I read an impressive article in the local paper about a lady who lived for a year off foods found around the central belt but mostly West Lothian. She obviously brings a great deal of knowledge, everything she ate was foraged. It can’t have been easy and I imagine most of it was stored as much as possible and dried, frozen or kept preserved. She has written a book so I could find out. How this would extend beyond eating mere leaves and mushrooms is incredible.
If more people did this though, the less chance she would have of even surviving. Your favourite mushroom patch, picked, scavenged by everyone else, the whole town descending, and by that time no one would leave any for next year’s regeneration. You can’t pick ‘em all no matter how hungry you are. Then the businesses would move in. First the small cafes and sellers, the larger restaurants and merchants, and then inevitably the corporations. The supermarkets, the chains and the food would be fucked and our original author would starve. She’d end up having to go to the shop and buying what she used to pick for free. What a world.