Okay, awesome, show us a haul! Teach me to get up my butt and go foraging. Are we just eating mushrooms and berries? Not that I mind, it’s giving Pythagoras.
Around here we have pokeberries, which are supposedly edible if you boil the fuck out of them. They can kill you if you don’t do it right though; that’s not something I’m willing to brave yet. You did call me out - I’m pretty lazy and I could grab pecans from random folks’ yards.
All of the edible mushrooms I know of tend to stick to wooded areas - do I need to start walking there to build a shelter now? (I’d drive, but again, nearest wooded area costs $10 to park and I’d rather just buy a rotisserie chicken at that point).
Look, I have no clue where you live, but there are plenty of free resources on foraging online. I currently live in the UK, you can forage mussels, seaweed and pretty much anything else. There are big dedicated YouTube channels with indepth guides and groups which do foraging walks where more experienced members will show you what to pick and what not to touch. Saying that foraging is impossible is just completely false.
The high schoolers and their families I worked with in the inner city had no access to natural areas. I guess they could dumpster dive, but most places lock or contaminate their dumpsters. I’m not arguing that it is impossible everywhere. But foraging requires living an area that supports it, and having the knowledge base specific to that area. Some areas will have kind and knowledgeable people who will be willing to help educate, some will not. Foraging can be dangerous - deadly species can look like edible species. If you use online resources without training, you could easily misidentify a species - there are many many poisonous plant and fungi species that look identical to choice species. Areas can also be contaminated - the area I did my field work had extremely high levels of arsenic and there would have been no way I could have known if I wasn’t doing field work there!
Suggesting that one is lazy by being unable to forage for their survival is, well I’m struggling to find a word less unkind than idiotic but maybe naïve is better.
Yes, we all have the choice to go rogue, drive to the middle of nowhere with nothing but a tent, bags of lentils and rice, some other basic supplies. You need to find a place remote enough to be not harassed by forest rangers, forgo all medical care except that you can provide yourself, research enough to realistically subsist on nothing but the species indigenous to the nearest possible location one could do this. I think for any of US based folks - maybe Alaska?
I genuinely would enjoy hearing a good faith explanation of how one can do this. I fucking loved reading /k/ shit lol.
Mate, the point is that life is free. If you want to enjoy comforts of a modern society - pay up. But no one is forcing you to do so, just live off nature.
Okay, awesome, show us a haul! Teach me to get up my butt and go foraging. Are we just eating mushrooms and berries? Not that I mind, it’s giving Pythagoras.
Around here we have pokeberries, which are supposedly edible if you boil the fuck out of them. They can kill you if you don’t do it right though; that’s not something I’m willing to brave yet. You did call me out - I’m pretty lazy and I could grab pecans from random folks’ yards.
All of the edible mushrooms I know of tend to stick to wooded areas - do I need to start walking there to build a shelter now? (I’d drive, but again, nearest wooded area costs $10 to park and I’d rather just buy a rotisserie chicken at that point).
Look, I have no clue where you live, but there are plenty of free resources on foraging online. I currently live in the UK, you can forage mussels, seaweed and pretty much anything else. There are big dedicated YouTube channels with indepth guides and groups which do foraging walks where more experienced members will show you what to pick and what not to touch. Saying that foraging is impossible is just completely false.
The high schoolers and their families I worked with in the inner city had no access to natural areas. I guess they could dumpster dive, but most places lock or contaminate their dumpsters. I’m not arguing that it is impossible everywhere. But foraging requires living an area that supports it, and having the knowledge base specific to that area. Some areas will have kind and knowledgeable people who will be willing to help educate, some will not. Foraging can be dangerous - deadly species can look like edible species. If you use online resources without training, you could easily misidentify a species - there are many many poisonous plant and fungi species that look identical to choice species. Areas can also be contaminated - the area I did my field work had extremely high levels of arsenic and there would have been no way I could have known if I wasn’t doing field work there!
Suggesting that one is lazy by being unable to forage for their survival is, well I’m struggling to find a word less unkind than idiotic but maybe naïve is better.
No one is forcing you to live in the inner city. It’s your choice, enjoy the benefits!
Yes, we all have the choice to go rogue, drive to the middle of nowhere with nothing but a tent, bags of lentils and rice, some other basic supplies. You need to find a place remote enough to be not harassed by forest rangers, forgo all medical care except that you can provide yourself, research enough to realistically subsist on nothing but the species indigenous to the nearest possible location one could do this. I think for any of US based folks - maybe Alaska?
I genuinely would enjoy hearing a good faith explanation of how one can do this. I fucking loved reading /k/ shit lol.
Mate, the point is that life is free. If you want to enjoy comforts of a modern society - pay up. But no one is forcing you to do so, just live off nature.