Organic x Wild

Organic growing x Wild foraging

While agricultural practices have brought us the plants that please our taste buds, those plants still require a lot of care: where to sow, when, how, right soil p.H., rich soil or poor soil, sandy or clayish, moist or dry... Besides, organic food as we find today in supermarkets often grows in soil that has been used in agriculture for centuries. That soil is no longer as rich in nutrients as it would be required to yield strong and healthy plants. As result of that, the plants will need soil enrichers, special products to defend them from plague attack, minerals and oligoelements to balance soil nutrition, in short: they require a lot of work and resources. Most of this plants are also depending on water from irrigation, which makes them a little “lazy”, as they don’t need to thrive to survive. As result, their roots do not need to go so deep and they contain a limited amount of nutrients, compared to their wild sisters.

Longer before agriculture was introduced in human life, gatherers used to eat what they could find in their surroundings. Wild plants. These pioneers have to undergo all kinds of weather conditions, soil adaptations, plague attacks, people attacks (;-)) all by themselves. You can see them emerging in all kinds of harsh environments, making their appearance through floor cracks or in between sidewalk stones. Throughout thousands of years these plants have developed their genetical strength to such a degree that our cultivated plants might never reach. Some wild plants can grow roots dozens of meters deep into the soil, reaching as far as it takes to get the needed substances that help them withstand the harsh conditions on the top soil. By doing that, they become loaded with nutrients and other beneficial elements. That makes wild plants true healing gems.



Here you find a nice article about “Gardening or Gathering”?
http://honest-food.net/2010/09/19/gardening-or-gathering/ 


Lyra Alves