Staying safe while wild crafting

bcabrobin

There have been a lot of postings about not picking/foraging/wild crafting near farmers fields and we do have to be careful but a lot of our local farmers are going back to NO SPRAYING. Talk to your local guys and see. But know that some of the seeds have been coated in bug/mold killer so that is like spraying. They will be VERY unhappy if you are walking/driving all over the fields but if you stay on the edge and ask them for permission. Also find someone who has a farm stand maybe they will let you come help weed their fields and you get to take all the good stuff home for a few hours of helping someone else.

Please honor the purple paint (In many state a line of purple paint sprayed on trees or post means DO NOT ENTER/NO TRESPASSING) and the NO TRESPASSING signs. I don't care if that is the only place you can find that weed/herb. In my area it is shot first then find out way they are trespassing. We had a neighbor killed a number of years ago in a shot out with hunters that were on his land. More than 1 was hurt that day.

Know the wild animals what are in that area, snakes and poison insects.

Remember finding plants near old homesteads sometimes have high levels of lead, from old paint, in them.

Stay safe!

Torey

@bcabrobin Excellent points!

There was an article in provincial newspapers recently about Robin Kort who has started a company that teaches foraging. She is unable to do in person tours at the moment so she has set up some virtual tours.

This is a link to her virtual foraging (not free): https://foraging.teachable.com/. This is a link to her home page where you can access the blog (free) which has wild recipes among other things: https://www.swallowtail.ca/. Robin is a member of the Vancouver Mycological Society so she has quite a bit of experience with wild mushrooms as well as other wild edibles.

judsoncarroll4

I wrote something on this topic a while back. It is too long to post as a comment, so I'll have to post it as a new tread

LaurieLovesLearning

Here is a link to @judsoncarroll4's new thread:

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/843822/speaking-of-the-dangers-of-forging#latest

For those reading this current thread, this is a good thread for further reading on the subject of safety when wildcrafting. You can never have too much information on safety.

judsoncarroll4

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/860900#Comment_860900

Thanks!