As I collect contamination information for wild-harvesters on WNY public lands, my conclusions are informed guesses at best. Learning about the history of parks and surrounding property gives important clues, but we often don’t know how this translates into concrete contamination data. Even when testing is done for soil contamination, we can’t assess the levels of every possible contaminant. Some contaminants also break down into other (also toxic) chemicals that aren’t tested for.

Another issue is our lack of a complete list of industries and smaller businesses that have contributed to contamination in WNY. The 2018 book Sites Unseen is an outstanding resource for understanding the complexity of urban contamination history—particularly the quick "forgetting" of businesses that left contamination behind.

A huge thanks to WNY artist Emma Percy for the botanical art on the A Nourishing Harvest homepage! Emma used handmade burdock and coltsfoot paper for the image here; so many layers of beautiful. Learn more about Emma's work at www.emmapercy.com.

In Biosolids Article #2, I briefly reference household products containing harmful chemicals that end up in western NY streams, and farm fields where biosolids are applied. I love this flashy slideshow offered by Kate Winnebeck of the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute. She shares specific info about which ingredients and products to avoid.

This is the second of several articles exploring the use of biosolids in agriculture and residential composting products. We begin with general info about contaminants in biosolids—which wastewater treatment can and cannot remove—and how well plants may absorb those contaminants. 

This is the first of several articles exploring the use of biosolids in agriculture and residential composting products. We will start with general info about contaminants in biosolids, which contaminants wastewater treatment can and cannot remove, and begin to explore how well plants absorb those contaminants.

One might ask, “Why does it matter whether we’re technically allowed to harvest invasive garlic mustard, or Japanese knotweed? No one would mind if we took some.” My concern is that if parks and forests do not consciously allow visitors to harvest these plants for eating, their management practices and communication with visitors will also ignore this reality. If both visitors and employees are clear on what we are allowed to nibble, we will have increased the safety of the nibbling.

The more I learn about many “medicinal” plants, the more I realize that they are just real human food—the food we evolved eating, making our bodies what they are today.