I’m deep in the woods, four very vocal juvenile hawks are flying in a circle above me, and that puts me on high alert. Is something in the woods with me? Should I get ready to do all the things experts tell you not to, that is scream and run rather fast? I push away the hood of the waterproof poncho I’m wearing so that I can hear better. I’m met by a silence that is punctuated by the occasional rustling of leaves, birds chirping, and the snapping of twigs underneath my rain boots, which are instrumental in times like these. This is my version of “touching grass” or in other words, grounding myself.

I’d been introduced to foraging by way of wild violets years ago but I hadn’t been as keen on it (the practice) as I am now — that came later, in 2020, during the pandemic when I took a class called Wild and Foraged Foods as part of my graduate school curriculum. Our weekly assignments were to turn in field notes that highlighted any edibles we found that week. I was more than successful every week, finding new things thanks to a small network of friends who knew experts or they themselves where experts on all things ethnobotany and nature.

Here’s the thing with plants, once you learn to identify them, then it is all you see everywhere, all the time. And you wonder to yourself — was I always this unconscious? And the beauty of foraging, of nature really, is that it teaches you equanimity. To accept what is as it comes because you cannot control the outcome. One year there was a mast crop of shagbark hickory nuts and the next year, nary a hickory in sight. It also means that sometimes the window is so small, there is no room for culinary experiments. And because the climate is forever changing, I have to wait and see what will be found from one foraging season to the next.

If you find yourself wanting to learn more about foraging, the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants is a good place to begin. Also, I have learned so much from the following people: Forager Chef, Hunger Gather Cook, Alexis Nicole (@blackforager) and Dina Falconi (@foragingandfeasting). And lastly, look up the foraging laws in your locale because these vary state by state.

Dispatch from the Field will be an ongoing series where I will share my field notes as well as culinary applications for things I find.