“The plants are leading the way and I’m just their dancing partner. There’s a curiosity…it’s not really knowing, not having it set in your mind that this is what you’re going to do, but being open to it changing. And then you’re just dancing according to their rhythm.” ~ Tama Matsuoka Wong

I’ve been thinking that foraging – going from place to place looking for things one can eat – is a lot like the sampling and prioritizing of information gathering that neuroscientists are studying, just applied to things many of us readily dismiss as “weeds”.

Tama Matsuoka Wong is a finance lawyer turned professional forager. She got curious about the “weeds” around her when she moved to a fixer-upper house in northern New Jersey. She started to see them and their ecosystem differently.

Now she forages for high-end chefs in Manhattan and is an advocate for thoughtful stewardship of what’s naturally all around us.

That struck me as a curiosity conversation worth having.

I know people who are really disconnected. So I have chefs coming from all kinds of backgrounds. I have bartenders, I have farmers. I have EMT workers. I have plants people…it’s just people from all over…they would never normally come across each other. But sometimes, when you put them together, amazing things happen. In a way, all I’m doing is connecting these dots. And if you look at it that way, it’s infinitely curious. 

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #226: Foraging: Curiosity & Dancing with Nature, with Tama Matsuoka Wong

Learn more about Tama Matsuoka Wong here: https://www.meadowsandmore.com

Tama’s got a new book out! Use the QR code to oder Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager.

(NOTE: I receive no proceeds from any sales, I’m just happy to promote a guest’s book!)

You know me, I’m always interested in the research and theory that undergirds or gently informs these conversations. Check out my interview with neuroscientist Jacqueline Gottlieb about sampling, information gathering, and what we can learn by tracking eye movement.

If you enjoyed this conversation about wandering, savoring and the great outdoors, you might like these C2BC Classics as well: Slow Down, with Justine Ickes; Street Wisdom, with David Pearl; Beyond Your Front Door, with Dina Pavlis; Reading Our Landscapes, with Liam Heneghan; Curiosity Out on the Town, with Demian Perry; Reflections-Not-Resolutions, with Kristine Wood; and A Capital Naturalist, with Alonso Abugattas.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Lakeside Path” by Duck Lake, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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