VOA标准英语2011--Foragers Sample Nature's Bounty
时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2011年(十二月)
Today, most Americans get their food from the supermarket, but some are even going beyond farmers’ markets or backyard gardens for fresh produce. They're learning how to forage 1 for wild edibles 4.
Earth Connection, about 85 kilometers south west of Washington, DC, helps foragers learn to identify what is safe to eat and what is not.
Into the wilderness 5
On a chilly 6 autumn day, founder 7 Tim MacWelch brushes aside some fallen leaves and exposes a small green plant with heart-shaped leaves and tiny pods.
He plucks a pod, pops it in his mouth, and gives his approval. “They’re juicy, they’re sour. They’re really good.”
The tasty plant is called wood sorrel. MacWelch doesn’t recommend plucking weeds from your yard and eating them until you’ve done some research. “There are plenty of bad plants out there that stay on my radar 8.”
According to Tim MacWelch, many parts of the pine tree are edible 3, but the pine nuts, protected inside the pinecone, are too small on this particular tree to harvest. The needles, when steeped in hot water make a tea that is high in vitamin C.
MacWelch, 40, has been a student of outdoor survival skills since he was a teenager and took up backpacking. “I thought if I could find everything I needed out in the woods, then I wouldn’t have to bring it with me.”
Becoming more self-sufficient
He founded Earth Connection in 1997 and runs workshops to share his expertise 9.
MacWelch has had as many as two dozen students in classes. Today, he has two, Tamae and Bob Heilen.
Tamae says her husband has been interested in taking classes for a long time.
He says he wanted to be more self-sufficent. “I’d like to be able to know that if there were an emergency and I couldn’t get food in the store that I would be able to find food on my own.”
She got interested more recently. “I started cooking wild plants like dandelions in our yard. And it tasted really good, and I decided 10, I want to study.”
The yellow fruit of the horse nettle 11 looks like small tomatoes, but is highly poisonous. Even animals stay away from this plant.
On Earth Connection’s four-hectare property, the Heilens learn about dandelions and other edible plants, like yarrow, which looks a little like a fern, but smells and tastes like a culinary herb. It also has medicinal properties, says MacWelch. “It is a styptic, which stops blood flow. It is also anti-bacterial.”
Wild carrots are also on the tasting menu for the day, but MacWelch cautions his students, they can be tricky 12 to identify. Carrot roots should smell and look like smaller, white versions of the carrots found in stores.
And they should have tiny hairs on the stems. “If there are no hairs, and it smells bad," he warns, "you are looking at a poison hemlock 13 or a fool’s parsley, both of which are deadly.”
Wild edibles
MacWelch offers his class on wild edibles every season, but says autumn is the best time to forage. “The salad greens that are out there are very mild and tender and sweet,” he says. “Tree nuts are abundant. There are still some berries and even some fruits in the end of the season.”
Rose hips 14 are sweet and high in vitamin C.
Even with fruits and berries, he cautions, you have to be careful. “About half of the red berries are edible to a human,” he notes.
The tiny red rosehips he plucks from a bush are an excellent source of vitamin C and, as Tamae discovers, sweet. “Those are really good. I’ve seen it so many times, but I’ve never really thought that it was edible.”
MacWelch says some students take his class on wild edibles because they are searching for new flavors. “There is stuff out here that is rare, that is not easily transported, stuff that is just off the radar of normal food consumption in America.”
And stuff that may very well be growing in many Americans’ own back yards. It just requires a bit of searching. “You’re on this mission to find this thing and you’re not sure where it is,” MacWelch says, “but you know it is out there and you know it is going to be good if you get it.”
Tim MacWelch offers a variety of wilderness survival classes throughout the year at Earth Connection. He also blogs about survival skills for Outdoor Life.
- They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.他们不得不去寻找衣服和燃料。
- Now the nutritive value of the forage is reduced.此时牧草的营养价值也下降了。
- He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
- We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。
- Edible wild herbs kept us from dying of starvation.我们靠着野菜才没被饿死。
- This kind of mushroom is edible,but that kind is not.这种蘑菇吃得，那种吃不得。
- They freely offered for sale what edibles they had. 他们很自愿地把他们的一点点可吃的东西卖给我们。
- Our edibles the wild vegetable. 我们只能吃野菜。
- She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
- Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。
- I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
- I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。
- He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
- According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
- They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
- Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。
- We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
- You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- We need a government that will grasp the nettle.我们需要一个敢于大刀阔斧地处理问题的政府。
- She mightn't be inhaled as a rose,but she might be grasped as a nettle.她不是一朵香气扑鼻的玫瑰花，但至少是可以握在手里的荨麻。
- I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
- He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。
- He was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock.判处他喝一杯毒汁。
- Here is a beech by the side of a hemlock,with three pines at hand.这儿有株山毛榉和一株铁杉长在一起，旁边还有三株松树。