articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Col...aspx

Live off the land -- in the city
Wild greens, mushrooms, fruit and even fish and game can be harvested in America's urban jungles. Dandelion salad, anyone? Or some batter-fried squirrel?

[Related content: savings, save money, groceries, food prices, Donna Freedman]
By Donna Freedman
MSN Money
Feeling squeezed at the supermarket? Maybe you should be looking for food in the parking lot, or in your neighbor's yard.

We're talking dandelions, feral mushrooms, gleaned fruit, local fish or even those wascally wabbits that overrun city greenbelts. Ingenuity plus a little sweat equity can put fresh, healthful food on the table and possibly provide other benefits as well: exercise, relaxation and a different way of looking at your neighborhood.

For example:

Chauncey Niziol fishes for bass and bluegills in downtown Chicago.

Steven Rinella traps squirrels and catches pigeons in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Jeff Yeager harvests shoots from bamboo that grows in his suburban Washington, D.C., yard.

Katy Kolker harvests tree fruit that otherwise would have rotted in Portland, Ore.

"Radical ecologist" Nance Klehm plucks salads out of city sidewalks and leads urban foraging walks around her home city of Chicago. A few clients are survivalists, she says, or foodies who are looking for "unusual tastes." But most are simply "curious about the world around them." Foraging is "about a connection and an interaction with an environment," she says.

Chowing down on chickweed
According to her Spontaneous Vegetation Web site, Klehm grows or forages nearly everything she eats. The wild greens she harvests are what most people would think of as weeds: wood sorrel, mallow, chickweed, wild mustard and the like. Some can be eaten only at certain times of the year; dandelions, for example, are best when very young.

Klehm recommends using wild plants in moderation at first, because their flavors can be strong. Besides, "if you don't have a very flexible or curious palate, you might not find them tasty" in large quantities.

Urban farms: US cities get their green on

What's most important, however, is knowing what you're eating. The difference between the right plant and a look-alike is the difference between a nice salad and a trip to an emergency room. Where you find your food is important, too, because you could be sickened by food from polluted soils or waterways.

Klehm recommends buying a reputable field guide to local flora. It's also smart to seek out community-college classes or local plant walks; if neither exists, get a group of like-minded folks together and pay a local botanist to educate you on what and where to pick. Keep that field guide handy whenever you go out on your own, though.

Mushrooms, bamboo and ferns, oh my
Books by the late naturalist Euell Gibbons introduced Yeager, aka "The Ultimate Cheapskate," to wild edibles. Yeager, who grew up in Ohio and now lives about 20 miles south of Washington, doesn't harvest as many wild things as he once did. But he still keeps his eyes peeled when walking or bicycling.

For example, why pay for chicory when you can find it growing volunteer? "The wild stuff is much more potent," says Yeager, whose mom and dad were pleased when he brought home this coffee enhancer. They were also fond of the wild onions that he dug up and pickled: "My parents liked those in their martinis." (Yeager preferred the onions in a cream soup.)

Sometimes a "wild" plant is a cultivated variety that jumped a fence or was spread by birds or carelessly dumped garbage. Yeager has found asparagus, zucchini, black raspberries and even watermelons growing in fields and along roads. His own yard is "packed with bamboo" -- an increasingly common landscape plant -- so he cooks the young shoots in the spring.

While Chicago native Niziol focuses mostly on fishing and hunting in his weekly ESPN radio program, he's not strictly carnivorous. Niziol swears by a good plate of fiddlehead ferns, fresh wild carrots (aka Queen Anne's lace) or a mug of sassafras tea ("it tastes like root beer").

And mushrooms? Don't get him started. "I use them every which way I can. I put them in stews, I dry them, I make a killer mushroom soup," says Niziol, a former outdoors columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

Mushrooms must be picked with care, he notes, because some fungi are poisonous. A good field guide is essential. What's even better is to find a local mycological society and start taking walks with experts.


Catfish are jumpin'
Some people assume fish from urban waterways are poisonous. At times this reputation is justified; check your state's department of fish and wildlife for advisories. But many metro areas have healthy fish and healthier fisheries: Anchorage, Alaska; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Miami; Detroit; and Phoenix, for example.

Phoenix? Seriously?

Seriously. The Phoenix area has 16 lakes stocked with trout, catfish, bass, sunfish and carp, and you can keep up to 17 fish a day. Demand for fishing licenses is up 18% this year, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Crab and shrimp cost a bundle at the market but can be had for free in some regions. Nancy Leson, who writes the All You Can Eat blog for The Seattle Times, recently pulled up a dozen Dungeness and rock crabs from the waters near her home in Edmonds, Wash., population 40,000.

"Hugely expensive had we bought it at the store," says Leson, who notes that some of the best shrimp hauls she's seen were pulled up in homemade traps made out of hardware cloth.

Outdoors expert Niziol concurs that you don't need to spend a bundle on gear. Rods and reels can be found for pennies on the dollar at yard or estate sales. Some Illinois libraries lend fishing gear to kids for free. That plus Illinois' $13.75 annual fishing license equals "lots of cheap protein," Niziol says.

"There's this thing called catch and release," he says. "But I also believe in hookin' and cookin'."

Pigeons in the 'hood
In recent years cities such as New York, Cincinnati and Washington have had special archery hunts to thin out deer herds. Some areas of Arizona are experiencing nuisance populations of rabbits.

"We have got bunnies galore," says Arizona Fish and Game spokesman Rory Aikens. Rabbits can be taken in the city limits with a bow and arrow or slingshot. So can "very edible reptiles," including the chuckwalla, a large lizard that Aikens describes as delicious when barbecued: "high protein, zero fat." Pigeons are also fair game, he notes; as a domestic species gone wild, they are not classified as wildlife, and no hunting license is needed.

Steven Rinella, the author of "The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine" and "American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon," catches pigeons in his Brooklyn neighborhood. (Because they carry mites, he recommends they be cleaned and plucked outdoors.) Rinella also traps squirrels, which isn't strictly legal because in New York you're supposed to hunt them. He doubts anyone will press charges, given the huge population of the rodents.

"I like to catch some squirrels and pigeons and do them up in nice ways," says Rinella, who's hunted since his Michigan boyhood. The best pigeons are the flightless young ones, also known as squabs, which taste "just amazing."

Aikens, who grew up in Los Angeles, says that in his boyhood he and pals would swipe young pigeons from nests under bridges. Then they'd sell them to "two very famous restaurants where the movie stars went."

Many cities host decent populations of other animals once commonly eaten, such as opossums, raccoons, muskrats and armadillos. Though these may seem a little gamey to some, there are plenty of Americans who'd gladly throw a possum on the barbie or roast up a "Hoover hog" (a Depression-era nickname for the armadillo). Detroit retiree Glemie Dean Beasley finds plenty of
takers for the raccoon meat he sells to supplement his Social Security checks.

Check your state's department of fish and wildlife to see which species can be hunted, and how it can be done legally, in your area. (Here's a place to poke around for squirrel, squab and opossum recipes.)

Lastly, many states offer families, churches and charities the chance to salvage game animals (such as deer, moose and elk) that have been struck by cars. A moose can yield hundreds of pounds of meat. Of course, you can't be squeamish, but it's fresh, and it's organic. Make sure you check locally on the rules, because salvage is illegal in some places.

Free fruit for the picking
If sautéed fiddleheads or batter-fried squirrels are a little too adventurous for your palate, how about a freshly picked apple? An organic fig? A juicy pear or a handful of black cherries?

"Urban gleaning" programs such as the Portland Fruit Tree Project help put fruit that would otherwise go to waste into the hands of hungry people. Co-founder Kolker says that in 2008 the group harvested more than 4,500 pounds of fruit with the blessing of homeowners who couldn't use all their backyard bounty. Half the fruit goes to Portland food banks and the rest to those who do the picking; at least 50% of those pickers are low-income residents.

"There are so many people who can't afford to buy fresh fruit," Kolker says.

No urban gleaning in your area? Craft your own. Last summer I posted a Freecycle ad offering homemade jam in exchange for the fruit with which to make it. I proposed the same deal to a neighbor, whose response was, "I'm glad someone wants it." Thus, a little chutzpah landed me with the makings for several dozen pints of jam plus enough apples, pears and plums to preserve in jars.

This year, I'm hoping the ad will net me somebody's surplus raspberries. Don't neglect sources of wild berries either. In Seattle, that's mainly blackberries -- they grow just about everywhere. In Anchorage, I picked blueberries and cranberries. No wild nuts grew there, but they're abundant in some cities. Ask around.

Want to live off the land? Here are a few more tips from the folks I interviewed:

Obey local fish and game laws.

Don't pick without permission. Check local regulations about harvesting on city, state or federal land.

Don't take more than you can actually use.

Don't try to memorize the entire field guide overnight. "Get to know one or two (plants) well," Klehm advises. "Then you can add to that (knowledge)."

Search online for local sources such as Urban Edibles, a "community database of wild edibles" in Portland, Ore.

Save money today
Hanging it up: On the Smart Spending blog, a writer from partner blog Wise Bread woman explains how she copes with having "cut the cord," i.e., ditched her land line.

How to speak frugalese: Are ECBs and MIRs your friends? Do you know the difference between a peelie and a blinkie? Smart Spending co-editor Karen Datko provides a quick primer.

Reduce, reuse: I've found a new life for bags from 16-ounce bags of frozen vegetables. Readers chimed in with some pretty cool ideas of their own, including a new use for those mesh bags that onions and oranges come in. Read about it here.

Published April 15, 2009