According to Langdon Cook, there’s one golden rule of foraging: if you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it. Cook is a leading figure in America’s growing urban foraging movement – in fact he’s written the book on it. As we make our way along a trail through one of his favourite hunting grounds, Seattle’s Seward Park, he mentions some of the poisonous plants out there, such as hemlock. The famous feller of Socrates looks a lot like carrot tops or flat leaf parsley to the uninitiated.

There’s still plenty of good eating in the city’s parks and green spaces – researchers once identified 450 edible plants in Seattle. Cook enthusiastically points out some ripe thimbleberry. “It has a shelf life of about a nanosecond, so you’ll never see it in a farmers market,” he says. The soft berry slumps off the plant and into the mouth like it’s already been made into a sweet, tannic jam. So yummy, so organic ... and so illegal.

Under the letter of the law my children could get cited for plucking a dandelion in the park Sgt Sean Whitcomb

Despite the popularity of foraging in Seattle and cities far beyond the Pacific north-west, municipal parks are generally off limits to foragers in the US. For city authorities, the risk of destruction to plants and wildlife is too great: what if everyone decided they wanted a piece of the park for lunch? Then there’s the potential for overzealous amateurs to make themselves very unwell.

Just five years ago, Seattle was setting a new relaxed standard in American foraging. A study commissioned by the city concluded “urban foraging maintains traditions and social ties while deepening connections with nature”. Park rangers started leading plant identification tours. This enthusiasm has since abated – Rachel Schulkin, a spokesperson for the parks department, says wandering foragers are trampling young trees the city had planted in an effort to restore 2,500 acres of public forests.

Langdon Cook, leading urban foragers in the US. Photograph: Langdon Cook

While foraging is an ancient art that has taken place in US cities for as long as they’ve existed, the practice has exploded in popularity in recent years.

There are some who forage because they struggle to afford food, but that is a small percentage, according to a Johns Hopkins study. Mostly, it seems that urban dwellers – starved of light and spending much of their time in virtual environments – crave a stronger connection to nature. Worried parents want their children to have some life experiences unmediated by glowing screens.

“We are drawn to do what our grandparents did,” says Cook. “It’s that ‘do it yourself’ mentality we see in the renaissance of fermenting, pickling, brewing. Foraging fires up all our synapses.”

Fired up synapses have collided with strict city codes across the US, however. “There’s the letter of the law, and then there’s the spirit,” explains Sgt Sean Whitcomb, who lives in Seattle. “Under the letter of the law my children could get cited for plucking a dandelion in the park.”

In Chicago a 75-year-old man on social security was once given a $75 ticket for plucking dandelions in a park. In Maryland, Capital Park police officers surrounded a young man picking berries and issued a $50 citation. And then there’s Steve Brill, New York City’s most famous forager, whom tabloids dubbed “The Man Who Ate Manhattan” when he was arrested in Central Park in 1986 (the city dropped the charges after a media uproar). More than 30 years later, Brill leads foraging tours in Central Park, where the practice is still illegal.



I think that foraging brings people closer to nature, and in a city​​ that is particularly important Fred Wolff

But there is fresh hope for foodies as some cities attempt to embrace their foraging communities. After doing away with its “molesting vegetation” rule last autumn, Minneapolis now allows people to pick certain wild nuts, fruits and berries in most city parks. Cities from Boston to Austin encourage the public to harvest in existing park orchards.

The key trend gaining traction is food forests – purposely planted areas intended to replicate a wild edible landscape. New York City has the Swale, a floating food forest on a 5,000 sq ft barge. Philadelphia is also planning one – and both projects are inspired by the largest food forest in America.

At Beacon Food Forest in Seattle, two brothers are scrambling up a slope looking for a snack. “We use all of our senses out here,” says Karen Sherwood, holding a handwoven basket on her arm. She has an oak leaf tattooed on her shoulder.

Sherwood is running an urban foraging class at the food forest. Goldfinches and hummingbirds swirl around the seven-acre site as neighbours fill baskets with whatever they can eat.

The Wolff family attend a foraging class at Beacon Food Forest in Seattle. Photograph: Annabel Clark

The food forest provides free, nutritious food to this relatively poor south Seattle neighbourhood. This is public land, but it’s managed by the community, not the parks department. The vision (and sweat equity) are provided by a group of enthusiastic volunteers. “We have almost 600 species of edible plants including edible weeds we never planted,” says co-founder Glen Herlihy.

Lift your eyes from this bucolic scene and it’s almost a shock to see a forest of glass skyscrapers and construction cranes. The Space Needle appears like an exclamation mark: yes, you are still in Seattle.

Sherwood says she has used wild foods to lower her blood pressure and ease aching joints without prescription drugs. “Wild plants have out-competed other plants and built up strength over time. When we invite those plants into our lives, they offer us their strength.”

“That is so beautiful,” says eight-year-old Jasper, pointing to a tiny blue flower. Sherwood says violets aren’t just pretty – the flowers and leaves are edible and packed with vitamins A and C. She yanks hard and comes up with a six-foot cattail, whittling back the tough exterior of the stalk and handing a tender white morsel to the boys.

“It tastes like cheese!” says Jasper.

“We didn’t realise how many plants around us in the city are edible and more importantly, how healthy they are,” says his father, Fred Wolff. “I think that foraging brings people closer to nature, and in a city that is particularly important.”

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