Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hunting and Gathering

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #16
    Re: Hunting and Gathering

    Originally posted by WinterTraditions View Post
    Canada does not have a law about collecting bones or feathers. Basically, as long as you don't harm the animals to get them, you're all good.
    Yep, totally not the case in many states across the US, even if ya find it in your backyard, if the wrong people find out about it, It can be totally illegal, but especially in national parks and such...
    http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

    But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
    ~Jim Butcher

    Comment


      #17
      Re: Hunting and Gathering

      Seriously? Even in your own backyard? why?

      Here foraging is actually still a big thing. A lot of people do it, and it's even encouraged in a lot of places. Most of the time, the species are either invasive (even though they're native), prolific, or the whole plant isn't harvested (as is the case with most leaves and berries). You can even pick them from parks and no one will really put up a fuss unless you're really yanking out a ton of plants.

      There are also a lot of fruit trees planted on public land. This comes from a long standing tradition that dates back to Frederick the Great, who planted fruit trees on public land so everyone would be able to eat. My boyfriend's mom said that it even goes back further than that, and that many farming regions had a plot of communal land where everyone in the area could pick things. Having them on the street was definitely from Frederick the Great though.

      I think part of it is also big because during WWII, a lot of people had to eat nettles and things to survive. No one wants to -have- to do it, but I think there's a general feeling that if you know how and pass it on, you and your family will never starve in a disaster.

      Comment


        #18
        Re: Hunting and Gathering

        The International Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to harm or keep the feathers of over 800 species of birds. You can't prove you found it on the ground as opposed to having killed the bird....Game birds like pheasants & turkeys are exempt.
        sigpic
        Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

        Comment


          #19
          Re: Hunting and Gathering

          I'm pretty ignorant with foraging so I stick to what I know. I collect the mint that's in my yard and eat the mulberries off any mulberry tree I find. Even then, it's not as if I saw a tree and said "THATS A MULBERRY TREE!" It was more of a "hey, there's mulberries on the ground," and then I look up.
          No one tells the wind which way to blow.

          Comment


            #20
            Re: Hunting and Gathering

            The Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918 was inacted between the US, Great Britain (signing for Canada and maybe some other places) and over the years added Mexico, Japan and Russia (as the Soviet Union)...it was put into place to protect birds from women's hats--tons of birds were decimated to make ladies look good in the 19th century and early 20th. Part of my Master's Natraulist training included a pretty thourough drubbing over the particulars of permitting on both a state and federal level, and the *whys* of the laws involved...for example, if I found a dolphin or other marine mammal bone, I would need permission from NOAA to keep it--a) because it has to be established that it was *just the bone, no animal attached*, which is considered a scientific discovery and b) so I can prove that I didn't illegally kill it.
            Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
            sigpic

            Comment


              #21
              Re: Hunting and Gathering

              I didn't think of it that way, but it makes sense. It still seems a bit strange though....we always grew up picking up crow and seagull feathers that we found lying around. A park in Victoria has a lot of Peacocks in it, and it was a real treat to find a feather from those!

              Comment


                #22
                Re: Hunting and Gathering

                I used to hunt, fish, butcher, and gather. At first, it was new, exciting and I felt a great connection with all living things. The first time I killed a deer with a good, clean shot, on my own (without my dad holding the rifle steady) I swear I could feel the deer's initial panic, the bullet penetrating my heart, then everything stopped & was replaced by sheer primal lust for life. I was 8, lol. It was like, 'Screw Bambi, does that thing have a liver and can I eat it raw?' Helping friends who had small farms harvest was almost as good as hunting - the smell of warm, fertilized earth, sun-heated fruits or veggies filling my hands, knowing that people had grown their own food from scratch and the earth just let them do it. Even helping my aunts & uncles raise chickens & hogs and milk cows or goats... it was as filling as the food being provided by the plants and animals around me.

                The older I got, the less it seemed like 'fun' and the more it seemed like 'work'. Especially when I was having to go to school, go to work to pay bills & the only things my father & I could afford to eat was what we could find. It was no longer fulfilling, satisfying or spiritual - I felt like my hardpan dustbowl grandparents and great-grandparents probably felt - I worked my ass off all day to go to bed hungry just to get up and do it again.

                Now I would like to have a couple of back-yard chickens to eat the scorpions. I'm pretty content being able to work to pay someone else to grow, pick and prepare my food. I don't feel any less connected to my spirituality because all my meat is butchered and plastic-wrapped. I'm creeping up on 40, I've got scoliosis and lower back pain. Indoor herb gardening as a hobby is ok, but I am not keen on the idea of trying to sustain the household on a small farm. You bust your ass and sometimes, the corn still won't grow and the hens won't lay - and your back always hurts. I've grown up to be a city Pagan, and my relatively barren backyard is all the nature I need.
                The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Re: Hunting and Gathering

                  I don't know that the decision to forage came from a place of spirituality. I've been foraging for longer than I've been Pagan, and its more been a way of enjoying Nature. I probably was attracted to Paganism and stayed with it because of my relationship with the land, rather than the other way around. I think it is a great way to be involved with one's bioregion, which I do find to be important religiously...but I think there are other ways to foster a relationship with the land as well (gardening, going to farmer's markets, bird watching, laying in the grass). I tend to be pretty pragmatic, so sustaining my family from hunting and foraging in a non-survival situation is pretty unrealistic...but learning what local plants are edible and how to prepare them also leads one to learn which plants are inedible, or which can be used in other ways...and eventually leads to a better understanding (and hopefully, appreciation) of one's ecosystem and genus loci. But foraging offers an opportunity to build a relationship with my locus.
                  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                  sigpic

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Re: Hunting and Gathering

                    Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                    I don't know that the decision to forage came from a place of spirituality. I've been foraging for longer than I've been Pagan, and its more been a way of enjoying Nature. I probably was attracted to Paganism and stayed with it because of my relationship with the land, rather than the other way around. I think it is a great way to be involved with one's bioregion, which I do find to be important religiously...but I think there are other ways to foster a relationship with the land as well (gardening, going to farmer's markets, bird watching, laying in the grass). I tend to be pretty pragmatic, so sustaining my family from hunting and foraging in a non-survival situation is pretty unrealistic...but learning what local plants are edible and how to prepare them also leads one to learn which plants are inedible, or which can be used in other ways...and eventually leads to a better understanding (and hopefully, appreciation) of one's ecosystem and genus loci. But foraging offers an opportunity to build a relationship with my locus.
                    What thal said. Although, when I was a small child, I was grossed out by nature, because it was so 'dirty'. But as I grew, I realized I loved the outdoors, and I think after that, I came to the realization I was pagan.

                    Now, I am outdoors doing outdoor things (like hiking, foraging, wading in streams, what-have-you) because I like doing outdoor things. But, that's also how I feel pagan. To me, feeling 'pagan' is feeling the things that make me feel free, so riding my bike without hands makes me feel pagan, and so does summer rains, and picking leaves and berries and eating them and storing them for later.

                    It's kinda all the same thing. Living = being pagan, but I found life before I found a path.


                    Mostly art.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Re: Hunting and Gathering

                      I would love to do more foraging where I live, but if anyone was to look up where I live (visible to the left ) then had a google of the soil/land etc, you'd see shit all grows here. Obviously the Aboriginal people who lived here in the past were able to survive on food here, but hell, I struggle to grow basic herbs and veg in raised beds of good soil and manure etc. In summer it is far too hot (can average above 40 Celcius for a month in summer), and in winter we can get frosts for weeks. It's so difficult to grow stuff, and a lot of the old knowledge has been lost.


                      It's saddening. The only bush tucker I really know is Quandong. I've just started teaching 'Culture' to year 5-6 students. I'm hoping to learn a lot, about the language, bush tucker, and hopefully, womens rites of the Adnyanathanha people.

                      But pretty much, nothing grows here. My lemon tree is a stick. A LEMON TREE for crying out loud!
                      ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

                      RIP

                      I have never been across the way
                      Seen the desert and the birds
                      You cut your hair short
                      Like a shush to an insult
                      The world had been yelling
                      Since the day you were born
                      Revolting with anger
                      While it smiled like it was cute
                      That everything was shit.

                      - J. Wylder

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Re: Hunting and Gathering

                        Originally posted by Heka View Post
                        I would love to do more foraging where I live, but if anyone was to look up where I live (visible to the left ) then had a google of the soil/land etc, you'd see shit all grows here.
                        I don't know the ecological differences between West Australia & Southern Australia, but an online friend of mine does really well growing native plants in her yard. She usually keeps her blogs private, so I don't know how much you can see, but she's a prolific photographer of plants:

                        http://moonvoice.dreamwidth.org/
                        The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Re: Hunting and Gathering

                          Thanks Perz, Ill check it out later when I'm not on my phone. Just in terms of size etc, west Australia is everything from tropics to desert to temperate forests.... South Australia doesn't get to tropics at all, so in some things WA and SA can be completely different. I also live in the hill country, so different again, and much more central and inland to a lot of places, but yeah, thanks!

                          Also a few years ago my mother decided to only grow weeds cos they grow better haha!
                          ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

                          RIP

                          I have never been across the way
                          Seen the desert and the birds
                          You cut your hair short
                          Like a shush to an insult
                          The world had been yelling
                          Since the day you were born
                          Revolting with anger
                          While it smiled like it was cute
                          That everything was shit.

                          - J. Wylder

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Re: Hunting and Gathering

                            Originally posted by Heka View Post
                            Also a few years ago my mother decided to only grow weeds cos they grow better haha!
                            That's my backyard Sometimes weeds can surprise us, though - a couple of weeks ago I noticed one of our weeds was a thistle plant. Never seen one pop up in any of my yards here ever. Had a big ol' yellow flower on it, too!
                            The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Re: Hunting and Gathering

                              Nyaw pretty!

                              Also cacti and succulents. I try and grow lots of those. Except clay soil... ugh
                              ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

                              RIP

                              I have never been across the way
                              Seen the desert and the birds
                              You cut your hair short
                              Like a shush to an insult
                              The world had been yelling
                              Since the day you were born
                              Revolting with anger
                              While it smiled like it was cute
                              That everything was shit.

                              - J. Wylder

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X