VOLU ME 25
ISSUE 5
CHAFFEY
B R E E Z E MONDAY + OCTOBER 20, 2014
NEWS
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
Phi Theta Kappa Scholarships
RCC Programming Competition
Pro-Life Activists On Campus
Farewell to Landon Donovan
JULIE COSGROVE Among the things foraged by Spurse member Matthew Friday was purslane, an edible plant that can sometimes be found locally in Mexican supermarkets.
Spurse, weeds and sidewalk eating On a hot, sunny October morning, two representatives from Spurse, a design collective, led more than a dozen curious students and parents on “Eat Your Sidewalk,” a foraging tour of campus to gather wildly growing edibles. Starting in the lobby of the Wignall Museum, artist Ian Kerr declared that the group would look for things to eat on the campus. Rose Cobos, professor of biology, pointed out that Chaffey has a vineyard and a citrus orchard but Kerr and his colleague Matthew Friday were uninterested in cultivated food. They were here to show how much the landscape can provide. Kerr stopped the group as soon
as they had cleared the sliding door of the Wignall, pointing down to the ground beneath a group of pine trees. Poking through the thick carpet of needles were sprigs of sows thistle that were quickly picked and sampled. Kerr warned the group that it is illegal to eat the things that are foraged on the Chaffey campus. In fact, it is illegal to sell or to serve foraged items in general because there is no way to legally track them like the food we buy in the supermarkets or in restaurants. “The art department checked it out,” he said. The group veered through the high grass and across the parking lot to the
VSS building where a sweet gum tree had dropped its prickly fruit pods on the lawn. Art major Tyler Lewis had joined the group after his class and found himself captivated by the sweetgum tree. “There’s a sweet gum tree in my neighbor’s yard,” he said, “and I never thought of using the seeds for a dye. That’s something I’m going to do for myself.” There is much to eat growing wild on the Chaffey campus: purslane, sweet gum, dandelions, pomegranates and prickly pears, prickly lettuce, sows thistle, pigweed, mesquite. These included the green ancestors of lettuce and of quinoa, Kerr said.
And not just foodstuffs. Standing before a spiny yucca bush, Friday cut off a sharp pointed leaf. He shredded the leaf, demonstrating that the threads could be twisted into a strong rope, the sharp end could be used as a needle and the root could be used as soap. Even the flowers that bloomed on the yucca could be eaten in a salad. Oscar Avina had heard about Eat Your Sidewalk from his English class and was intrigued because in his family, his mother cooks with some of the same things Kerr and Friday had collected. “She’s a really good cook,” he said, “she even carves watermelons into baskets and fancy shapes for our Continued on page 11