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Balance: how to sustainably harvest native plants

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

I am a filmmaker, working with a non-profit in Maine, to create a film on how to sustainably harvest native plants. You can see the trailer for the film here. https://vimeo.com/212681354

Here is a link to the Kickstarter for the project
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1414303942/balance-how-to-sustainably-harvest-native-plants

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wisconsitom

9 years ago

Hmmm? Not sure how a film that helps to popularize the activity of foraging for wild plants....helps preserve those plants. I do agree with a number of the points made however, including the basic one that any hope for "conservation" in the emerging world will involve humans and human activity somehow, or it will not exist.

But again, as the two purported goals, stated at clip's end, are to help to preserve wild plants and to aid and assist in the health of foragers......and are somewhat contradictory, or at least not coming out of the same bag, in my view, I can't imagine a world where ten billion people derive all or even any significant portion of their daily diet from tramping around in the woods. I don't want them in my woods! It would be ruined very quickly.

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Comments (6)

wantonamara Z8 CenTex
9 years ago
I am a forager, of sorts and I don't see foraging becoming a mass activity ever. People are too scared of things from the wild. I have cooked meals of mushrooms, puff balls, 'chicken in a basket", wild sorrel and many edible invasive like bastard cabbage and most people don't want to touch them or they eat them with fear.

A road work crew brought in some infected fill and I have been eating gobs of bastard cabbage the last few years and it seems that we are thinning out the seed bank. Obviously I am not doing the 1/2 rule. I am doing all of it and building up my compost heap with wet I can't eat.
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Dave Anderson
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi Wisconsitom,

Thanks for you comment, you bring up some good points. I think I could have chosen better wording than "the health of future foragers." The big question, in my mind, is how do we preserve a finite natural resource and yet let people benefit from it. I wish I had the answer as the world be a much better place:) In this documentary we look at three common wild plants that are being harvested by individuals and commercial operations, sugar maple, wild leeks and fiddleheads. All of which are sold in many bigger grocery stores including Whole Foods. The film answers technical questions like how many taps you can safely put in a single tree, why is it better to harvest wild leek leaves in the spring and the bulbs in the fall. Arthur Haines also talks about the health benefits of wild plants in general and need for active conservation of these resources.

cheers,

Dave
Dave Anderson
Original Author
9 years ago
Humans are not the only creatures that like to eat wild plants, check out this Blister Beetle devouring Desert Bluebell flowers, filmed by my wife at Lake Mead Recreation Area NV

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSkEzk8gQWa/?taken-by=szuting928
Dave Anderson
Original Author
9 years ago
Our Kickstarter Project is continueing to grind along slowly, thanks for spreading the word and donatining!

https://www.kickstarter.com/…/balance-how-to-sustainably-ha…

One of the native plants featured in Balance: How To Sustainably Harvest Native Plants is the Sugar Maple tree.

Recently scientists discovered A phenol-rich mixture extracted from maple syrup allows much smaller doses of antibacterial drugs to achieve the same results.

They found that the extract from maple syrup made it easier for antibiotics to get inside bacteria and harder for bacteria to get rid of the antibiotics. Interestingly enough, when the scientist tried to reproduce the extract in the lab they found it was not as effective in fighting bacteria as the extract from real maple syrup. We still have a lot to learn from mother nature!

https://www.facebook.com/ChemistryWorld/videos/10158526003905055/

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wisconsitom
9 years ago
Not to always be a Debbie Downer here, but something I've been wondering about as I see all the modern, plastic tubing-based sugarbushes springing up all over Wisconsin and presumably, the entire NE US, is the prevalence now of that tubing. That tubing has BPS in it-the plastic industry's ridiculous answer to the health concerns of BPA. BPS-like the crap it is replacing-is a potent endocrine disruptor. So now what....all our maple syrup is full of BPS? Sheesh, what a world. I love maple syrup but I fear in this world, that too is corrupted.

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