you can
buy, sell, swap or give away locally grown produce
Get in
touch with your local food community
freefood.org.nz@gmail.com
The mission
of Free Food New Zealand is no less than the widespread and free access to
fresh and naturally grown food, for everyone. In a way that is in balance with
nature.
Free Food New Zealand is
dedicated to the widespread planting and mapping of free food bearing plants
within public space.
Try picking
a weed for your salad
Last
updated 09:53 25/09/2009 (below are quotes from the article)
There is no
organised foraging group in Taranaki, says Kama Burwell of the Taranaki
Environmental Education Centre in Inglewood, although informal networks exist.
New
Plymouth District Council has public orchards where people can gather fruit.
Parks manager Mark Bruhn says that people are free to take the fruit, but are asked
to limit themselves to their own needs. "It's there for the whole
community. There's quite a range of heritage varieties, so there are some quite
unique trees there. It's a chance for people to reminisce and see some of the
old varieties."
The council
orchards on public land in New Plymouth are the Bayly Road Orchard (by
Mangaotuku Stream Esplanade Reserve), Brois Street (Sheppard's Bush Reserve)
and Milne Place (Milne Place Walkway). In Waitara, there is an orchard on
Strange Street (Barclay Park).
In South
Taranaki, there are several areas where free fruit will be available in years
to come. A number of apple and plum trees have been planted on Hawera streets
in the past two or three years, and a new edible garden is being planned as
part of the development of King Edward Park, curator David Bruce says.
Otaki wild foods enthusiast Steve Porteous, who with
partner Jenny Lindberg runs courses teaching people about nature, survival
and gathering food. His own interest began years ago with dandelions, as he was
pulling them out of his garden.
Steve
Porteous says people interested in eating wild plants should research them
first through books, libraries, talking to other people and using the internet.
New Zealand author Andrew Crowe has written several good identification guides,
including one for edible native plants, he says. There's no packet listing
ingredients in wild food, so knowing what you are eating is vital.
Steve and
Jenny will be holding workshops in Taranaki early next year.
Some of
these will be aimed at teachers and other people who work with children, to
enthuse them about teaching children about the natural world. Other topics to
be covered include basic survival and nature awareness and
"lost-proofing" people.
The
workshops are being organised by the Taranaki Environmental Education Centre in
Inglewood.
CONCEPT
A gallery
of edible and useful wild plants, here in Wellington,
NZ
created by Johanna Knox.
* If in
doubt, don't eat it.
* Avoid
foraging from roadsides and polluted places.
(My rule of
thumb is - would I plant a vegetable garden here?)
* Avoid
areas that may have been recently sprayed with herbicide.
(Although
harvesting new growth from areas that have been sprayed in the past should be
okay.)
* Get
permission before foraging on someone else's property, including farmland.
* Get to
know as many of our poisonous plants as you can, so you know what to avoid.
Here's a great online
resource from Landcare Research.
* Harvest
sustainably
Try eating
weeds. Johanna Knox shows us
how to rustle up a meal out of wild greenery
Whether
you're just thinking about starting to forage, or you have years of knowledge
and experience that you may be willing to share,
and whether
you're an occasional forager, or someone for whom it is an integral part of
your lifestyle or career, we hope you'll find something of value here.
May the
list spread enthusiasm for wild foraging, and continue to propagate some of its
inherent ideas, including self-reliance and sustainability.
Plants For
A Future is a resource centre for rare and unusual plants, particularly those
which have edible, medicinal or other uses.
Edible,
medicinal and useful plants for a healthier world (7000 plant database)
Medicinal
Herbs and Wild Foods
MAPPING
Edible Wellington - A Gatherer's Guide
 |
This map
shows fruit trees and other edible goodies available to Wellington gatherers.
Please add
to it and include as much info as possible
Edible Wild Fungi and Food information
Free Food
New Zealand Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/cjJ8Qb
Free Food
New Zealand Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/aY3NUl
If you are
an expert on such things, or know of one, please contact
me at
fredd@freefood.org.nz
I am
thinking of putting together a workshop/guided tour/nature walk
on wild
food in the area.
OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the
whole world.
It is made
by people like you.
OpenStreetMap
allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from
anywhere on Earth.
Locavore365.org
is where you can buy, sell, swap or give away locally grown produce.
Locavore365.org is a free site with two goals; to enable people anywhere in the
world, find or advertise, locally produced food. And to help develop and
strengthen local communities
Native Foraging
Edible New Zealand Natives
Recipes with Natives
Native Plants for Food and Flavouring
http://ooooby.ning.com
Edible New Zealand Natives
Edible New Zealand Natives
Comment by Sam Buchanan on
July 22, 2010 at 3:49pm
Ah - here's
the gen on seaweed (from my brother via
the whenuaforthepeople.org.nz
website). It's acid not acrid, and brown/green, not red : )
"There are, as far as I know, no really poisonous seaweeds, although one
genus of brown algae, Desmarestia, is highly acidic. This seaweed is found in
New Zealand (it is reasonably common around Wellington,although usually in
deeper water and found in drift on the shore). After a little storage it turns
green and exudes acid that breaks down any other seaweeds it is in contact
with. A little nibble will put you off this immediately - it is very acidic.
"Otherwise most seaweeds can be eaten, although most are just not
palatable (too tough or tasteless). Common edible seaweeds are Macrocystis
(used in kelp 'peppers' or kelp chips), Porphyra (Karengo, the same genus as
nori used in sushi) and various seaweeds used to make jellies (e.g.
Pterocladia, Gigartina). Bull kelp (Durvillaea) is added to stews in Chile, but
takes a fair bit ofcooking. I also use dried Gigartina decipiens as a clearing
agent in home brewed beer."
In addition
to Andrew Crowe, the book Economic Native Plants in New Zealand by S.
G. Brooker et al (which in the 2nd edition became New Zealand's Economic Native Plants by R.C. Cooper et al, just to
be confusing) is worth a look - it focusses on growing natives commercially, as
opposed to the 'what you can eat on a bush walk' focus of Crowe. The discussion
of the possibility of a cabbage tree-based sugar industry has always intrigued
me. The imposing Maori Healing and
Herbal by Murdoch Riley is the ultimate sourcebook for medicinals, and Nancy Adams' Seaweeds of New Zealand is
the champion for identifying those salty not-quite-real-plants things. I don't
know if there's anything particularly good on eating NZ seaweed, but they are
all technically edible, except for that one very acrid reddish species I can't
remember the name of. In any case, a small nibble will immediately put you off
it with no real harm done. MAPING
Community Gardens http://good.net.nz/magazine/community-gardens
community
gardens
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