Those who collect wild plants and mushrooms for food, medicine, craft, or ceremony are often referred to as wildcrafters. Wild plants can enrich peoples lives, for example by supplementing a grocery store diet with interesting flavors or by supplying material for baskets, weaving, or fabric dye. On another level, wild plants provide subsistence for many people around the globe; their livelihoods are dependent on wild plants as sources of income, nutrition and healthcare.

The meat (or Chicken of the Woods) of my project was interviewing eight people who use wild plants as sources of income, as health-giving edibles and medicinals, artwork and craft, as mediums for fun, fascination, or sacred living. I aimed to address these questions: What kind of people entrust their livelihoods to wild plants? Are they part of any foraging traditions? Do they have personal ethics that guide them?  Each interview revealed a person or couple with unique skills and expressions of their craft- some people have a vast store of ecological knowledge, some feel they have personal relationships with plants, but all lead lives and harvested by strong ethical values.

In my paper, I  introduce people with little knowledge of wildcrafting to its global context, its variety of manifestations, and its richness of culture. The text is divided into three main sections: “Wildcrafting In a Global Context” touches upon the prevalence and issues of wild plant harvesting around the world; through sketches and vignettes “Wildcrafters of the Northeast” illustrates the people I interviewed, who represent a small subgroup of a greater foraging culture; and “Contemporary Concepts of An Ancient Craft” explores the current meanings and implications of wildcrafting.

Below are several sketches from this project: