There’s no one I’d rather be stranded in the woods with than someone who knows how to forage.
I wasn’t stranded, thankfully. I was walking through Scioto Audubon Park with Ohio native Alexis Nikole Nelson, better known online as Black Forager. Where I saw a lot of green, Nelson noticed plants worth a closer look− and some worth leaving alone.
Before looking for anything, though, she stopped to listen.
"When I get onto a trail, the first thing that I honestly like to do, if it’s not too busy, is stop and listen," Nelson said.
It was late summer, and the cicadas were hard to miss. Nelson could hear goldfinches, too. Taking in those sounds, she said, helps ground her and brings her attention to what’s around her.
Then we started looking. Nelson pointed
out poison ivy and pokeweed, whose berries might look tempting to someone new to foraging. Her advice was clear: Don’t eat them.
"Never eat pokeweed raw," she said.
Nelson has turned that mix of curiosity and caution into an audience of millions across social media. She shares what she knows about wild foods in her first cookbook, "Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!," released Sept. 22. The book pairs foraging guidance and safety tips with plant-based recipes.
By the end of our walk, I couldn’t claim to see the park the way Nelson does. But I understood why she pauses at the start of a trail. Even without identifying a single plant, there’s more to notice when you slow down.
Nelson has more to say about foraging, life and her journey to fame in the latest episode of Columbus in Color. You can also see highlights from our walk in the video atop this story.
Trending reporter Amani Bayo can be reached at abayo@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: A walk in the woods with Black Forager, one of Columbus' most successful content creators
