I think this would be a fun field trip, traipsing around the West Loop with Nancy Klehm (http://spontaneousvegetation.net/). I’d want to wash the dog piss off of anything I foraged though, perhaps in a bath of lye and bleach1.
Armed with pruning shears and a paper bag, Nance Klehm walks along a Chicago sidewalk, pointing out plants and weeds that can make a tasty salad or stir-fry.
She snips stalks from a weed with downy leaves and white powder commonly called goosefoot or lamb’s quarters.“I collect a lot of this,” said Klehm, 43. “It’s indistinguishable from spinach when you cook it. I never, never grow spinach or other greens except kale. Everything else I forage.”
Klehm is among a small group of urban foragers across the United States who collect weeds and plants from city streets and gardens to use in meals and medicines. Some are survivalists while others are environmentalists or even gourmands seeking new flavours for cooking.
Klehm leads small groups of about 20 people a few times a year on urban forages in Chicago.
[Click to continue reading Urban foragers feast on sidewalk salads – Yahoo! News]
Also – seems like there is a lot of industrial pollution in the soil in the city, especially the older parts of the city like the West Loop area. Used to be a lot of factories around here in the days before the EPA was even a glimmer of an idea. Not to mention the Fisk coal plant nearby, spewing heavy metals.
Still, an interesting topic.
Footnotes:- kidding, almost [↩]