foods.

Grandma and Grandpa's house was in the middle of the woods, and was surrounded by big beautiful hickory and sassafras trees. Grandma loved to pick up hickory nuts, and taught me to avoid the ones with holes in them. We used the metal nutcracker and the picks to get the nutmeats out. Yummy! Hickory nuts are so tasty!

Grandpa with one of his largest puffballs.

They had morel mushrooms, too. I found some giant ones in their woods one year, the kind that are a foot tall. Grandpa also used to gather puffballs and would proudly line them up on the stone wall next to their driveway. They looked like ivory basketballs.

As I got older and could read better, I checked books out of the library on wild foods. I read "My Side of the Mountain" and dreamed of running away to the mountains to live off the land. I had to settle for creating a camp in the field behind my house. I spent hours there, studying wild foods, making wild carrot stew for the neighbors, living life like it should be lived.

Grandma used to tell me stories of the time when she was a little girl. She said that every week a woman would come by their house pulling a big cart piled high with dandelion  greens. Grandma loved dandelion greens and rejoiced when I would bring her fresh bunches of the highly nutritious leaves.

It is no wonder I now have a wild foods business,Where the Wild Foods Grow. I am in the beginnings of spring harvest time, gathering stinging nettles, dryad's saddle mushrooms, garlic mustard for pesto, watercress, violet flowers and leaves, and many more. I love going out and exploring the woods and fields, seeking out foods that you can get nowhere else. There are so many nutrients and healing properties in these foods that they are well worth the time to find.

But what I enjoy more than anything else is sharing my knowledge with others. What a joy to watch someone find their first morel or dryad's saddle! Or to see their face after eating the first bite of elderberry jelly on warm homemade bread.

Eat a dandelion. Find a morel. Let the sun shine on your face. Take a walk on the wild side today.