regularly take small groups of hotel guests on foraging strolls from Sea Point back to the hotel , where they cook up what they ’ ve found into a scrumptious three-course meal . Guests can watch , help or just be waited on – the choice is theirs . But there ’ s something about foraging that makes you want to get stuck in .
It ’ s primal , it harks back to a time when , as humans , we had to go looking for food , or we would die .
We haven ’ t lost that instinct . Even in a supermarket , we ’ re inevitably drawn to the bright red of a ripe tomato , or the sumptuous velvety texture and smell of a plum – unmistakeable signs to the spirits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors that these foods are both non-poisonous and nutritious . It ’ s no coincidence that most food packaging uses red , orange or yellow .
These are deeply ingrained instincts . We are sensual creatures – by which I mean that we readily respond to what we perceive with our senses . It ’ s no surprise that the term is used today mostly to refer to food and sex , because , when we were evolving , it was those two things that got us to the next generation . So all our senses are tuned in to finding edible and nutritious food and a fertile mate . And we are at our happiest , and our most human , when we combine them . Who hasn ’ t used food as a seduction technique ?
As we buy most of our food packaged , we don ’ t get to choose it by smell or by feel , but we often use at least the sense of sight . And we certainly don ’ t use our senses to find food . That ’ s a sad thing , because it means that , in evolutionary terms , we ’ re no longer earning our dinner . We have externalised the process : we work on a computer , in a hospital or on a building site to earn the money to pay someone else to grow , find , farm , catch and / or kill – and even cook – our food . And this disconnect , this dissonance , is one of the causes of our plethora of lifestyle diseases .
We need to reconnect with our food . We know that , which is why so many of us – those who aren ’ t economically constrained , who can make these choices − are growing their own food , or choosing to buy food direct from the producers at farmers ’ markets . Foraging takes it one step further . We may not know it consciously , but when we forage , we are recreating the processes that make us human . The simple act of picking a ripe berry from a bush and popping it in your mouth is infinitely more pleasurable – and , yes , sensual – than taking a box of berries off a supermarket shelf , or even buying it direct from the grower .
But , really , how practical is it ? The chances are , if you look around , you ’ ll find a surprising number of edible plants growing right on the estate . If you ’ re in the Cape , you ’ ve probably got oxalis , sour figs , wild rosemary , sage and mint , and a host of edible greens . Even up north , there ’ s a lot more than you might realise . A surprising number of plants we consider to be weeds are actually highly nutritious and are now being recognised by the food industry , grown , packaged and even exported . The chances are they ’ re growing wild on the verge outside your house – at least until ruthlessly weeded out .
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