RE: In the Forest, Food is Free!
Thanks for the great post. Back in the 80's I had a business foraging herbs.It was not all rosy on the harvest side. We had clearcut foragers that would take all the plants in a patch. Some spies this is not a problem depending on what you harvest. Arnica for example you can harvest all the flower buds every harvest for the first two picking. The plant is actually the patch it has interconnection roots. Doing so expands the patch.
Other plants are not so forgiving.
When I was teaching foragers I would inform them proper Identification, Patch size to expand, What they could do to expand the patch.The part to harvest and how much without effecting the patch to leave no footprint. even with ethical foragers. This could lead to destruction of the patch. As if you processes the protocol especially the footprint a growing number of foragers. May not know you were there. Though they would never take it all they may reduce the patch to the point it no longer thrives.
I attempted to get industry support on a certification and patch registration program but got no were with that.
When Harvesting in the wild you need to 'farm' it the way you would do your own gardens. Hawthorn I would prune the way I would do in the garden. opening the plant for light harvest ability etc.
I had to quit as the money was only there in the large pharmaceutical projects. Nettle Max was one such project I did that was ethically sound. Things have evolved now though the are more that are interested in quality ethics rather than price.
@shantamcbain, I am a huge fan of this comment! Thank you for sharing! I would love to know more about foraging and it sounds like you are quite the fountain of information on the topic! I am just a novice in this area... always asking Google for help to make sure I am harvesting correctly. I grew up in a city with hardly any interaction with herbs, or plants so this is fairly new to me but I love absorbing everything I can and am going to follow, hopefully I can learn some more from you!
Thanks for sharing, I'll be looking out for more information on this!
Have a great day! :)
XO
heart-to-heart
Thank you for the kind comments. I has been some time since I was a forager. I began as I traveled from healing arts into foraging. I began to put my personal herbarium into electronic form A task far from complete. Over time it gone typed and hand written sheets to a word purfo t document to HTML documents and now in a database. The ap;ication started on http://forager.com The current version is on http://usbm.ca and the bee version on http://beemaster.ca
Wow, well thanks for sharing those resources with me. I can't wait to take a look! It sounds like I have a lot to learn and you have much to teach. Happy to have connected with you today! :)
We all have things to share. Each has their own story based on their experience in life. My sites and application is a tool for us all to share.
Hope what Is there is informative to you and feel free to join and share. I am looking into incorporating the steemit system to 'pay' for contributions.
Thank you for sharing your journey and experience! I look forward to learning more from you. I definitely want to be as conscious and ethical about wild harvesting as can be, always looking to help renew any areas I harvest from. Lately, I only ever harvest things in great abundance but would like to continue to learn how to best be of service to the local ecosystem.