THE STALK NEEDN'T TAKE YOU VERY FAR:

Roadside Concoction: An Expert Forages for Weeds, Fruit, Fungi, and Other Wild Edibles (Huan Hsu, 8/08/07, Seattle weekly)

Seattleites are particularly blessed when it comes to fresh foods. Beyond the bounty offered at the markets, you can chase salmon or shad roe sets, dig or dive for all manner of shellfish, and pick your own fruits and veggies at more than a dozen farms in King County alone. But you don't have to drop a bunch of dough on gear or leave a big carbon imprint driving long distances for good eats. There are plenty of edibles available in or near urban areas, if you know where to forage.

On Mercer Island, Linda Urbaniak and her husband, Roger, hunt, fish, and gather a third of the food they eat, and most of it comes from local sources. Both hold down day jobs, but Linda also teaches classes on edible plants while Roger operates a salmon incubator in Bellevue. Linda likes to joke that they're two of the last true hunter-gatherers. "This is an unbelievably bountiful land," she says. "The reason the art and culture [of indigenous people] developed so highly was because they didn't have to spend all their time looking for food."

Indeed, most Seattleites only have to open their front doors to find something to eat: dandelion greens.

His Grape-Nuts ads made him something of a joke to our generation, but you can often find Euell Gibbons's wild food guides at used book sales and he's a wonderful, lively writer.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 8, 2007 6:41 PM