Sketching up local eating ideas

Edible landscapes and wildfood

Drawing up concepts for edible trails and local food supplies as a path to better relationships between locals and hikers

By Frits Ahlefeldt

New innovative movement are working to reconnect people to the local landscapes in many ways. One of them is through what has been called “The local food movement”

The local food movement are slowly gaining speed and getting more and more popular, it is about promoting eating more food from the area where you live. Either as within a certain distance, a zip-code or a “foodshed

Local food markets and trails

Making the hiking hiking trails pass by the local food markets is one way of connecting hikers to the local communities in the places the trails pass through. It gives hikers a great excuse and motivation to stop filling backpacks with freeze-dried, dehydrated calories. And instead rely on fresh, often organic grown food, made by people living and thriving in the areas, the hikers visit.

A close related option is to give the locals and hikers an option to enjoy the same food along the same trails by upgrading the options for local variants of wild food, berries, nuts, herbs and fruits to be found along the paths.

This could be a very interesting way for hikers and locals to relate much more, not as much, first through talk, but instead using food and taste as a door to enriched experiences, closer relationships and mutual understanding between hikers and locals