Background story to the Challenge
As a forager and grower, I feel intimately connected with my surroundings. I may not have travelled the world, but I know every corner of my own Shire. Living with the seasons makes me look forward to the first rhubarb, the fresh shoots from the ground elder and the first sprigs of chickweed. I know when and where to look for raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, cherries, plums and apples, and where I might go to find porcini, chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms. In our shed is a large chest freezer where I store all the excess foraged food that we’re saving for later.
One day, when I was picking blackcurrants (one of my favourites) in Peterculter’s community garden, a granddad walked past me with his granddaughter. The girl was holding a small bag for her pickings. She saw me gobbling up a handful of fruit straight from the bush, and I said ‘go on, one for the bag, one for you!’. She pulled a face and her granddad sighed to me: “She won’t eat fruit unless it comes out of a plastic box from the supermarket”.
This little incident stayed with me. To me it epitomizes the general trend that I see all around me: as a species, humans have become far removed from the natural world in which they belong. They buy food out of season. They view wild fruits (let alone mushrooms!) with suspicion. They run on treadmills with music to distract them from the tedium, instead of out on the trails, where no distraction is needed, only immersion.
So this year, 2022, I want to do something about this. In my own small way. I want to raise awareness of our place in nature. A place that, once found, can restore not only our own mental and physical health, but also the health of the planet.
The Challenge
While I forage all year round, I also eat other things that do come from supermarkets. My plan is to cut this out and live almost entirely off foraged and homegrown food for one month (August 2022). There are 5 store-cupboard ingredients that I will keep using, as they enable me to make the most of my foraged ingredients: wholemeal flour, oil, sugar, salt and pepper. This will also enable me to keep making sourdough bread (which I have done since 2016), as a useful staple. Everything else I will have to find in the Shire or my own garden :-).
Fundraising
I am looking for people to sponsor me for this challenge. The suggested donation is the amount that you’d normally spend on food as a household in one day. The money will go to the River Dee Trust’s “One Million Trees” campaign (link to follow!). They are restoring the Dee’s natural habitat by planting native trees along the tributaries, that will in time give shade to cool the water – benefitting the salmon and all wildlife that in turn depends on them.
So, this challenge is a true win-win: raising awareness for our human place in the natural world, and raising money to restore a precious river habitat in one of the most beautiful places in the UK.
Thank you in advance for your support! Here is the link if you want to sponsor me:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Mirjam-Brady-Van-den-Bos1
The healthy forager 