Creating a Lifestyle of Foraging

Creating a Lifestyle of Foraging

More than survival, it could be a way of life that saves you money, but makes for a more healthful way to eat. You will be introduced to a way that is old as man. You will discover exotic flavors that cannot be found anywhere else. The educational value alone is a great reward that you can pass down to your kids and relatives. I have taken my grand kids on many of Christopher’s wild food hikes, they learn very fast and really enjoy themselves. It is an experience they will use the rest of their lives. The empowerment one achieves reduces the demand of being dependent on the store and spending big bucks on crappy food. Fresh from the wild garden is a delight to involve yourself with.

Foraging includes a lot of things, like furniture and other household items. One of the things I see a lot of are building materiel’s that you can just pick up. Dumpster diving is a thing that many do and receive some very useful goodies. I know some would be embarrassed just being seen doing this activity, but the real deal is no one knows you anyway. Cruise the alleys and stop when you spy something of interest. Just because it’s in the trash or sitting on the curb doesn’t mean it is not any good. Americans are a wasteful bunch and you can take advantage of that fact. I have found bricks and cement blocks that I could use. I have found full buckets of paint

When I lived in the city, I would ride my bike through the alleys and find overhanging branches filled with apples, oranges, lemons peaches and apricots and avocados ripe for the taking. I found TVs that worked and other things like stoves and once a fridge that was only a few years old. I would head back home get my pick-em-up truck, load the bounty and sell it at a yard sale. Years ago I knew a guy who had had a big time job, made lots of money, etc.. Finding himself out of work, he was at his wits end— could not find a job to save his own self. He began looking for old stoves, cleaned them up, and put an add in the paper. Today you would use Craigslist or some such. He advertised that he had one stove, clean and working well. He never said the brand. In reality he had several stoves but only put one out on the front lawn. Once he sold that one he would bring out another and place it on the front lawn. Sometimes he sold 5 or 6 stoves a day… Very smart!

If you live in a place where rock is plentiful, you have building materiel for a house or a shed, even a chicken coop or a dog house. Make your own root cellar. The rocks are free, all you need is your own labor. It is amazing how much found building materiel you can glean for free. In Burbank, California, where I grew up, there are a lot of houses that were built on smaller lots. The houses are somewhat odd shaped but are considered cute. This was in a building boom time frame. and the houses constructed to match the wood lengths. The results were each home a bit different. In today’s market they are considered a collectible. The designer of these homes was a contractor who took advantage of all the waste he saw. He built dozens of homes and made a killing.

You can live well by using your head for foraging. One might even be able to not have to work a real job to be in good shape. In essence, you are creating a new hunter gatherer type. Be creative and look around with a hunter / gatherer eye and a whole world can open up for you. This is a part of being self reliant. If nothing else you will save money.

Road kill should not be overlooked. . Some feel this is unclean, but if it is fresh you have to take advantage. In some states it is not legal, In other states you need a permit, but in many states it is now legal. 1000s of critters are killed on the road every year. They even have books on cooking roadkill. Once, several years ago, I was on a wild food hike with Christopher and some students. We found a fresh killed deer that had been hastily covered with leaves and debris by a mountain lion. We looked around and could not spot the lion—doesn’t mean he was not watching us. We took a few cuts of the meat and later cooked the fine venison and had our foraged meat and wild salad for lunch.