Urban Edibles - Portland

Hello and welcome to Urban Edibles. We are a non-profit based out of Portland, Oregon. In essence, we provide resources for those interested in wild edible, medicinal and otherwise notable plants. We occasionally host events, workshops, and presentations as well as publish small-print “field zines.” Much of our presence, however, is online. Here’s how to use our website:

1. Check out the wild foods map. Navigate your way through an online garden filled with wild edible and medicinal plants growing in the Portland area. You may search for plants by location (i.e. check out what’s growing in your neighborhood), browse by category (what plant are you looking for today?) or contribute to the map by adding a source (got some dandelions growing in your front yard?). Contributions are made to the map by foragers and landowners alike. Check out the Ethics section to understand protocol for contributions made to the map.

2. Check out the wiki. It’s like Wikipedia with a twist. The Urban Edibles wiki is an open-source encyclopedia dedicated to edible, medicinal and otherwise notable plants. However, don’t let this framework be a limitation. A range of topics are possible here. Things like herbal preparations, wild foods recipes, urban forestry issues, ethnobotany, poisonous look-alikes, earthen poetry…these would all make great additions to the wiki. The sky is the limit. Share knowledge on the Urban Edibles wiki and PLEASE cite your sources.

3. Join the discussion list. The Urban Edibles discussion list serves as an e-mail forum for topics with a more immediate sensibility. These are things like neighborhood scouting missions, workshops, speaking engagements, etc. By joining the discussion list, one is able to post as well as receive e-mails from the discussion group.

For this month’s scouting mission, we emphasized asking permission, and after we started, there was a chain reaction of food sources!

We started picking plums from a tree in the parking strip in front of a house. We knocked on the door, and the man who lived there not only was more than happy to let us pick his plums, but invited us into the backyard where two beautiful Asian Pear Trees grew- dripping with yellow fruit. He offered us glasses of water, looked at our website, and was generally helpful and interested! Another pear tree shared his neighbors’ property and to keep up the good work, we knocked on their door as well. The woman who answered seemed relived to have us pick her pears (”Glean away!) and offered us the rest of the raspberries growing on her bushes.

There was more than enough food for all of us there (a fairly big chunk of folks!). We all felt great for making a connection with the people in our community, and sharing food with them and each other.

Laura uses the handmade fruit picker to get at high up pears!

Berries are all over the place! And cherries are ready to fall into your mouth. This week our database hit 400 sources! Laurel harvested a stomach full of raspberries in Mallory Meadows, and Michael went for razor clams and mussels near Yachats, OR. Meanwhile Carly lead an edible plant walk for the Village Building Convergence (see past photos here).

Two events are coming up:

• JULY 5th: Wiki Work Party
  We have a new, stronger, sparkly wiki but need help migrating the data from the current one. If you have been wanting to know more about using Wikis or internet tools for your organization, this is your chance! Also a really easy way to help out Urban Edibles if you have been looking for the opportunity. 3pm, The Waypost (3120 N Williams)
  
  
• JULY 12th: New Website Planning Meeting
  We have been envisioning a new website for a long while and it’s time to make it happen. This will be a more technical meeting about designing the site architecture and how to incorporate the growing list of cool feature ideas. If you have experience with Python, developing iPhone apps, interaction design, or just have ideas for features, Please Come! I’ll buy you a beer or juice box. 3pm, Backspace (115 NW 5th Ave)
  
  
• Watch our discussion email list for the locations and other details on these events.

So what’s with all the Location TBA? We have been grateful to City Repair for letting us use their space, but they will be moving and we are again looking for a home. We don’t need much: a place to put a filing cabinet, some books, a box or two, and a place to set up a table when we need it. We also don’t have much, as in no money to spend. We generally meet once a week and have occasional work parties. If you have any ideas or corners to offer, please email teamoregon@urbanedibles.org. Any help is greatly appreciated!

P.S. Check it out: there’s a flickr group for Taraxacum Officinale (a.k.a. dandelions).

Mmmm. With the daphne in bloom and the skunk cabbage coming up, we’re beginning to get a whiff of Spring. In the coming months, Portlanders will begin to arise from a deep hibernation and get moving on a series of amazing endeavors. What to expect: an explosion of farmer’s markets, permaculture projects, urban foraging missions and more. When it comes to eating right, this city has got it going on.

So what have we been up to? We’ve been working on exposing the Portland dream to other cities. Check out the new Urban Edibles chapters in Boulder and Amsterdam. If you would like to start up a chapter in your area, send inquiries to global@urbanedibles.org.

Check out our new zine Urban Herbs. It’s a great jumping off place for those interested in harvesting, preparing and understanding the medicinal actions of common herbs in the city. If you’ve ever wanted to make a tincture from passion flower or merely understand what in the world “anticattarrhal” means, this guide is for you.

And finally, we’re looking for two interns! That’s right. If you or someone you know is interested in learning the ins and outs of the UE project, let us know. One position is focused on digital/social media and the other a volunteer coordinator. These are unpaid positions and would be ideal for a student or someone interested in broadening their skills with people, plants and community education. For a full position description, contact bobby@urbanedibles.org

Best Wishes,

Urban Edibles

Is it Autumn or is it not? Here in Portland one can never be quite sure of these things. As the last of the blackberries burst forth on the vines we begin to see apples, pears and the falling of leaves. The nights are a bit cooler and the harvest moon is right around the corner. But then again, the temperature is up and we’re still dipping in the river. It’s a toss up. As any one in the Pacific Northwest knows, Autumn is the beginning of the rainy season. Hordes of Portlanders will now begin to settle indoors to get cozy and dream up new projects. But before we hunker down for too long, there’s a little sliver of summer left over and we’re about to make it go a long way.

On Friday, September 5th we will be exhibiting an audio/visual installation as part of “Neighborhood Projects,” a TBA festival event. The opening lasts from 6-9pm at the Pancake Clubhouse Historic Township and Activity Destination for the Living Arts. Once again, we will be working with the wonderful Amy Steel. On Sunday, September 7th we will be leading an interpretive plant walk in conjunction with “Neighborhood Projects” as well. The walk meets at Chapman Elementary Park at 2pm. The park is located at NW 25th & Pettygrove.

On September 9th, we will be giving a talk at the N. Portland Public Library. What’s the occasion? It’s the release of our new zine “Urban Herbs,” an introduction to urban wildcrafting in Portland, OR. The event lasts from 6:30-7:45pm. In addition, our first zine “10 Weeds You Can Eat!” is still in print. You may find copies at Reading Frenzy or through the Multnomah County Library.

Happy Harvesting!

UE

Whoa. It’s Summer and here at Urban Edibles things have been heating up like Tofurkey in a skillet. To all the locavores out there, you know what we’re talking about.  Greens, berries, weeds and more…it’s harvest time.  As the flora of the Pacific Northwest becomes easier to identify and more satisfying to eat, now is a great time to get out and see what you can find.  Maybe you don’t know the first thing about foraging but would like to try it. Why not join the Edibles crew for a scouting mission? We’ve been gathering at Col. Summer’s Park the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 6pm to scout edibles by bike. This is as much a scouting mission as it is an educational opportunity for one and all.

Speaking of educational opportunities, we’d like to thank all those who have joined us on recent edible plant walks (photos).  It’s been such a blast!  We were lucky enough to have folks from all around the globe join us at the Village Building Convergence.  Also, in conjunction with local artist Amy Steel, we now have an installation up at Work/Sound gallery.  Here’s what the Portland Mercury had to say about the walk that accompanied the show.

Currently, we are discussing ways that the site can be expanded to include other cities. We have had a lot of interest from individuals and groups from all over the place. If you live outside the Portland, OR area and would be interested in introducing Urban Edibles to your community feel free to e-mail global [at] urbanedibles.org with your input and contact info.

Last but not least, big ups to the Alberta Coop and the Portland Redirect Guide.

Happy Harvesting!

Urban Edibles

Holy moly! It’s Spring again and here in Portland that means a whole heck of a lot. The clouds are beginning to part, the Sun is beginning to show itself and our clothes are finally drying out from the soggy depths of Winter. Yes, fellow foragers, the time is upon us. As the growing season begins we shall emerge from our homes and onto the streets. What grub might we gather? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Lace up the boots, grab the supplies and go…

Friday, May 2nd we will be hosting a benefit show @ Backspace. There will be a line up of great bands (see flyer), a beer garden and an info booth with copies of our new zine and t-shirts. Click here to view the flyer. All the proceeds go to the production of printed materials, web site hosting, venue rentals, and general furthering of the project. If you can’t make it but would still like to contribute, we would love if you hit the donate button at the bottom of this page.

We have several events following the benefit:

General meetings at Liberty Hall (311 N Ivy)

• May 5th 7-9pm
• May 19th 7-9pm

Workshop at the Bossanova Ballroom (722 E. Burnside)

• May 31st 3-5pm

This event will be part of the annual Village Building Convergence hosted by City Repair. The workshop aims to address the ethics of urban foraging, how to use our website and how to prepare the fruits, roots and barks of your foraging labors. The workshop will include a short plant hike and some free literature. After it’s all said and done, you may wanna stick around for a very special VBC dinner. Rumor has it, the grub’s gonna be off the hinges!

Finally, big ups to the Portland Monthly, Zaproot, Youtube, the Willamette Week, and Backspace. The media support for the project has been a real treat. See you in May!

UE

Brrrr. It’s cold outside and everything is dead. With winter in full swing, there’s been a lot less activity on the foraging front. Here at Urban Edibles we’ve been keeping busy with inside stuffs and getting our little fingers in all kinds of projects. Lots of exciting news to report…

First off, the website is about to undergo somewhat of an overhaul. We’re in the process of organizing an educational resource database. This will include information on how to identify and harvest edible and medicinal plants, preservation techniques, and a glossary of plant-related terms. The data will eventually be woven into the interactive map that is currently on the site and be easily accessed next to the search results.

In addition, we’re also proud to announce the release of our first field zine: “10 Weeds You Can Eat!” A release party is in the works. Until then, you may find them at the Urban Ecology and Conservation Symposium on February 4th at PSU’s Smith Ballroom (registration required). We’ll be there along with many other resource conservation groups in town.

Altogether, the winter is turning out to be a productive period for us. Please join the mailing list if you are interested in contributing more behind-the-scenes, or add to the wiki at anytime. At this point we would also like to extend an invitation to other cities that are interested in implementing their own mapping system and localized resource database. The possibilities are infinite!

UE

Hello everyone. Our last meeting was a complete success! Free Geek donated a projector so we could show off the interworkings of the site, and we had some good discussion about the history and future of the project.

The last hour of the work party yielded a nice amount of collaborative research for the Urban Edibles Wiki. If you’re not familiar with this feature, it is essentially an interactive common grounds for sharing information about the site and project. For example, check out the section for research on specific plants that was added to during the meeting:

http://wiki.urbanedibles.org/edibles/show/ResearchOnSpecificPlants

We see the Wiki as a scrap book for content that may eventually be added to the main site. Posting and editing the Wiki is a group effort and we’d love your input. Anyone can click “Edit Page” and any size of contribution is helpful!

A new feature on the site is a “permissions” drop-down box on the Add Sources page. There has been much discussion regarding the ethics of scouting and harvesting edible foods and we’ve tried to design a way to track the situation of each food source submitted to our database. Please check out the new feature and let us know how it works for you. We hope to establish a better understanding between scouts, harvesters, landowners and the various plants in question.

Our next meeting will be Sunday, October 18th from 5-7PM at Liberty Hall. This will be a work party for UE alumni as well as an info-session for newcomers. All questions will be addressed and site tutorials provided. Feel free to bring research materials, laptops and any other information related to the site. Happy harvesting!