“If you don’t know it, don’t eat it,” said Hackley alum and professional forager Sarah Ellen Lucas ‘01.
For many years, upper school science teacher Katherine Hannon has been teaching the Food and Power class, a minor course in the science department. The students learn all things about food and have the opportunity to cook recipes themselves. Recently, the class had an interesting opportunity to learn about foraging and even do some foraging themselves around the Johnson Center for Health and Wellness.
When the students walked into class, they were met by Sarah Lucas, who works in foraging and farming. She opened up the conversation by pulling out half of a huge puffball mushroom, showing it to the class, and by bringing out a jar of cooked mushrooms for the students to try.
“I was really hesitant at first,” said senior Megan Hopkins. “Most of the food that we eat today simply comes from the store and many people in the class passed on the mushroom at first because it was something so foreign to all of us.”
As they spoke more about foraging, Sarah told the students what’s important to look out for and remember when going out to forage yourself. One of those things was to make sure when taking a plant or food, do not take the entire bunch, as in order to make foraging a sustainable food source, some of the plants have to be left for it to continue growing. She also said to look out for pesticides or any toxins that may touch the plants, especially around areas like farms.
Afterward, the class headed outside and went foraging for themselves. Some of the plants that they looked for were white pine, mugwort, dandelion, plantain, and mullein. For each plant, the students learned about the different ways to eat them and their medicinal uses as well.

Sarah taught the students how to make a salve by chewing up the leaf of plantains, which you then would put on a cut to stanch any bleeding and heal the injury quickly. The students were able to try each plant and ended the day by drinking some white pine tea that she had brought in. Sarah stressed the importance of what students can do to help the environment and the farming community. According to her, foraging addresses both of these issues because the food can be even more nutritious and even easier than farming because the plants require less tending to. Many of the plants the students tried sometimes had up to eight times more nutrients than the traditional leaves we eat, like spinach.
“Many people don’t want to pay money for good and healthy food,” said Sarah. “It’s really hard to stay open as a farm with very specific environmentally friendly practices because our country is addicted to free food, sales, and overall cheapness. But many times people don’t understand that the cost is still there, it’s just going into the environment, into poverty, pollution, and even healthcare.”
Learning about foraging was a unique and exciting lesson for the class, and many students came back from it viewing the food industry in a completely different light.
“I really enjoyed the class,” said senior Lucia Butterfield. “It completely changed the way I look at food now, and every time I go outside, it’s super cool to think about how many plants are edible and that I always have a food source around me no matter what.”