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It’s not from foraging!
Filed under GeneralAug 30A few months back I posted an account of my kidney problems, I had developed a rare condition called Minimal Change Disease. The name of the disease is a bit misleading; it refers to a minimal change under an electron microscope rather than a minimal change in the kidney.
It is all but cured now but I have been on steroids since the spring. I’m slowly getting weaned off them over a long period of time and should be completely off them by October. They’re not the strange steroids that body builders take, I’ve not grown boobs or a hairy back but it has led to a lot of ups and downs. I’ve gone from extreme euphoria right down to days of despair and depression at the opposite end of the scale. Thankfully things are levelling out now and I feel back to my old self.
No matter what my mood has been one thing has remained constant, people have immediately assumed it was from foraging. I’ve constantly been asked things like “Did you eat some dodgy mushrooms?” or “Is it from contaminated food?”
The answer to both is a definite ‘NO’. The disease is by and large idiopathic, which is doctor’s speak for they haven’t got a bloody clue. However, there is no evidence whatsoever it is caused by eating unusual foods. It is much more likely to be caused by ibuprofen than field mushrooms. If I had poisoned myself on mushrooms the reaction would have been very different, I would be in need of a kidney or liver transplant right now not recovering after a dose of steroids. Besides, it was February I first showed symptoms and there aren’t any mushrooms around at that time (or much other wild foods for that matter).
The only timed in my life I’ve had trouble with food has been from eating a dodgy take away or getting sick from the water whilst in India and Nepal. Rather than getting ill from wild food I was eating hawthorn leaves to recover in the spring and am still eating a lot of foraged food now! As I earn a proportion of my living from foraging, I doubt I’ll ever stop eating from the wild. I know wild food and foraged food to be far less contaminated, far fresher and far more nutritious than a lot of pre-packaged modern food. Hunter gather societies have far fewer nutrient deficiencies than their domesticated, farming counterparts. Lets face it would you rather have burdock chips and a hazelnut burger or chicken nuggets!?
Fear of food, coupled with preconceived ideas of what it should be like, seems to predominate in society as a whole, despite this it never ceases to amaze me the attitudes of some individuals.
I’ve gathered large domesticated cherries from wild growing trees and had passers-by actually ask if they are safe to eat despite them looking identical to those on sale in Marks and Spencer! I’ve had the same with hazelnuts, wild gooseberries, black currants, walnuts and countless other wild goodies.
So, even if it is things people recognise as food and regularly eat, unless it comes in a pre packaged container or plastic bag it isn’t recognised as something safe to eat. The worse case of this I ever saw was at a friend’s house, he had a beautiful apple tree in his garden full of rich red discovery apples. Yet on his kitchen table sat four miserable looking apples with a cellophane wrapper on them. I asked my friend why he’d gone out and bought these four apples when outside he had a lawn full of fallen apples rotting where they fell. His answer was, ‘Those one’s outside are dirty, a bird could have shat on them!’
2 Responses to “It’s not from foraging!”
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This is precisely why we don’t need to have that argument which always crops up about over-harvesting: “… but what if everyone foraged?”
I was out picking cherries once and a lady asked “but how do you know they’re not poisonous?” to which I replied “BECAUSE THEY’RE CHERRIES!”
Hope you’re feeling better now
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dave said on September 9th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Why is it no-one can recognise cherries on trees any more! My brother had the same thing too.
I’m feeling fine these days, thanks for asking.
