Foraging best practice.
Some tips on respectfully and consciously foraging, specifically for plant materials that you would use during textile nature connection activities such as hapa zome plant printing, bundle dyeing, and nature weaving.
Read about those activities here: hapa zome, bundle dyeing, nature weaving — and find workshops here.
1. Take only as much as you need.
The primary rule for foraging is to only take as much as you need, and maybe even less than that.
Dependent on your activity, the amount of material you need will vary. For bundle dyeing (or any other natural dyeing) you will need a larger quantity to get a concentration of pigment. For hapa zome, you’re usually printing only a small section and require less of each plant material. Similarly with nature weaving — unless you happen to take all these on as large art practices, that is. At least you’re able to use dried materials with dyeing and weaving, or least don’t need to be so specific. However, for hapa zome, you need fresh materials with a certain amount of pigment.
Regardless of the activity, you’re scouting around for materials to use, and you need to be conscious that what you’re doing is a craft or art, and pollination must come first.
2. Think about the season you’re in.
The season determines abundance. And frankly, it isn’t enough anymore to say that summer is the height of plant availability because weather affects germination, pollination and growing. The whole cycle is determined by weather and climate, so you really do need to be attuned to what’s going on. Aside from plant identification, revisiting a spot before you actually harvest anything is useful; it ensures you’re aware of availability, who or what is visiting, and any hazards (e.g. councils spraying pesticides).
If you’re in the moment and can’t revisit later, then do a short walk around the area to determine what plants you see, and then revisit particular ones for harvesting if you’ve discovered there are more of them. Or otherwise, that you know anyway certain plants are seen as “invasive” or a “pernicious weed” (but still, stop to consider their use in the wider ecosystem).
If it’s winter, it’s likely you’ll have less foliage. If it’s towards the end of summer, you’ll have less flowers.
If you have access to an ornamental garden or green space with year-round colour, you need to ascertain if your access to foraging is sound, or if you’re trespassing. It’s likely that you are, because all land is owned by someone, but that’s when you need to again consider abundance, availability, and need.
3. Know what it is you’re foraging.
Arguably, the primary rule of foraging is actually to know what it is you’re foraging, but to me, you first need to know what you’re going to do with the plant material before you can assess how much there is of it and subsequently how much of it you can take. So perhaps this is first or second on your foraging best practice list, but either way, be able to identify — at least in some manner — what it is you’re about to forage.
This is a rule whether you are foraging for food, for dyestuffs, for printing material, for weaving material… don’t go sticking your hands into and onto plants (even with gloves) unless you can ascertain that it is safe to do so. Look to the plant for clues; if it’s spiky then don’t go rushing in. If it’s a super tall hogweed with serrated leaves, don’t touch it. If it’s a parsley with a spotty red stem, don’t pick it. If it’s a pink flower with a thimble shape, don’t put any part of it near you. If you’ve seen your local council spraying chemicals, don’t harvest there.
Even if we’re careful to wear gloves, plant residues can still get onto skin — the most common of which is the hairs on undersides of stinging nettle brushing skin elsewhere than your hands.
Of course, there are so many plants to know that you’re unlikely to recognise everything you come across. First off is knowing the truly toxic, poisonous or harmful ones e.g. as mentioned above (giant hogweed, hemlock, foxglove). And then secondly, understanding — or at the very least, recognising common characteristics of — the different plant families, and what harmful plants could be in each of them e.g. umbels and lacey leaves of parsley family.
Images: 1. Rosebay willowherb in abundance in a patch of farmland left to go to meadow, but as they’re rich in pollen for insects, I’m still conscious of not taking too much; 2. Creeping buttercup is common and regularly found; 3. Sweet peas in a bramble patch, but not many so they’re appreciated without taking; 4. Collecting dried fallen hollyhock petals directly into a bag staining a borrowed book!
4. Be prepared with harvesting tools.
Carry some snips or sharp and clean secateurs, along with gloves, plastic or paper baggies, and a pen for labelling. I can’t go for a walk, run or cycle anymore without having my eyes peeled for plant material, especially in summer. Even if I’m not ready to harvest there and then, I’ll make a note of what I’ve seen and where, how abundant the plant is, how easy it is to access, and what I would use it for.
When you are harvesting, ensure clean sharp cuts (to reduce the risk of pathogens getting in to the wound) or use your fingernail to pop flowers and leaves off. You are essentially breaking off a plant’s limb when you take branches or leaves, so go gently i.e. no pulling or ripping.
Remember your gloves for the above mentioned issues with toxic plants, or otherwise unknown plant allergies. And if you’re foraging for plants that you are accustomed to, wash your hands after foraging and before eating to ensure you don’t have plant residue (and potential urine, feces, pesticides) left on your skin.
5. Don’t go onto private land without permission.
I do sometimes use the sneaky rule of foraging whatever is hanging over a fence from someone’s front garden (if it’s either abundant and/or dying back, and I only take what I can use). And generally in parks I’ll harvest the “wild” plants. However, I wouldn’t go into someone’s drive or garden, or go to the fenced off spaces in green spaces.
I live in an urban environment so there is an abundance of wild and cultivated plants to choose from, but even in rural places there can be villages planted up nicely, and so realistically you simply need to consider rule number 1 again. I often see flowers that need dead-heading in order to encourage new blooms (particularly roses), and though I know I’m helping out the plant, perhaps the owner for whatever reason is leaving them, and so I really have to hold back sadness that I can’t go willy nilly chopping plants.
If you are visiting a privately-owned space, do ask permission before you go haughtily foraging. Even taking a few sprigs could actually be classed as trespassing, because you’re taking something you’re not entitled to and have intention to take something not yours (particularly if caught with harvesting tools). In public-facing spaces, they’re still owned privately and this is where common sense and etiquette comes into play. While we’re not foraging for food these days, we need to ensure there is a balance for humans, animals and insects in our “wild” spaces, so going back to the previous advice on taking only what you need, knowing what the plants are, understanding the seasons.
Images: 1. Hollyhocks growing abundantly in a Hackney green space, frequented to pick up the fallen dried petals; 2. A superb patch of marigolds, cosmos and daisies by St. Paul’s Cathedral (knowing I’ll never be able to go nick a few); 3. Selection of plants from my own garden for a hapa zome example; 4. Table during a festival hapa zome workshop with plants foraged on-site that day.
Here’s a little video of me foraging at the Heritage Pine Forest in Sevenoaks, Kent pre-hapa zome workshop.