Volume 4 • No. 8 • New Moon • April 27, 2025
Abstract Landscape 2 • Ink on Paper • 2020
Afterlight • Ink on Paper • 2020
Broken Neighborhood • Ink on Paper • 2020
an excerpt from
Reading the Landscape Through the Eyes of a Forager
by Jeremy Siegrist
“Reading the landscape is not just about identifying landscape patterns; more importantly, it is an interactive narrative that involves humans and nature.”
–Tom Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape
Photo Credit: Open Grown School
PART 1
Free lunch! Yes, it does exist. It is all around us falling like manna from heaven, or walnuts on your roof. Blanketing the earth in every direction like dandelions on your untreated lawn. And good thing because food is life. Eating is one of the most intimate things we do every day. Taking the flesh of another (whether animal or plant) into our own flesh; transferring the energy of another’s life into our own life. Obviously humans are not unique in this. All creatures eat and are eaten. Tracking these pathways of energy flow between species is a way to understand one of the important patterns occurring in the landscape. The scientific discipline of food-web ecology studies this specifically. Foragers study this as well, but they are particularly interested in where energy is located that can be consumed at a given time. Successful foragers develop a mental map and a mental calendar of where and when food is to be found. But this database must include much more than just what we want to eat because details about other plants and animals offer clues to our food: being able to identify a dead elm, for example, could lead you to a morel...
About the Author:
Jeremy Siegrist grew up in Jackson, Michigan, left home to travel the world with a nomadic community of musicians, then moved back to the Irish Hills where he has been doing ecological land restoration over the last decade for Iron Creek Land Community. He continues to devote extensive time to observing the natural world, foraging for wild food, participating in local bird and butterfly surveys, reading, and traveling.
In early 2019 he helped start Open Grown School to facilitate outdoor nature education for all ages. He also plays music with his experimental folk orchestra theillalogicalspoon, and has written for and co-edited several d.i.y. publications, including, most recently Leaf Litter: Notes on Restoring and Reinhabiting the Great Lakes Bioregion.
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || “O for the fortitude of bare trees in February,
how long till You heal things?
Will You still frighten this wind-blown leaf?
How long till spring when we eat nettle greens?”
(from theillalogicalspoon's Motherbear)
The green earth is waking. Birdsong, and the story of renewal, come as relief in the morning air. Still, let’s not forget. The wind-blown damages, the ice, all of the impacts of last month’s storms, and subsequent outages might be easy to set aside if you aren't witnessing them first-hand, despite what will be long-term impacts. Watch out for more details on what Crosshatch has been working on towards these efforts.
|| 2 || While you’re paying attention: if you're attuned to foraging, for example, you probably know that the land holds stories worth listening to (i.e., Tom Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape, Part One). Walk many northern woods now, look up, and you’ll find higher-than-normal occurrences of snags (standing dead trees, often structurally unpredictable) and widowmakers (suspended branches and limbs, again, at risk of falling). Take care if you encounter them, and keep folks in mind who might be prevented from safely entering their usual morel or ramp foraging grounds. Maybe you’ll find yourself with a bumper crop of spring sustenance but too few hands to harvest. Maybe there’s a spot where those sets of circumstances meet.
|| 3 || In the essay above, Jeremy advocates for land restoration, human involvement in the landscape, and deriving what we need from the places that we’re in. Those topics all tangibly connect to the conversation of “Soil, Seasons, and Sustainability” that Crosshatch’s co-founder, Brad, just had with Lyla Hollis for her Living Sustainably podcast.
Listen in for some grounded tips for moving beyond hand-wringing in attempts to eat well, and encountering “joyful participation in the production and eating of food.” When I say grounded, I mean it—we’re talking accessible actions that don’t require much money, like cooking with what many consider scrap, eating meals with friends, feeding worms in apartment settings, and more, all in service of “saying yes to the world you want, rather than no to the one you don’t.”
The Weft — News and Events
We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!
|| 1 || Ice Storm Effort Recovery for Land Stewards, A Place to Begin (An Incomplete List of Hubs and Resources to Look Into):
Miigwech Inc. (Alanson)
MI Maple Syrup Association Call for Assistance (Farms in Gaylord, Alba, Charlevoix, Hawks, Atlanta) & GoFundMe Campaign.
State Portal for Volunteering: Alpena, Montmorency, Cheboygan, Emmet)
Coveyou Scenic Farm Market (Petoskey) Dropoff for The Manna Food Project (Harbor Springs)
Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (and various city chambers) Storm Impact Survey for Businesses
Updates from State Senator John Damoose, House Representative Parker Fairbarn, and State Senator Michele Hoitenga.
Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Emergency Response Fund
|| 2 || Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference Tickets Now Available!—Leelanau County. Mon-Tues, Aug. 18th-19th. Space is limited; two days packed with valuable content designed to get you excited about the remainder of the season and thinking ahead to future years. Not quite ready to commit? Click here to learn more about this year’s conference, or here to purchase your ticket now.
|| 3 || Community Food Forest Mutual Care Party & Compost Learning. Sunday, May 4th, 11am-2pm at DeYoung Natural Area. Come on over for a spring plant maintenance session and new planting of perennial edible plants. Food producing and climate-adaptive trees will be available for free for at home planting. We will engage in questions, conversations, and information sharing regarding community efforts for forest health, climate resilience, and perennial edible plants. Representatives from Edible Trails Project, Salix Community Forestry Collective, and Crosshatch will be present. Find more here.
|| 4 || Land-Based Projects: Installation-Based Input Sessions—May 19th, 10:30am-12pm and May 21st, 5-6:30pm, Virtual. These share-and-listen opportunities build from the foundation of Crosshatch's first land-based summit, and feature guest speaker Jennifer Flynn, EcoCorps Program Director with SEEDS Ecology & Education Centers. Register and/or find more information on the ZOOM gatherings here at the links above.
|| 5 || Book Reading and Fiction Writing Workshop with Christine Maul Rice. May 21st at Bee Well Mead & Cider and May 22nd at Grass River Natural Area. More details on the Antrim Writers Series event to come. Find more information at the links above.
|| 6 || 2025 Grower Stipends from the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Applications open now. Twenty-nine $3,000 stipends for growing and seed-keeping are available to individuals indigenous to North America. Applications are due May 16th. Find more on the direct support program here.
|| 7 || The Crosshatch NW MI Small Farm Jobs Board—Check out the new job board here. Posting positions is strongly encouraged. Please share in your networks, and keep an eye out for more openings that might be a good fit for you or someone you know.
|| 8 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: The Alluvion Big Band, Funky Uncle, Letters Home: Stories of Peace Corps Service, The Jeff Haas Trio featuring Laurie Sears + Lisa Flahive, The Go Rounds, Robin Connell & Paul Brewer Septet, Big Fun, Ship Yard #5 - Featuring Magic People & Beaver Stew, and A Night at the Starglow - A Silent Film Experience.
Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.
sponsored by:
Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.
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