FOOD AT OUR FEET

WORDS Liam Stretch

Foraging is something that Joanna has always done, and she credits her skills and passion for the natural world to growing up in Riwaka, a small town in Tasman.

“I had a pretty free-range childhood as the youngest in a large family. I loved being outdoors because I felt most at home in nature and being close to the earth, rivers, and trees,” she said.

This strong relationship with the planet is reflected in the most personal of things: Joanna’s name.

“Wildish is a name I chose, and that is from one of my favourite books, Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estēs.”

“The wildish woman is a person who is in touch with their instinctive side and has a good connection with the earth. I wanted to have a reminder of this.”

Joanna says it is pretty simple to get started with foraging, and we don’t have to look much further than our flats and homes.

“Look in your back garden for edible weeds such as chickweed, pūhā, and sweet dandelion flowers – if you don’t have a garden, at a close-by park or river! Many of our parks have walnut trees and sometimes other fruit trees or herbs such as rosemary or sage.”

Suppose you do choose to venture beyond your property boundary. In that case, she says the benefits of foraging are huge. It connects one to their surroundings, seasons, and potential adventures and “it is also very satisfying to find and eat the food that you find, it makes you feel capable, strong, and resourceful”.

“And it’s free and unprocessed; there’s no wasteful packaging, and it’s healthier because it’s grown wild. Most wild weeds, fruits, and herbs are very nutritionally rich.”

There are some common-sense rules, though. A good forager shouldn’t over harvest and take more than they need. “Also leave some for the birds and animals and some to go to seed so that the plants can come back each year.”

Joanna’s long history of foraging and a desire to see people nourished led to the creation of The Ōtautahi Urban Foraging group in 2010.

Due to the February 2011 earthquake, the unfortunate loss of homes in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs saw an abundant urban larder appear; this is where she organises tours.

“There are so many opportunities for foraging in here, and even today, I’m finding fruits and garden areas with herbs that I haven’t seen before.”

This journey led her to take pen to paper. A poem became a storybook titled A Wanderful Foraging Story.

“It goes through the seasons in Aotearoa and about what is available at what times. It’s a cute rhyming story, and I did the pictures for it too. It also begins with a foraging karakia, written by my friend Corri Ackerman and her nanny Mahia Whatarau-Tainui.”

For now, Joanna is working on another book and is optimistic about the future of foraging.

“My hope is for more wild spray-free spaces, more food forests, that we will begin to see more and more that healthy food is a necessary resource for everyone, and begin to share better and waste less.”