With a Little Help from My Friends

"Does it worry you to be alone?
How do I feel by the end of the day?
Are you sad because you're on your own?
No, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends." - the Beatles

March 14. 2012.  Picked my first fresh plants of the season, a small bag of tender dock leaves.  A celebration.  A hallelujah.  Sweat, and joy, and green matter pushed under my nails.  A crowd cheered.  My crowd.  It takes a village, you know.

Foraging used to be a solitary pursuit for me.  And then, last year.  As I walked my true path, every time I picked my head up to survey the land, there was another beautiful soul, my friends.  Last year, they sliced into my world, and presented me with endless gifts of glittering joy. 

And now.  Today.  Some of my biggest smiles come from knowing that foraging is a pursuit shared.  C and K, of the 365 Kitchen harvest a bag of mallow, and excitedly use it in their own kitchen.  My beautiful French friend uses foraged currants to make her own creme de cassis.  My nutty canning-obsessed buddy delights in incorporating wild treats into her creations.  And just today, I got to pick some of the first leafy greens of the season with my friend from Laughing Lemon Pie, stopping along the way to place a lady bug upon the fingers of her infant daughter.  My blessings are many.

It is true.  I'm obsessed.

But if you think it is only about the plants, you are wrong.  All along, I've told you it was about pleasure.

I used to think this meant only the pleasure of tastes upon the palate.  But now I know it is so much more.  In some strange way, my love of tasty plants has brought the finest souls I've ever known into my life.  I know of no finer toast to spring, than to feel a swell of love overtake my heart.

To my loved ones, each and every one.  I adore you!