After this idea germinated in autumn of 2013, Zsófia began wandering around the open areas of Buda in search of whatever uncultivated foodstuffs she could find, and within a month she was happily overwhelmed by the wealth of nature’s bounty: in District II she found five kilos of figs, rose hip, and hawthorn; the yield from District XII included more than three kilos of blackberries, sage, nettles, dandelion, and mint; and District XI provided a whopping 26 kilos of grapes, plums, pears, apples, quince, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and more.
Drawing on her experience in food photography, Zsófia captured the output of her culinary quest with an exhibition of pictures documenting her harvest (accompanied by cups of wild-hawthorn tea), garnering so much enthusiastic interest that she launched the first Collective Plant foraging expedition a few weeks later. In the wide-open fields of Buda’s Pesthidegkúti Airfield, an intrepid band of artists and environmentalists encountered a fruitful crop of rose-hip berries – which they used to brew tea right there in the fresh air.
Subsequent foraging outings drew more and more participants in the following months. Although she hadn’t originally planned to organize these adventures at all, Zsófia knew from the beginning that they should be about more than just taking participants directly to known sources of wild foods, partially to avoid depleting the edible plants but also because she sees this as an opportunity to highlight issues of urban sustainability. While most collecting excursions traverse Buda’s vast expanses of undeveloped terrain, Zsófia is frequently surprised to find treats like hazelnuts and apples growing directly beside panel-building complexes or parking lots.
“I wanted to see how to be self-sustainable in the city, and I found out that there are a lot of plants here that are edible that we don’t use,” she says. “If we are walking with open eyes, then we will see a lot of things – not just food.”
However, considering that most people are not biological experts and many poisonous plants also grow in the wild, Zsófia began educating herself and her groups on how to properly identify all kinds of edible greenery – as well as mushrooms, which certainly require utmost caution. To aid this effort, Collective Plant began publishing and selling a series of artistic fanzines with detailed information to help readers pinpoint flora and fungi that are fit for human consumption, with the proceeds from these publications supporting the group’s endeavors.
As interest in Collective Plant continually grows and foraging trips become packed to capacity, the group also spreads its message by hosting workshops and participating in events with other artistic and activist organizations, including associations aiming to alleviate homelessness and the Central European University Sustainability Festival.
Taking this movement into the future, Collective Plant premiered its newest publication this month, made with eco-friendly Risograph printing techniques at Pest’s Brody Art Yard – the “Wild Food Calendar”, presenting detailed drawings of seasonal edible plants for every month of the year along with English-language recipes for natural delicacies like fir-tip pesto and dandelion kimchi, charmingly illustrated by New York-born Hungarian artist Mimma Nosek.Collective Plant fanzines and the “Wild Food Calendar” can be purchased through etsy.com/shop/CollectivePlant individually or in packages. The next Collective Plant foraging excursions are being scheduled for winter and springtime of 2015; there is no charge to join these journeys, but since group sizes are limited, advance registration is required – check out www.collectiveplant.com or the group’s Facebook page for more information.
