What would the average person do if they couldn’t stop at the grocery store or farmer’s market to stock up on produce? How would we sustain ourselves? These questions have become more pertinent in times of supply chain interruption, food shortages, and income loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. As Americans look to increase their food security, it’s appropriate to learn from those who have been gathering knowledge about local plants for decades. If we don’t know a fantastic forager or a green-thumb gardener, where do we turn?
Enter Patryk Battle. Battle is a veteran gardener and farmer, currently the Director of Living Web Farms, an education and research nonprofit focused on food systems near Asheville, NC. He is a source of abundant information and wisdom on gardening and farming, and has been teaching workshops on many topics related to growing, preserving, and preparing food for years.
This July 28th, Battle forges new territory in a workshop called “Deep Dining in Your Garden”, wherein he’ll explore the question of how people can nourish themselves without store-bought food. “In this time of heightened awareness of – and desire for – food resilience, it’s going to be comforting and empowering to know that there is already food everywhere,” asserts Battle. “We can eat parts of plants – squash, beans, and many others – that we don’t realize we can eat. Additionally, there are wild places near the garden that can provide abundant nutrition.”
While this workshop was originally scheduled to take place on Living Web Farms in Mills River, this is unfortunately no longer possible. This workshop will be available to participants as a live Zoom meeting, YouTube stream or pre-recorded video. This will enable Battle to visit different on-farm sites and show more edible plants in their natural environment. “The ability to look at all these different sites means I might be able to hit on a few things that people actually have on or near their property,” he says. “The mission of Living Web Farms is to provide pathways to the future should we run into disruptions, and indeed, we are seeing a bit of a disruption now. We think it’s important to have lots of food growing and to empower people with the knowledge of all the food around them.”
In this time of pandemic-induced uncertainty, it’s undoubtedly wise to gather and share as much knowledge as possible about self-sufficiency. Maybe there are several nutritious, delicious, and free ‘weeds’ all around the neighborhood! Tune in to find out.
To register for Deep Dining from Your Garden, visit the following link: https://livingwebfarms.org/workshops/deep-dining-how-to-really-eat-from-your-yard-garden-and-nearby-wild-spaces/
To view Patryk Battle’s recent short-form videos, check out Resilience Daily on YouTube.