"Wildman" Steve Brill and sustainable agriculture

Today I went on the nature walk through central park with Steve Brill, and I have to say, I was surprised with the end results. First off, though, allow me to share me experience with this very strange and knowledgeable man; the second he passed out the consent forms I thought to myself, "this guys going to be all buisiness"; all work and no play, and such. Of course appearances can be deceiving; shortly before we set sail, so to speak, he gathered us all in a small cluster and made an expression similar to that on the face of the person in Edvard Munch's, "The Scream," brought his cupped hands together near by his face, and began omitting a strange conga, esque sound from his moth by banging them together. My point being, he was a strange guy.

Of course, shortly after he started the hike and his strange mannerisms were overlapped by the immensity of his knowledge of plants. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we set off, and about a hundred feet later, we came across, what he referred to as, "Poor-Man's Pepper," which was a small stalk with frayed leaves branching every which way, all beneath a tiny, practically insignificant little flower. He told us the etymology of the name; the exact time period in which the story took place escapes me at the moment, but during this one point in history the pepper plant was so highly taxed that very few people could actually afford it, but because the demand was so high people were driven to find other, more affordable, alternatives. Poor-Man's Peppers is, as it's name states, the poor man's version of the pepper plant. It tastes almost exactly the same as pepper, and could very well be used as a perfect substitute for pepper.

Seeing this brought a flood of thoughts rushing into my brain, not so much about the pepper (ha), but about how perfectly applicable to today this is.
A.) In this day and age, for every North Face or Ghirardeli there is a cheap knock off, which is, more often than not, just as good as the more expensive version, which draws its allure and cost from the name as opposed to the comparative quality of the item itself.

B.) It also goes to show that everything, plants included, has a natural alternative that can substitute for the "real" one. While pepper is no longer a heavily taxed commodity this shows you that you can get this stuff for free and from mother nature's very own backyard...in the middle of central park.

One of the main concepts, aside from the plants in specific, that he talked was how remarkably similar the properties of many of these plants were relative to their synthetic, man-made alternatives. I can't think of any examples at the moment, but the point is that, all the artificial crap that damages Gaia is un-necessary, and that if more people knew about the natural alternatives to what we are so commonly spoonfed by the system, they too would shift their eating habits to healthier and more sustainable substitutes.

I think the ability to self sustain is beautiful; not only does it feel better to be part of the process of handling and dealing with our own food, but it is less harmful to our already taxed environment. Actually hunting down and finding our own food is much more rewarding of an experience than simply paying for it at our local, flourescent bulb lit supermarkets. This, I feel is an important part of living a full and involved life; being part of the process of doing is something we so commonly miss out on in our industrialized culture, and we have grown to take things for granted, thus losing a greater appreciation of them. In doing so, we remove ourselves from all the necessary survival aspects of our lives, which, arguably, will make our experience more dull .

All in all, I'd say I had a fun time and I would definitely consider doing it again to find out more natural substitutes to common foods. Luckily, I bought a massive book on such foods throughout all seasons. Lately I've been trying to avoid buying all prepackaged foods, so this is perfect for me, and, as I am going to Hampshire College next semester, I feel that having this knowledge will be of use to me in the future.