eBooks & More by Ria Stone: Meet Alexis Nikole Nelson, Known as The Black Forager

Friday, April 14, 2023

Meet Alexis Nikole Nelson, Known as The Black Forager

I was rather new to Instagram, when one day while exploring various posts, I was intrigued by the profile name: The Black Forager.

When I opened the post or rather reel, up popped Alexis, literally right in my face.

She was high octane energy, bouncing around and talking fast.

It took a few moments to follow what she was saying and doing. Gradually, after probably watching the reel more than once, I got it. She was ecstatic about a plant she had found and wanted you to know it was edible and delicious.

I was hooked.

I marveled at her knowledge and her appearance. I envied her artistic outfits. They were bright, cheerful and fun.

Since that moment, I have followed Alexis, a James Beard Award winner, and thoroughly enjoyed her ventures into areas around her home, her trips to forests in other parts of the world, where she finds plants throughout the year. Generally, she harvests them and demonstrates how to prepare them as a meal, snack, beverage or other uses.

I used to forage when I had a house and lived near a forest. I remember onion grass, sassafras (a root beer flavored root), dandelions, lambs quarters, onion grass, garlic, wood sorrel, heal-all, wild blackberries, and more.

I had several medicinal and edible plant guides, like Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants & Herbs of Eastern & Central N. America, all of Tom Brown, Jr.'s books, in particular, Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants. I, also, had Euell Gibbons' books, like Stalking the Wild Asparagus.

My ability to make recipes using wild food was limited. I think my best use of wild foods was making a coffee-like beverage from roasted chicory roots.

My big takeaway from my foraging experiences was I stopped calling any plant a weed. It's a poor classification for useful plants. Then, there are "invasive plants." The dandelion is an "invasive plant", meaning it is not native to North America. It came with the colonists, brought in accidentally in various shipments of foodstuffs, or grains.

Here is the USDA guide to "Invasive Species."

You may have heard of Kudzu. In some states, this plant grows fast and covers large areas along highways and fields, crowding out native plants.

Or maybe you've heard of the snake fish, according to the USDA, the fish may have been introduced to N. America via aquarium hobbyists, or some raising it as a food source. (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-did-snakehead-fish-get-united-states)

By Wie146 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2781307

One suggestion to combat "Invasive Species" is to eat them.

Here are a few recipes ideas for Kudzu and Snake Fish:

Kudzu Recipes

https://cantbeatemeatem.com/recipes/kudzu/

Snake Fish Recipes

https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/fooddrink/northern-snakehead-ugly-but-delicious-and-sustainable-to-eat/

http://petslady.com/article/eat-mor-snakehead-10-frankenfish-recipes-won-t-bite-back

Unfortunately, where I live now, my forgaging options are limited to sidewalk wild plants and garden escapees. But, The Black Forager has rekindled my interest in wild plants.

I admire The Black Forager, she is brilliant. She always alerts followers to any dangers in using wild plants or issues of foraging in various areas. She know the Latin names for plants. Plus, often she gives a history lesson along the way.