Wild Food is simply food that you find in nature.

For many older generations, foraging wild food was a way of life. In our modern world, many of the skills and knowledge have been forgotten. In many ways, Wild Food is actually more healthy and nutritious than much of the food we buy at the supermarket. It's free of pesticides, not genetically engineered and has often more vitamins and nutrients.

For example - let's take a look at Lambsquarters.

Lambsquarters is an easy to find "weed" found growing in vegetable gardens, on disturbed soil (like construction sites), and along the fringes of fields and banks. It can be eaten raw or cooked. It is extremely delicious, with a flavor similar to spinach. In fact, one of its names is Belgian Spinach. It is also called goosefoot for the shape of its leaves.

The nutrition information is amazing. Take a look at the chart below (source: www.nutritiondata.com)

LAMBSQUARTER

Not bad for a "weed". Lambsquarters is factually much more nutritious than Lettuce, Kale and Spinach.

Why should you learn about Wild Food?

Learning about Wild Food is a wonderful way to supplement your modern-day diet, save money and become more self-reliant in case of emergencies. If you like to cook (like myself), you can also create incredible and unusual gourmet dishes for yourself or your guests; it's a sure way to entertain them.

There are MANY plants that are edible in the urban environment of Los Angeles. On a typical foraging hike, I usually collect as many as ten plants to create raw salads or for cooking. As an example, while hiking near Pasadena last weekend, I collected the following plants: wild mustard, dandelion, chickweed, wild radish, lambsquarters, figs, cattail, prickly lettuce and some lemon. Enough to create a wonderful nutritious green salad FOR THE WHOLE WEEK! and it was FREE!

Learning more about the wonderful world of WILD FOOD in the LOS ANGELES area

I've learned a lot about wild food from growing up in the country and from various people over the years. I was introduced to a better understanding of the local edible foods by doing many classes with Christopher Nyerges and to this day, I continue to attend some of his classes - Christopher is truly an expert in anything related to plants (edible, poisonous, medicinal) and wilderness survival skills. His web site is: www.christophernyerges.com .

Each month, I usually have a free class about "Exploring the Urban Wilderness" where I introduce people to wild food and various plants but if you really want to learn how to forage wild food, I suggest you attend Christopher's classes on a regular basis.

If you want to to find out about some of the gourmet dishes you can create with Wild Food, check the links on the left.