03 Magazine: April 05, 2024

Feature | Magazine 37
“Dandelions are medicinal powerhouses and full
of beautiful mythology and folklore, art and culture
and medicine.
“I’ve been going a bit deeper with dandelion these
past few years and there’s so much to learn.
“Try to eat different bits of it, try to make different
things with it and then when you feel like you have a bit
of a handle on it try something else.”
It is one of Helen’s favourite plants, along with the
northern hemisphere nettle (not the New Zealand
native nettle).
“I drink a strong infusion of nettle everyday. It is a
strong tonic plant to drink. It’s good for teeth, your hair,
your skin, your vitality and wellbeing, your circulation.
“It doesn’t taste especially good, it tastes like you’ve
made a strong tonic out of grass clippings, but I have got
used to the flavour and if I miss a day I start to crave it.”
Another favourite is the elder tree, which is very easy to
forage in the Manawatū along the river and railway lines.
“If you have a Northern European-Pākehā genealogy,
then it is a sacred tree in our folklore traditions.
“It is another plant full of folklore, history and it’s a
very beautiful, special plant.”
While it does get categorised as a weed in some
places due to its vigorous spreading, it can be harvested
twice a year.
In spring the elderflower can be picked, while in the
autumn its berries can be picked.
“I love that the elderberry can be picked in autumn
when it’s such an amazing cold and flu medicine.
“It appears just before we need it. You harvest in
autumn and make various potions for when struggling
with immunity and cold and flu season.”
She infuses honey with the berries and also makes
oxymels, a mix of honey and vinegar which she adds
the berries to.
Another concern people have about foraging is the
sprays applied by councils and landowners to prevent
weeds growing.
“What I have observed in my wanderings around park
lands and edges, is usually city councils are limited in
budget and time and usually their brief is to make access
ways weed-free, so that usually means about 12m either
side. If walking somewhere frequently, you can see when
the council has been,” Helen says.
“Again, it’s slowing down and observing your local
environment. Generally I advise wandering off the path
a bit, foraging is about wandering off the main paths,
looking around corners and behind things.
“Get out of those spray zones and dog spray
zones. Trust your instincts somewhat and your
powers of observation.”
Having councils take a different approach to
planting fruit trees in reserves is a positive move that
she welcomes.
“There used to be some old-fashioned ideas about
fruit trees on public spaces making a mess, or one person
would strip the tree, that people don’t know how to
share or look after something for all of us and I see that
changing and I’m really heartened by that.”
She’s not concerned about the increased interest
from people.
It is the second “blip” of interest in foraging she has
noticed over the years.
“Because it is such a slow relational pastime, you have
to be committed to go very far and not many people are.”
Richard Mabey, British author of Food is Free calls
foraging ‘inconvenience’ food, which is “hilarious”,
Lehndorf says.
“He’s bang on. You don’t do it because you can get
loads of stuff in 10 minutes. It’s about so many more
things than accessing food.
“Nature is generous – there is plenty there for all of us
and people are pretty good at sharing, on the whole.”
Liv, who grew up in Virginia in the United States, agrees.
“Lots of people think it’s a money-saver, but I haven’t
found that it is. It’s a lovely hobby, but not something that
has saved me any money.”
She became interested in fungi and lichen when
studying geology in the US, especially what she
discovered on field trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“Rocks are changing on a very long timescale, so from
day to day there is little change, so I began to notice all
the cool intricacies in nature around them.
“I’ve always loved nature and tiny things.”
When she moved to New Zealand, she was captured
by the beauty of the country’s native bush and the
“cool” fungi.
She first discovered her interest while living in
Dunedin when she moved here to study.
“I lived on Leith Street North in a student flat and spent
a lot of time wandering around the Botans [Dunedin
Botanic Garden] looking at lichens, moss and fungi.
That’s when I really started researching and getting
very curious.”
While she headed back to the US for a while, she
returned to New Zealand, settling in Christchurch and
picking up her foraging hobby again.
“Dandelions are medicinal powerhouses and full of beautiful
mythology and folklore, art and culture and medicine.”