Euell Gibbons: Author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus

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Even the American Indians—whom we sometimes think each knew all there was to know about the outdoors—had food prejudices . . . just like everyone else. No one tribe ever made full use of the wild food in their area, even when they realized that another group of Indians often ate something they were passing up. Individual tribes generally recognized that and would speak of another by saying, "They eat that but we don't." Sometimes this was just a matter of custom and sometimes it was bound up with certain real taboos . . . like a Jew avoiding pork or a Hindu beef.

The interesting thing about the Indians, though, is that they weren't nearly as bad as we are at putting others down for what they ate. Nor are most so-called "primitive" peoples. One might even say that individuals who live in small tribes are far more sophisticated anthropologically than the average person in our Western culture. The typical member of Western society thinks we do what we do because it's the right way . . . the primitive realizes that there are many solutions to a problem and that his tribe's approach is not necessarily humanity's only option.

PLOWBOY: To what extent, then, are you simply preserving the traditional eating habits of the American Indian with your books about foraging? Is much of your work original?

GIBBONS: I suppose this will sound pretty conceited, but I know more about the use of wild plants today than any member of any one tribe ever knew . . . for the simple reason that I have access to what they all learned. I've done practically no original research in finding wild plants that have never been used for food before. Primitive man did an extremely good job of learning what was edible and what was not. I've just compiled that knowledge and used it.

The wisdom the Indians accumulated wasn't lost, you know. There's hardly a tribe that someone didn't make a report on. Those papers contain invaluable information about the eating habits and the ethno-botany of each tribe and they can all be found in the Library of Congress now. When I began my studies before the Second World War, though, the old manuscripts were very hard to find. I had to go from library to library to dig them out. That's how I first learned much of what I know about wild foods.

PLOWBOY: Is there anyone who knows more about foraging than you?

GIBBONS: I've met one man in my life who knew more about wild foods—worldwide—than I do. Fred Irving. He's not well-known. Before his death he recorded a great deal of information about the wild food plants of Australia, Africa and the Soviet Union . . . areas I'm not familiar with.

I've never known anyone, however—not even Fred Irving—who was or is better at using foraged fare than I am. Fred had very little practical experience in gathering and preparing wild food, whereas I've done it regularly all my life.

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