iN PHOTOS: Okanagan forager sheds light on living off the land

As she plucks a ground dwelling mushroom or carefully pulls the prickly thorns of a stinging nettle, one of Armstrong’s most dedicated food foragers, Mikaela Cannon, is eating the most organic, sustainable and local diets. Cannon finds peace through walking outside among the trees and weeds, all while carrying a basket and scavenging for seasonal ingredients for her next meal. Cannon sources her food from the outdoors, and wants to show others how accessible and rewarding eating directly from the earth can be. “There's a lot of plants that have been introduced as weeds, and a lot of people are trying to get rid of them,” Cannon said. “What better way to deal with an invasive species than just eating it for supper.” Each area is unique and lush in forageable foods, and Cannon hopes to show others that living off the land is possible, easier than many think and maybe even more enjoyable and nutritionally beneficial than visiting a local grocery store. Cannon has been foraging food for as long as she can remember. Even as a child, she recalls finding wild strawberries and eating them despite the warning from her parents. As a juvenile, she figured if it looks like a strawberry and smelled like a strawberry, it must taste like one too. From there, her desire to find and learn about local earth eats grew. “People are always so amazed about how many different things they can put on their plate after they go out and they're like ‘oh, I didn't realize all the weeds in my yard I can eat,'” she said. As an adult, instead of seeing weeds as pests ruining her garden, Cannon rejoices in having so many options readily available for her to forage for her next meal. She enjoys spending the time outside as a way to reconnect to the planet and use its resources. She has also taken a series of herbal medicine and ethnobotany courses to gain more information about foraging and her interactions with the planet. “You feel really nourished by the land, you feel like you're a part of it and you're like a beneficial part of it rather than just a destructive force on it,” Cannon said. While Cannon forages, she also expresses caution to those who are just starting out. Typically, if Cannon comes across a plant she is unfamiliar with, she introduces herself to the plant by name, draws it, and studies it with every book she owns to ensure she confidently knows what it is, if it is safe for consumption or if it has any side effects. This study period can last months, or even years depending on the plant. Mushrooms are the riskiest and take Cannon the longest to analyze. After the trials are over, Cannon slowly introduces pieces of the plant into her food. She feeds it to herself first, while recording her physical and mental state before and after consumption. If she has no side effects after a few trials, she will then introduce the food to her family. Although different people may react differently to foraged plants, more than anything, Cannon wants to be as careful as possible when experimenting with a new food. From trial and error, Cannon knows all too well about risk taking while foraging. “I don't want to scare people, because it's such an enjoyable thing to do, but if you're not taking the proper precautions or educating yourself, it can be not enjoyable,” she said. “I always want to stress that to people. There is a point where you get really confident and comfortable in foraging, and often that's when you start making mistakes, because … you take risks that maybe you shouldn't have.” READ MORE: High school program in Vernon takes students outside the classroom to learn https://infotel.ca/newsitem/high-school-program-in-vernon-takes-students-outside-the-classroom-to-learn/it107434 For nearly a whole year, Cannon and her family lived strictly off foraged or grown food. She even came up with a series of new recipes using stinging nettle and dandelions, and even baked a loaf of sourdough bread using Aspen tree bark. Cannon says with foraged food, you get more healthy minerals and micronutrients in your body. She says she looks at plate full of colourful and foraged foods and see nutrients she couldn’t get anywhere else. Aside from the health benefits, Cannon feels more connected to the earth and people when she forages. While doing her own research from books and online sources, she also learns from the Splatin Indigenous peoples in the Armstrong area, listens to their knowledge on foraging safely and takes it for truth. Cannon doesn't let anything go to waste. She events creates art from tree bark she forages.  Cannon does her best to forage with care. She only takes what she needs to avoid over consumption, which takes away from other humans or animals who also rely on the plants. Because of her foraging, she doesn't take the land for granted. Cannon says there are so many edible plants and natural food resources available for use, new foragers just have to pay attention to the environment around them and look closer at the resources they have. Even if a plant looks prickly or intimidating, it could very well be edible and full of nutrition. “When you're foraging, you have to pay really close attention to the details in order to be able to identify plants, and when you start paying close attention to details, you see all the amazing things that come with that,” Cannon said. “The world opens up and it becomes such a magic place to live in when everything you see has these hidden information about them.” Learn more about Cannon's foraging experience, and the foraging classes she hosts here.  https://www.forestfables.ca/ To contact a reporter for this story, email Bailey Zimmer mailto:bzimmer@infonews.ca  or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. 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