WILD EDIBLES

Catalog description

Course is hands-on and field-based. Students explore seasonal wild foods growing in Lorain County and must provide their own transportation. Students learn how to forage in a variety of habitats, learn to identify edible species, how to distinguish from look-alikes, and how to incorporate wild edibles into his or her diet. Course content will also relate to sustainable agriculture in the following ways: studies of comparative health among hunter-gatherer and farming cultures; ethics of foraging and overharvesting; politics of foraging; wild ancestors of modern agricultural crops; history of plant domestication; how to incorporate "wild" foods into crop production systems; how to re-vision what agriculture might look like using techniques such as food forest; and a critique of problematic binaries: weed vs. Crop; native vs. invasive. This course may be repeated up to three (3) times for credit if the course is taken in different seasons (spring, summer, or fall), and can satisfy up to (3) credits for academic program requirement as an approved course substitution.