Go Raw Chicago

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to go on an urban forage walk in the Chicago neighborhood of Ravenswood with one of Chicago’s premier foraging experts, Nance Klehm.
I thought I knew I thing or two about wild edibles and I felt pretty happy being able to identify about 10 or so wild edible foods.  But this woman…wow!  She really raised the bar for me and knew not only about wild edibles but about many, many medicinal plants.  I was totally impressed that she actually knew what to do (and did these things herself) with so many of the local plants.  We got to taste Sumac sun tea as well as milk thistle tea sweetened with her homemade plum paste.  Then we went on a two hour walk around the neighborhood.

Here are some of the plants we found on our walk around Waters School Garden (Sunnyside and Campbell near Lincoln Square) and the notes I took on them (not a lot sadly but I was really just enjoying the day, the walk, and the vibration of the whole event!)

-Queen Anne’s Lace: related to the carrot, seeds have been known to have a birth control, or sterile, effect.
-Creeping Charlie: rub between your hands and inhale for the relief of headaches and/or hangovers ☺
-Plantain: chew and apply to bug bites or skin rashes (from poison ivy) for a cooling effect.
-Sumac: can make sumac tea from the berries (pretty tasty—like sour pixie stix candy)
-Milk Thistle: can make a tea or extraction from the seed to heal the liver
-Yarrow: good to stuff in deep wounds until it can be properly bandaged.
-Grapes (with seed)
-arborvitae: can make extracts with for medicinal use
-Pine
-Mint
-Lemon Balm
-Ginko Biloba
-Oregano
-Burdock: dig up the roots in the fall (can juice or eat raw in a salad)
-Voilet: can eat the flowers
-Wood Sorrel: very tasty, adds a lemon flavor to salads
-Yellow Dock: very intense, probably too intense to eat raw.  Very healing for the liver
-Mullein: good for asthma
-Japenese knot weed: I don’ think you could eat this raw.
-Cat nip
-Bee Palm: the petals taste good (reminded me of dandelion flowers)
-Rosehips: will be food to gather, and even eat raw in a few months. Can make a tea out of as well.  Very high in Vitamin C.
-Mugwart
-Wild Arugula

-Garlic Mustard

<—-creeping charlie. take note all your raw food party people

Who knew there was so much to eat and use medicinally for free around here??  Crazy.  And it is SO easy to make your own extracts too.  Just buy yourself some organic or high-quality vodka and soak your herbs in a little of it for a couple days or weeks even. Then strain out your herbs and if you want, expose your extract to the open air for a while so some of the alcohol dissipates into the air.  And then presto! You have just made your own homemade extract.  I haven’t gotten into this yet but I think I will soon!

<–rose hips

For more information on her walks or to RSVP for the next one, please e-mail Amanda at
Amandaroelle “at” gmail.com.  “Nance Klehm has been foraging urban areas and particularly Chicago for medicines, foods and seeds for several years. She believes that urban foraging is a wonderful way to connect directly to all urban land whether managed forest, coddled backyards, heavily trafficked public parks, lonesome transportation ways and so-called vacant lots. Urban forage walks are by donation. ☺ Learn about what plants that are sharing this city with you!”

Happy foraging!
~Lenette

Last Saturday was our Mulberry Maddness Meetup and I have to say, I’ve never had so much fun foraging for wild food!  Gathering fruit is so much more fun to do with others than gathering for greens is.  Maybe because none of my friends out here are really into wild edible greens, but more likely because fruit is just so much more exciting and satiating to pick and eat on the spot.  We found not one, but two mulberry trees at the Magic Hedge and foraged to our hearts content.  One was a white mulberry tree and one was a red mulberry tree.  One berry for me…one for my cup…one berry for me…one for my cup… I’ve never been too crazy about the Navitas dried Turkish mulberries so I wasn’t sure how I’d like them fresh.  Fresh is SOOO much better!  The red ones are even better than the white (IMHO).  I’ll definitely have to do another foraging meetup soon ☺

I’m back to work now after taking a very relaxing month off.  I’m working for myself now on an online business but creating a sort of daily weekday schedule nonetheless.  It feels good.  I work for 45-90 minutes and then take little breaks inbetween (thanks to Dhru from We Like it Raw for this advice).  I don’t get burnt out and I come back to my computer feeling refreshed and inspired for my next round.

Right now I’m working on creating a raw food lifestyle DVD, the content being very similar to what I covered in my classes last year.  I’m currently working on the website and will soon be working on the script and then I’ll be filming.  I just love talking and teaching about raw foods and really spreading the word and inspiration. The website will be www.rawfooddvd.com or www.sunfooddvd.com, not sure just yet (or both!).  As far as I know, this will be the only DVD teaching/showing how to successfully incorporate a predominantly raw food diet into your lifestyle, not just about how to make raw foods.  How exciting!!  I really hope I can make an impact on others this way.

Some local news: I’ll be giving a talk to Doc’s Juice and Smoothie’s (a 100% organic café in Bucktown) this Saturday at 1pm.  I’ll be talking about the whats, whys and hows of green smoothies.  There will be free samples of several types of green smoothies too so if you’re around, stop on by!  Here is the link if you want to RSVP (please do!)

Above is a pic my bf and I made to bring to out friend’s pizza party last weekend.  While everyone was eating homemade pizza (which I can still appreciate the smell off ) , we were eating some homemade raw pizza of our own.  The crust was a dehydrated buckwheat sprout and flax seed cracker, the cheese was a macadamia nut and cashew pate, the marinara was a recipe from the Raw Foods Made Easy book , and all of this was topped with avo, olives, jalapenos, basil, sprouts, and marinated (in some Braggs) mushrooms.  We made extra so our friends could try some out and it was a good thing because everyone who did loved it.  Raw pizza rocks!  When is someone going to open up a raw food pizza joint??? Hmmm….

Well I made it out to the “Magic Hedge” for the first time last week.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I was on a mission to find mulberries too, after reading Anthony’s post on them that week.  It was all a sign that I was to find them that day and then lead others to them.  I’ve been getting more and more into wild foods.  Studying up on more exotic types in books, trying to ID them whenever I’m out walking or running around.  It gets to be a lot of fun!

The Magic Hedge was just beautiful.  What a perfect blend of nature and city. As you can see from the pic below, you’re walking around in this thick brush yet you can see the beautiful city of Chicago from just about anywhere.  It is known to be a bird sanctuary so there are birds EVERYWHERE.  I thought I had died and gone to proverbial heaven!!  I did find the mulberry tree, too.  They weren’t ready quite yet, unfortunately but I’ll be back.  In fact, I’ve scheduled a meetup called “Mulberry Meetup Madness at Montrose” for July.  It’s going to be a blast! I’m planning on bringing a blanket or two with me too so we can shake all those ripe suckers off of there too ☺

It’s quite a change for me to not be working (in an office anymore).  I’ve pretty much taken the last two weeks as vacation and so I’ve been waking up to no alarm, no agenda or meetings, no real schedule.  I just kind of fit in what would best fit in the next chunk of free time I have (the only real things scheduled being gym classes and dinners and lunches with friends).  I’ve also gone from 9 hours of computer time a day to about 1-2 hours a day.  It’s kind of nice.  Less EMFs too.  I plan on starting up the research and scripting for me DVDs as soon as I come back from California in July though.

I’ll be going to California for eight days starting Monday.  I’m a bridesmaid in one of my best friends weddings.  I’m really excited to be headed back home too.  I’ve been having lots of surfing dreams lately.  The ocean is calling me!   I’ll be taking the bf with me too so I’m excited to show him the best ever farmers markets and raw food restaurants CA has to offer.  There are so many new raw food restaurants that have opened since the last time I was there–it’s incredible. As long as we get to hit up the favorites though, I’ll be happy.

Here’s a fun new smoothie I made for myself this morning.  I’ve made it before, but never realized how much the flavor reminded me of Fruit Loops Cereal!

Fruit Loops Smoothie

1 Coconut–water and the meat
1 peeled orange–with seeds is best

1 BIG handful of spinach
1 handful of goji berries
Blend in the vita-mix for about 20 seconds and…..
1 swear to God this tastes like fruit loops cereal!  Even the little speckles of red remind of how the milk used to look after all the “loops” were gone ☺  Enjoy! Raw food is so much fun.

<–one of two of my new 4 x 4 square foot gardens (surrounded by tons of wild edibles ironically enough!)

Happy Friday Everyone!!!  Need some upliftment?  Here are some short but effective audio clips to get you in the mood ;)   I try to listen to these every morning now.  I’m a such a nerd, I know!    http://www.soundboard.com/sb/laugh_track.aspx

The Chicago Green Fest last weekend was awesome.  I think it was the biggest so far.  It’s always fun running into friends from the local raw food community, sampling new products, supporting local companies just starting up, and browsing through the gorgeous organic clothing.  I’m not sure what booth/product was my favorite, but my friends and I all got a health reading at this one particular booth and each got a print out of where we stood with our digestion, adrenals, hormones, sleep, etc (there were about 30 points of measure)-and we thought this booth was well worth visiting.  The testing method was new to me but the guy said the readings were usually pretty accurate.  He put a clip the hand of tip of my left index finger and then wet an electrical probe and pressed it onto the outside of the middle bone of my right index finger.  The guy pressed down with the probe for each health measure and obtained a number on the computer.  Funny enough, I was slightly outside the ideal range for water!!  That was a great wake up call for me though.  I am now really focused on making sure I get at least 3 liters of water in me a day (not including juices, teas, etc.)  The basics are always a great thing to re-focus on

I’m seeing wild foods everywhere right now!  Clover, plantain, dandelion, wild violet, rhubarb, lambsquarters, lemon sorrel, and garlic mustard (I LOVE garlic mustard).  I think I’ve been thinking about and studying wild foods so much lately that the universe is literally putting them right in front of me everywhere I go!  I borrowed a book on wild edibles from the library last month, wanting to identify everything in my front yard.  It turns out I have four of the above eight wild foods in my front yard alone.  I feel so lucky.  I plan on going to the Magic Hedge near Montrose beach in Chicago soon to check out what else is going off now that spring is in full gear.  Probably mulberries, wild apples, and tons more.  Check out this post I did last year on wild foods for more info on the Magic Hedge.  I think the next young and raw meetup will be an intro to wild foods in my front yard and then a field trip out to the Magic Hedge.  I’m VERY excited…

One last thing for today to spark that ever-expanding mind of yours:  I found a great source for some free e-books on superfood health from Mike Adams, “The Health Ranger.”  He’s such an awesome guy that has started up a website called http://www.newstarget.com/, a completely independent website dedicated to educating us on health info the FDA doesn’t want us to know about.  The website is

http://www.truthpublishing.com/Articles.asp?ID=131 and gives you access to about 10 free e-books.  I’ve already read/skimmed through four of them and have learned a ton of new info.  Also, here are some great youtube videos of him I’d highly recommend.  This is a series of about eight though so watch them when you have time.  His knowledge base is huge and this is not your everyday information.  You’ll definitely learn something new from him.   Enjoy and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

~Lenette

(<–wild dandelion greens found in my front yard–very good for your liver)

Many of us have probably heard about the benefits of wild foods for years (or months) now since getting into the raw foods lifestyle: they have up to 50 times more nutrients and minerals than conventional foods and way more then organic foods as well, they can be found all around us, they’re F-R-E-E, they are always at the peak of freshness, and they have many medicinal properties latent in wild food. And if you’re like me you’ve probably been pushing this off for quite awhile because 1) you live in a polluted city and it’s not quite safe to eat foods growing right next to sidewalks or streets 2) it’s seems rather hippy-ish and “out-there”, and 3) you haven’t the SLIGHTEST idea what is edible what these foods look like and don’t really want to accidentally poison yourself!

Well good news–now is as good a time as ever to start–TRULY–AND it’s really not as hard as you think. September is one of the best foraging months of the year and there are tons of resources out there for you to start learning–websites, www.youtube.com, and meetup events. A friend of mine is quite into this and just last weekend foraged BAGS of wild grapes and apples, wild plums, some raspberries, sumac bobs, purslane, lambsquarters, burdock, lemon sorrel, and more.

One of the best ways to get started is to learn a handful of tasty, and easy to find/easily identifiable edibles. Recommended is sorrel (wood sorrel, lemon sorrel, sheep sorrel, etc.), lambsquarters (pick away from runoff/100 feet from roads/away from pesticides etc. as this plant absorbs a lot), purslane, wild grapes (including the grape leaves for dolmathes or just in salads and smoothies, very tangy and delicious, and oh so nutritious!), plantain, any of the wild mints (easy to find, including catnip, which, if eaten or rubbed on the skin, help with the mosquitoes), dandelion, any of the docks ( e.g. curly dock, burdock, etc), clover, chickweed, chicory, and thistles (lots of pink/purple Canadian thistles to be found everywhere, great for the liver, tasty as pesto base. The great thing about starting with this list is that there aren’t really poisonous look-a-likes, so it is easy to go from description and picture out to your yard or nearby park.

Ready to get started? Not quite sure you have that much nearby your apartment or house? The Magic Hedge is “a somewhat secret place, of trees, shrubs and grasses on a small hill at sandy, wind-swept Montrose Point on the Lake Michigan shoreline along Chicago’s north side.” From Montrose Avenue, east of Lake Shore Drive, turn right on Montrose Harbor Drive. At the first curve in the road, a small hill can be seen to the east; the Hedge is right there. A “Magic Hedge” sign is on the south side of the area; other signs denoting the area as a migratory bird habitat can be found on the Hedge’s north side.  Here’s a good map too.

JP, one of the Chicago raw food community’s best foraging experts, is actually going to give our local Go Raw Chicago group the tour around here and show us some edible wild foods so that we can identify them and get them whenever we want or see them in the future. Join the Go Raw Chicago meetup group for more info and to RSVP for this awesome meetup event if you’re local and can make it out on the 22nd!

Here are some fantastic websites to check out for more info, pictures, and how to eat (which parts are edible and the most nutritious):

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ForageAhead/
http://www.edibleplants.com/weplinks.htm#top
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
http://www.foragersharvest.com/

http://www.youtube.com (search for wild foods)

Happy Foraging!

~Lenette