{"id":1660,"date":"2024-06-03T12:01:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T11:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mccs-journalism.gold.ac.uk\/wp\/briar\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2024-06-12T09:00:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T08:00:49","slug":"1660-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mccs-journalism.gold.ac.uk\/wp\/briar\/1660-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Offshoots: Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From pineapple flavoured feijoas to bush jellybeans, ecologist Bella Burgess spills the secrets to foraging in the land of the long white cloud<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location:<\/strong> <\/mark>Auckland, New Zealand <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Description:<\/mark> <\/strong>Sub-tropical and humid with lush coastal environments. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common edible plants:<\/mark> <\/strong>Kawakawa, guava, loquats, bananas, feijoas, nasturtium, sorrel, three-cornered leek, manuka, plantain, miner\u2019s lettuce, rosehips, t\u014dtara, tawa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transferable tip: <\/mark><\/strong>Don\u2019t underestimate foraging for invasive and pest species \u2013 introduce the BBQ to the three-cornered leek!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ecologist Bella Burgess
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Bella Burgess is an ecologist living in Auckland, New Zealand. With its mild winters, sub-tropical humidity and verdant growth from city to coast, it couldn\u2019t be a better spot for someone with an interest in foraging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings that struggle in other places are weeds in New Zealand,\u201d Bella explains with the tone of someone who knows they\u2019ve lucked out. \u201cThere\u2019s this abundant mixture of native and exotic plants all over the country and we\u2019ve got forests, pastures, beaches, parks and bush all in quite close proximity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Bella though, if you\u2019re looking for the very best foraging spots, you\u2019ll want the weediest corners of the city. Partly, this is because bush foraging for native plants can pose ecological challenges to protected species, but taste also comes into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think anyone that does foraging learns really quickly that there\u2019s a big difference between something being technically edible and something actually being nice to eat, and while a lot of our native plants can be eaten, not all of them are worth eating. That\u2019s where our unkempt urban areas come out triumphant.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In uncultivated pockets of parks or growing on rough urban verges, Bella forages for invasive weeds widely considered biological pests. These include species commonly found in Britain such as onion weed (three cornered leek), nasturtium and sorrel. In New Zealand it\u2019s a great irony that many UK gardeners actively try to grow plants that for Kiwis sprawl over the land in excess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nasturtium has the lovely pepperiness of watercress which makes a really good pesto, the seeds can be caper substitutes and the orange, yellow, red and pink flowers are also edible and provide a little nectar spurt which makes them sweet and spicy in salads.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvesting is a balance though and Bella says in New Zealand she\u2019d also advise doing a quick once over of an area to make sure you aren\u2019t pulling out plants from sites of cultural or archaeological sensitivity. The nation\u2019s Treaty of Waitangi enshrines indigenous rights to harvest resources from the land but there are additional laws about taking living organisms from conservation areas without strict permits. Additionally, New Zealand ecosystems are protected by the Wildlife Act which forbids wider hunting of birds, lizards and even some seaweeds to protect habitats for marine life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, in recent years the country has seen a renaissance in interest for foraging more broadly with this including greater engagement with Rongo\u0101 M\u0101ori, a traditional healing practice used by the indigenous population based on plants and materials from the bush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that revived openness helps people connect with the land, seasons and sustainability in general but greater formal education in schools would definitely help too,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a delicate balance because nowadays environments simply can\u2019t support everyone going out foraging, but you also don\u2019t want to pull the ladder up from behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“While a lot of our native plants can be eaten, not all of them are worth eating. That\u2019s where our unkempt urban areas come out triumphant.\u201d<\/strong>
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This sensitivity is something Bella carries into her own foraging practices where she tends to steer clear of secateurs. Instead, a simple pinch with the fingernail normally does the trick and she trusts that if you have to yank at something to get it off the branch it\u2019s probably not going to be worth picking the fruit. With all the exotic plants New Zealand has to offer though it\u2019s easy to see how you might give into temptation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a danger of taking too much and we need to adjust the focus from harvesting alone to also using foraging as a tool to better understand the environment around you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bella herself began foraging as a child and channelled her youthful curiosity into the colourful fruit trees and verdant undergrowth of the city. To her, foraging was like one big scavenger hunt, and once she was told what she could eat, she began developing an internal map of the best spots each season. This included guava, loquats, bananas and feijoas (a sweet fruit that resembles a lime, often called pineapple guava due to their taste), with Tawa being an example of a native tree with edible berries from the Avocado family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The t\u014dtara tree is another one of the country’s ancient forest species popular with adults and children alike, with its sweet yellows and pinky-reds cones being known locally as \u201cbush jelly beans\u201d due to their sweet taste and resemblance to the American sweet. As an adult, one of Bella\u2019s other favourites is called Supple Jack or Bush Asparagus, which is a large vine that grows straight up from the forest floor. As the spears mature they become woody and inedible but when very young they can be eaten raw or cooked just like their namesake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with foraging in the UK however, caution is king, and some have fatally mistaken the early Supple Jack with one of New Zealand\u2019s most poisonous native plants \u2013 the Tutu. For Bella, knowing your edibles is only half the picture; you need to learn the toxic plants in your environment too. On the other hand, she reflects on the way New Zealand is also heavily influenced by British attitudes which tend to treat foraging with suspicion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you compare us to Europe where foraging is a normal part of people\u2019s cultural upbringing, we\u2019re still dealing with this inherited aversion. Caution is important of course and I was an overconfident kid who had some lucky escapes but sometimes we label things as toxic when they have the same chemical properties as our common vegetables. People say to steer clear of sorrel because it can effect calcium uptake in the body, but that\u2019s just as true of spinach so I think it\u2019s about asking for advice, cross-checking and using common sense moderation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, there have long been individuals turning to the country\u2019s native plants specifically to improve their health. There\u2019s the internationally renowned manuka honey, famed for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and soothing properties while the native kawakawa has long been used by the M\u0101ori, who chew upon its fragrant heart-shaped leaves to treat toothache due to its slight anaesthetic properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe health side of things is really interesting, and you can also take kawakawa like an aromatic tea with lemon and honey, but coming from the same family as black pepper I\u2019ve <\/p>\n\n\n\n

used them instead of vine leaves for tiny dolmades or chopped them up in curries. You can also eat the orange fruits if you can beat the birds to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The social side of the practice is also something that underpins Bella\u2019s own experiences. She and her partner bonded over foraging early on in their relationship and enjoyed sharing new locally edible plants week on week. From infused gins to summer salads, foraging brought successes, failures and colour to what might be written off as mundane suburbia. It\u2019s a reminder from down under that sometimes it\u2019s okay if chaos reigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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