The French epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s now well-worn assertion, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are” (1854), came to me as I was standing in a field not far from my house. At the time, I was stretching like Gumby to reach a few tiny, seductive pears bobbing from branches just inches—halves of inches—out of my reach. In this moment, I began to reflect on exactly what I am: first, I am the child of short, Russian immigrants. But second, I’m a person who is taking increasing pleasure in discovering delicious things growing in the wild and eating them right then, or fetching them home to fashion them into something more satisfying and enjoyable than they already are. With each encounter, like this pear moment I was having, a body of evidence points to what I am growing into: an accidental forager. Fruits. Nuts. Mushrooms....

You do not currently have access to this content.