Russ Cohen has a day job at Mass Fish and Wildlife, but around here he is known for being an expert forager, that is he does a lot of his food shopping in the woods. I originally looked him up to see if he could tell me about the Harvard mushroom club, where he sometimes speaks. Well the mushroomers never got back to me, but looking at Cohen's page reminded me of my college years in Binghamton. To the detriment of my social life I spent a lot of time in the woods up there, tracking animals and eating dubious trailside herbs. It was a very focused time for me - I was able to lose myself in nature in a way that hasn't happened since. (Oh, I do "get lost" plenty, but I've become pretty good at getting un-lost too, luckily. But that is another post.) So I signed up for a wild food walk down at Drumlin Farm, which is an Audubon wildlife refuge in Lincoln, Mass.
Affable and bearded, Cohen certainly looks the part of a wild food expert. Before we got out in the field he told us a little about himself. He works for Mass Fish and Wildlife, but he has been interested in wild edible plants since he was a teenager. He has been teaching about wild edibles for over 30 years and has a recent book out: "Wild Plants I have known...and Eaten."
As the twenty five or so of students settled in, he whetted our appetites with some delicious Autumn Olive fruit rollups he had made. This was really good stuff, not "good stuff considering", so I couldn't wait to find the plant. He also explained a little about foraging safely and with care for the environment. His brief philosophy of mushroom foraging, "avoid the ones with gills and you've eliminated 90 percent of the poisonous ones" is an example of his practical, to the point teaching style. He was happy to stop and examine some mushrooms one of the students brought and used it as an opportunity to teach us about their basic ecology. We all gathered around while he checked them out (edible, technically, but in the way that a kitchen towel is edible) and even the budding mushroomer wasn't too let down.
Without further ado he led us out to the farm, stopping frequently to point out unassuming trailside plants that turn out to be delicious. Cohen encourages restraint in harvesting wild plants, reminding us to leave enough for it to regrow. That being said, he pointed out a few invasive plants that are edible. Those are no holds barred. For instance Japanese Knotweed, which springs up in eight foot high thickets along highways and trailheads throughout the region, turns out to have delicious young shoots in spring and makes a great rhubarb substitute in pies. The more people eat, the better, as far as he is concerned.
Passing into the organic farm area, Cohen tramped down a defunct melon row, the vines dead and overgrown by weeds. From this unpromising lane of shaggy greenery he pulled a handful of different tender edibles including amaranth,burdock, purslane and mustard, chickweed and thistle. From there we continued into an upland forest where he showed us mulberries, hickory and walnut trees, and the elusive Autumn Olive. As soon as I saw the beautiful gold speckled red berries I knew I had misidentified this shrub for perhaps fifteen years, thinking it was poisonous. I guess that alone was worth the price of admission.
We continued into a boggy area where he identified some mushrooms for us and answered a few questions. Then our time was up, so we walked back to the parking lot with a new way of looking at the trailside greenery.
I am starting to realize that this is what I chase in life - always new eyes to see the world. Every time I delve into some unknown field (bartending? really?) I find more meaning in the things I see every day.
More info on Russ Cohen and the walk schedule:
http://users.rcn.com/eatwild/sched.htm
Fill a highball glass with ice.
