Wild Things

One man’s wilderness is another man’s larder, just as one man’s weed is another man’s salad. Before Columbus, the Indians of America made use of some two thousand plants for food, most of them wild by European standards of cultivation. But here the abundance of land turned a whole continent into a salad bowl for those who knew where to look and how to transform root, stalk, leaf, pod, fruit, blossom, seed, nut, berry, and pollen into foods raw and cooked, into flour, syrups, preserves, wines, stews, as well as into cleansers and medicines and bright-colored dyes.