No wonder, I am always jealous of the squirrels! Especially in the Fall season Particularly, when I see them enjoying the Acorns. I always knew, I was missing out. Ignorance is so faminizing!
Processed with Moldiv
See, I am a wild food hunter-gatherer. I am not afraid to venture out and scout for any food growing wildly; I don’t spare trees, no shrubs or weeds or soils. It is a reflection of my upbringing and nutritional diet.
I was born in the Pearl of Africa. Our family grew our own food, as well as partook of what nature freely provided. When we got sick, my mom would comb the bushes and trees for leaves, shrubs and grasses to cure all sorts of ailments like, fever, malaria, cough or cold, stomach pains and aches, headache, cuts or burns. You name it, she knew and found the medicine, employing the knowledge passed down to her by her mother and her mother’s mother.
As kids, we enjoyed fruits growing wildly on trees, beyond our backyard, such as, mangos, gooseberries, guavas, jackfruit, and plenty more I don’t know by English name. Soil and clay were not spared, either. Property ownership was to “The Commons”, not the now predominant individualized possession, which has overtaken communities, including in my origin.
To date, I am still a naturalist. Forget organic, the “post-modernist” newly found love for all things non-GMO! Funny enough, some “non-GMO” obsessive compulsives, denigrate wild foods as ‘unhealthy’ and ‘unsafe’ to eat. I call that ignorance!
Take for instance, an incident that happened last fall, while out on a group hike in our neighborhood big State Park. Along the hike in the woods, I stopped with Child Of Mine and his two cousins to pick and eat blueberries straight from the tree. One self-avowed “Mother Nature Keeper” expressed great shock that we were eating “unwashed wild fruits”! I thought to myself, what’s the worst that would happen? Guess what, we didn’t die!
Yet, she’s not alone with that form kind of ignorance. Several of my social relations have frown upon me picking apples, pears or peaches that grow freely on trees in my neighborhood. Undeterred, I still pick wild Dandelion, good for tea, salad, and a constipation remedy. I enjoy crops of wild mint for my tea and salad, blackberries and more in my backyard!
Ironically, I am often sternly cautioned that the fruits and shrubs might contain pesticides, by those whose “Organic” fruits comes from grocery stores, whose main source they have no clue about! Btw, one of the grocery store suppliers failed to give a straight up response, when I asked if and how the eggplant I bought from their store, could be “seedless” and still “organic”? I stopped buying their brand.
So, as I ate the “O-chestnuts” I bought from the grocery store, a thought crossed my mind that should ask Siri,”If, acorns are good for human consumption?” Voila!
Sorry neighborhood squirrels, may the eating competition begin! Hello trees in our yard; here I come! With empty bags and buckets, COM and I are gonna pick, crush, roast and grind acorns this weekend. For all kinds of recipes — paste, pie filling, soup, pudding, flour, or just roasted stone of acorn. And since we’ll be picking from the ground, I am hoping they’ll dried and good to go.
It’s the Fall y’all! Let’s enjoy the Fall Harvest wild food hunter gatherers!
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