City Pages NYT: A very rainy summer results in NYC being overrun with mushrooms
posted by The Whelk on Oct 22, 2011 - 23 comments

Ben Maleson, a second-generation mycoforager, plays the trumpet mushroom.
posted by overeducated_alligator on Aug 18, 2011 - 15 comments

Cryptoforestry is a heady blog that covers cryptoforests of all sorts, from feral forests that thrive next to heavily developed urban environments without human assistance, land in limbo and "states of vegetation for which lay-language has no name", incognito forests that hide in plain view, precognitive forests that are about to become forest or are forest Fata Morgana, and unappreciated forests that are considered wastelands. The scope of the blog covers local Utrecht sites to the "g/local" Amazon basin, and lands in-between. All this is filtered through the lens of psychogeography, emphasizing "the psychological effects of a forest rather than canopy cover or land use as of importance for classification." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jan 12, 2011 - 24 comments

My grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression, hung an image of Millet's "The Gleaners" on their living room wall. I never made the connection between those two things until I started reading about the modern gleaning movement. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes on Jan 11, 2010 - 21 comments

Wildman Steve Brill: The man who ate Central Park. Once arrested by undercover park rangers in a sting Wildman Steve Brill has been foraging in public spaces, including Central Park, for over 26 years. [more inside]
posted by Stewriffic on Jun 7, 2008 - 22 comments

Hunting and gathering in your own backyard: "Alistair Bland was a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara last year when he decided to spend 10 weeks as an urban hunter-gatherer. He foraged for food in that city and survived on what he could kill or find growing outside . . ." (Real Audio required). Bland reported on the project in more detail in the Daily Gullet.
posted by ryanshepard on Jan 18, 2004 - 9 comments

"Going Wild in Urban America - To be an individual hunter-gatherer in America is to lead a lonely life." Southern Californian hippy college student alienates friends, gains weight by subsisting on stolen figs (more inside).
posted by troutfishing on Sep 30, 2003 - 14 comments

Morel Sightings 2002 There's a fungus among us. Morels are one of the most highly sought-after, delectable wild mushrooms. Each spring, morel hunting goes into high gear in many parts of the country. This site has state-by-state reports. (mine is in MA) You can learn more about these spongy fungi here and here. If you do go out foraging for them, just remember...if you don't know it, throw it!
posted by martk on May 23, 2002 - 14 comments

A new Darwin Award candidate? "[Henry] Elrod's death certificate lists the cause as multiple organ failure from 'voluntary ingestion of China berries.' Indigenous to Asia, China berry trees produce berries, flowers and bark so toxic that six to eight berries have been known to kill a person." This guy ate them for 19 days while on holiday. He even took some home.
posted by Cuppatea on May 8, 2001 - 19 comments