Take a walk on the wild side

In the beginning, foraging sounded sort of weird—why would people actually volunteer to root around the woods looking for mushrooms and wild herbs? But as DIY food fever has swept the West, it’s caught on as a way to get fresh ingredients and get out into nature. Hard-core fungi clubs have sprung up like, well, mushrooms; neighborhoods are launching foraging clubs and backyard fruit swaps; and you have to work hard in places like San Francisco and Portland to find a menu that doesn’t include, say, a soup with wild, hand-gathered nettles. For guided forage walks in the Bay Area, visit foragesf.com, or find a mushroom club near you at namyco.org. If you’re thinking about starting a fruit swap, neighborhoodfruit.com lets you register your ripe tree for picking.