How do you answer people who ask for your foraging spots?
How do you feel about people asking for your foraging spots? In general I’m happy to take friends out who are curious about something I’ve foraged and making it a fun experience + teaching moment. I’m also a believer in passing down this knowledge in person with others since foraging is such an experiential kind of knowledge and something you learn faster with others more experienced than you.
In past years I’ve developed a small amount of social media following (not necessarily on foraging but food and fermentation) and often times when I post what I foraged, people I don’t know will ask me for where I found something. I feel conflicted on how to answer: I don’t want to gatekeep knowledge and foraging as a practice, but I also don’t want that person to just go there unguided especially if they don’t know how to forage responsibly. For me foraging is about developing my relationship with plants and my awareness of the natural area around me, and enjoying the fruits of that relational knowledge. How would you answer these people?