Foragers and gardeners are often not the same people... Why?

[cab]

Pondering this for some time.

I've got a wee garden with fruit in it, and some salads and the like. The stuff that benefits from shelter. I've got a few chooks poking round the garden too, they give me eggs. There's also the allotment, which gives me bulkier veg like beans, spuds, carrots, garlic, squashes, courgettes etc. And of course more fruit trees.

My weekends will often include allotment work, dealing with the garden and of course foraging - in fact I sort of think of the three things in the same way, they're all ways of getting tasty things to eat where I've some control over how they're produced and the impact that has on the world around me. For the same reason I'm most particular when it comes to sourcing meat...

Now most of the folks down the allotments are baffled by the suggestion of eating fat hen or chickweed. They're cool with having blackberries in a hedge, but thats as far as they go for foraging. And most foragers I've met aren't that keen on the whole gardening thing. 

Why, so often, are gardeners not foragers? And what is it about gardening that many foragers don't much seem to get?

Thoughts?

[foragingmouse]

Personally I've not been in a position to have a proper garden I have a few raised beds that I play with but I don't get the same enjoyment from it for me it's about the process of foraging , the hunt as it were , that feeling you get when hours of walking is repayed with a host of edibles and excuse the chance of going against the grain foraging supply's food for free ?? Never have I ever found it to be free I put a lot of effort into foraging and it may be financially free but I pay in effort and time and that gives me a sense of usefulness and purpose and there is always the question of 'what will I find today '? It's the unknown .

[edenwildfood]

I do like the idea, and maybe i would get more into it in the future, but i think im a bit lazy for gardening, it doesnt grip or inspire me, i like wild foods as generally have better flavour and vitamins but mainly because i love foraging, the never knowing what youre going to find, natures hide and seek kind of feeling. You dont get that with gardening, its quite hard work and just doesnt excite me. I would like to become more self sufficient so would look at getting an allotment or veg plot one day for sure, and would love hens, my parents have them.

from the other point of view gardeners like the "why buy that i can grow it for free type thing" and they can grow what they consider prime ingredients so why would they want to eat "weeds" etc. they just grow what they need.

[Brewforagegrow]

I'm similar to you cab, forage, have a (quarter plot) allotment, greenhouse and raised beds/fruits at home in the garden, 4 chooks for eggs and completely agree that whilst there are large similarities in foraging and growing they are also world's apart.
Gardening is, for the most part very structured, involves planning months ahead of the harvest, tending and caring for the crops until they reach the peak and can be eaten. Also, if you sow a row of parsnip or carrot, when you come back to that row you know what you're picking.

Foraging on the other hand is almost completely opposite, completely hit or miss as to whether you'll find something, no exact control on what you can eat when, by its very nature often comes in gluts which have to be dealt with to extend the "harvest" if you want to enjoy it longer. Also there needs to be a large amount of confidence in your ability to identify things. If you see an umbilifier in the wild to use the same family as above it may well be wild carrot, or something deadly poisonous.

I appreciate I've taken a few liberties in the structure of my points above, but I think the jist holds true. Every piece of fruit and veg I grow and consume is a small step towards self sufficiency, and the surest I can be that no chemicals etc were used in growing it. Foraging enhances this and gives some fantastic flavours and meals on top of this.

To my scatty brain the 2 work together, you just have to be willing to sacrifice 100% dedication to either to have both. I'll never be a master gardener, and will probably be foraging for decades before I have the knowledge of some people my age now, but hopefully i can have some of the best of both worlds.

[edenwildfood]

I think Scott said it with the planning thing, I personally cant be bothered. I do fancy an allotment but will only grow stuff that doesnt require a lot of tending. Or stuff thats higher priced to buy, mange tout, etc. If i looked at it in practical terms high end foraged food if i can find it can be used to barter for allotment stuff, I already have an offer from a grocers to take some foraged food for store credit, and im sure there would be lots of allotment holders willing to trade produce for wild mushrooms and other foraged goodies they cant grow. For me its a matter of the amount of time and commitment needed to produce anything worthwhile, possibly with getting hit by various pests and diseases plants yet etc vs me just finding wild food when im out walking my dog, or enjoying the outdoors, i find gardening a lower return on investment of effort.

that being said thats from my position now of knowing a lot of wild plants etc, and not as much gardening techniques etc, if id been taught both from the get go id be a lot further on with both, its only more effort for me (apart poss from physical effort) because it would involve me learning lots of new info.

[cab]

I find I'm overlapping growing and foraging. I've got a bed which has Alexanders in it, which grew from seed I harvested wild on a clifftop in Dorset years ago, for example. The soft fruit is mostly grown from cuttings of currants and gooseberries taken from the wild, and my whole fruit area with raspberries and other rubus fruit under my fruit trees is more or less a semi-wild foraged area. My front garden is also based around a permaculture theme, with early greens appearing before being over-grown by fruit plants through Summer and in to Autumn. While I totally get why foraging and gardening are different, imho the two can learn from each other - many of the tastiest wild greens are really successful opportunists on the allotment, and knowing how things grow and thrive in the wild is a great inspiration for low-intensity, low work forest gardening

[eatlikekings]

I have also pondered this, and agree with the point about foraging having an 'unknown' quantity. Further evidence, for me, comes from my excitement (or not) at picking chanterelles and Porcini now, versus when I started again a couple of years ago. They are still as delicious as they ever were, but now that I know where they are and when they grow and that I can get a bucketful in an hour, I am less excited about them than I used to be.

Fishing tho, which is much less predictable, still gets me up at 4am...........

[edenwildfood]

It's what you said about intermittent reinforcement I think.

[mushroommatt]

Have any of you read "The One Straw Revolution" here's a link www.onestrawrevolution.net/One_Straw_Revolution/One-Straw_Revolution.html. It is by a Japanese man who developed a system called "Do nothing gardening" It is ideal for foragers as you are growing your crops with what gardeners call weeds.