Foraging in .walk: 8 May Amsterdam Sloterdijk

Modern foragers in action, Mr Boskoi included.

I'm very happy to announce the forage expedition Theun Karelse of Boskoi and me will organize as part of the Middle Kingdom of Weeds festival. As a little teaser (or warning) I can announce that the .walk will be haunted.

Be part of mapping the energetic value of the Dutch urban landscape; how much energy does it take for semi-skilled contemporary foragers to gather wild foods and what energetic value is contained in nearby urban environments? On May 8th the Middle Kingdom of Weeds festival features a forage psychogeographic expedition that will starts at 10.30 from Station Sloterdijk, Amsterdam. Using .walk algorithms this foraging expedition will map and explore the caloric potential of the area. 

Team members include:
- a geographer, who maps the edibles on Boskoi
- a timekeeper, who maps the times spent walking and harvesting
- spotters and harvesters

On return the wild foods will be weighed to make a calculation of the energy harvested in the expedition.

On the basis of this a map is made of the caloric value along the walk, the energy budget of the group and the best foraging algorithms.

This expedition is open to all.

Hosted by Wilfried Hou Je Bek (Cryptoforesty) and Theun Karelse (Boskoi).

.walk in brainfuck infograph by Petr

The Middle Kingdom of Weeds around my corner [Updated Twice]

The middle kingdom of weeds is a kingdom in the psychogeographonomic classification of environments, not in the regal sense of authority. These weeds are the citizens of the in-between, comrades of the cryptoforester. I went out to take these pictures two days ago, when the sun was lovely and the ground dry but somehow I managed to delete them from the camera without saving them to the computer first. This morning it had been drizzling all night and the pictures are the better for it: the leafs are now lush restaurant-salad green. 


When going over them I noticed that all grasses are missing, are they too middle-class? What a strange preconception. Must learn from that. 


To purpose of this expedition is to find out what is there & to learn the names what is now a void. 


I don't count many species. The first time I went out I found one stem of nettles but missed it this time. I also thought I found one kind of plant quite often on one side of the street that was completely missing on the other but the pictures do not corroborate this. Robert Walser's micro story is worth more than all the books of Deleuze put together. But is that really saying much?

Several times I have been looking to purchase a guide but they tend to be 

- expensive (and I rather buy another book of Amazonian anthropology) 

- too limited or too complicated

- lacking the information that I am really keen on: edibility and plant histories.

There is Wikipedia but that is not really helpful...

.. So I confess my innocence and my cluelessness about determination but with the help of you, the reader (thank you!), many of these civilians of the lumpen plantariat are now identified. The job would have been much when these plants will be in bloom.  

First I thought this plant, the most common in my street, was Dock leaf or Ridderzuring, then I thought it maybe was Sorrel or Veldzuring. But Readers Ed and Schildpad suggested Hollyhock or Stokroos.

Taraxacum officinale or Common Dandelion or Paardenbloem

This one might or might not be different from the above, and this might, as reader Petr suggests, then be Sheperd's purse or Herderstasje

A little cryptogarden growing on a heap of soil, notice the snowdrops but what is the dominating plant called? Reader Phil comes up with the answer: Ranculus repens or Creeping buttercup or Kruipende boterbloem. Thank you!

Despicable and fatty, but how do a gardeners call it. Reader Petr suggests Common Whitlow Grass or Vroegeling

Common plant, hard to make pictures of because they are very small, but what are they called? Four readers suggest Common chickweed or Vogelmuur

Lichen are just so photogenic.

Dandelion or Shepard's purse?? Reader Becky suggests Dandelion, 

Rare in my street, no idea what it is.

Dog shit unites us all.

Reader Becky suggests: Sheep sorel or Schapenzuring

Reader Becky sguggests Prickly lettuce or Kompassla

The middle kingdom of the middle kingdom.

Reader Ed suggests Hairy Bittercress or Kleine veldkers for this.

Galanthus nivalis or Snowdrop or Sneeuwklokje

Announcing the 'Middle Kingdom of Weeds Festival of Psychogeography and Foraging'

Cryptoforestry is part of this, are you? 

The MK-Weeds Festival of Psychogeography and Foraging

(April - May 2011)

The Middle Kingdom of Weeds Festival is a world-wide, open-format, zero-budget festival that will take place in April and May 2011.

The current interest in ‘urban foraging’ in the ‘edible city’ is helping us to see parts of the urban landscape that have long been disregarded or missed; the Middle Kingdom. This enthusiasm for foraging as an ancient practice highly relevant to contemporary problems is also provoking the field of psychogeography, the study of how place defines us, to reinvent itself. The two disciplines are deeply entangled.

The ‘Middle Kingdom’ is the grand total of weeds that grow beyond and between us, through cracks in the pavement and in the stealth arrangements of a cryptoforest. The Middle Kingdom of Weed, unintentionally cultivated yet thoroughly wild, is a kingdom in a psychogeographic classification of environments, not in the regal sense of authority: weeds are anarchic by default and it is with them that the forager prepares the green-op behind the surface of everyday banality.

The MKWeeds festival encourages people to go out and  explore their own backyard or neighborhood; to organize walks, workshops, picnics, projects, etc, with your friends, colleagues and wonderful strangers or your own. Events are already planned in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Great-Britain, the Netherlands and the United States. The website will be the hub of announcements and documentation.  

Go on!
 
Join the MKWeeds Festival!

Do get in touch via: 

url: www.fightthegooglejugend.com

email:  donotsearch at fightthegooglejugend dot com