Urban Foraging

"Survivalists" isn't the right word; it carries all kinds of spooky connotations of cabins in Montana and stockpiles of weaponry. We're more like "doom hobbyists." That is, we like to imagine what we would do if some major disaster happened and we had to provide for ourselves using basic survival skills.

One of the doom-related projects has been foraging for edible wild plants. This is a great hobby, because it is cheap (sometimes free!) and results in food as well as useful skills. A few weeks ago I discovered a vacant lot a couple blocks away from home. This lot has been the source of some tasty herbs, apparently leftovers from a previous resident's garden, and I've watched over the summer as patches of rye matured. Finally the rye was ripe enough for harvest.

After we harvested the rye, Joseph and I had to figure out how to thresh and winnow it...in the top-floor condo. This could be a challenge, as grain processing is usually done outside. Joseph had the excellent idea of using a bag to contain the mess and just beating the bagged-up grain against the table to separate the seeds from the husks.

The first bag he tried was a paper lunch bag, which gave some good results. Then he had the idea of putting the rye inside a net bag (to catch the husks) and the net bag inside a cloth jelly bag. That turned out to work better, though the net bag was not as good at catching the chaff as we'd hoped.

Threshing tools: jelly bag, net bag (from fruit we bought at the supermarket). The grain and chaff mixture that comes out of the bag is also visible in this picture.

Once the grain was threshed, it had to be winnowed. Traditionally this is done by putting it in a large bowl or basket and tossing it into the air on a breezy day, so the chaff blows away and the seeds stay in the bowl.

A wok and the fan made a good improvised solution.

Here you can see the wok, the fan, and the grains.

Here is the rye after processing! It looks like a tiny amount, but we only took a few stalks of the rye, leaving the vast majority of it for the birds and other wildlife.

Doesn't this photo make it look like I'm in the middle of a field in some pastoral setting? In reality, this is still the middle of Seattle.