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Foraging For Beginners
FORAGING FOR BEGINNERS
OUT OF THE HOTHOUSE AND INTO THE FIELD! FORAGED FLORA PIONEER AND BLOOMIST COLLABORATOR LOUESA ROEBUCK TAKES US FORAGING FOR NATURE’S ABUNDANCE.
My Dad’s family is from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Like many families of his generation, he was part Scottish and part Cherokee. Both deeply pantheistic lineages. He taught me how to observe and really see — just a deeper level of observation, of being still.
Interview by Diana Keeler | Photography Sean Jerd
DON’T JUST LOOK, OBSERVE
As you begin to forage, start to observe the paths you drive or walk, and start to observe what is in season and what’s not, and what’s growing all around. Maybe the fennel that’s so often overlooked on the side of the road. Maybe the magnolias or plums are blooming. Maybe you can see what herbs gone to seed are happening in your garden or your neighbor’s garden. Start asking the farmers at the farmers’ market if they have any more herbs on their farm. Start observing and asking — if you go to the farmers’ market every week for a year, you’ll have a new sense of what’s available. I adore those brilliant charts that tell us which vegetables are in season — I wish everyone had a chart like that for flowers. Start keeping your own journal of what’s in season and what you find beautiful in early February, in late May, in late harvest season, in the bleakness of December. There is always something sublime out there.
“EMBRACE EVERY STAGE OF LIFE WITH EQUAL RESPECT AND JOY”
Don’t just look for blooms! We’re a youth-obsessed culture, and that extends to the floral world, this fixation on the dewy beauty of spring. The flora industry is hyper-focused on spring and new blooms, but we can start making the connection to every season. Embrace every stage of life, with equal respect and joy, the decay of late harvest or early winter, the sparseness of solstice, the beauty of a common “weed.” Of course, I’ve always rejected the term weed.
ADHERE TO THE FORAGER’S CODE
Have a code of ethics — usually it’s common sense — about what’s responsible to cut in your neighborhood. If your neighbors have roses, talk to your neighbors. I’m starting to use the word “gleaning” more than “foraging.” Foraging is about going out in the f ields and cutting — gleaning is more about what’s extra, what’s left in the fields after the harvest. The idea is that there’s beautiful abundance all around us — so we don’t have to bring beauty in from away.
Have a code of ethics — usually it’s common sense — about what’s responsible to cut in your neighborhood. If your neighbors have roses, talk to your neighbors. I’m starting to use the word “gleaning” more than “foraging.” Foraging is about going out in the f ields and cutting — gleaning is more about what’s extra, what’s left in the fields after the harvest. The idea is that there’s beautiful abundance all around us — so we don’t have to bring beauty in from away.
More of Louesa’s work can be found in her book, Foraged Flora
