Fast food is junk, you'd be better off eating weeds — just ask Kate Spaulding

Kate Spaulding loves gathering resources from wild plants. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

Kate Spaulding sometimes wants to warn customers away from the dim sims she sells.

She works in a Devonport takeaway food store, serving schnitzels, chips, burgers and pies, but believes diets based on processed foods make people "feel sick".

Ms Spaulding prefers to forage for free, wild-growing, nutrient-rich foods in the Tasmanian countryside, and she focuses on eating invasive species.

Sloe berries have traditionally been used for making gin. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

Old habits, new knowledge

Ms Spaulding grew up on a farm near Latrobe, in northern Tasmania, and remembers foraging with her grandparents.

"One of my earliest memories as a child is of being out with my Nanna and harvesting [wild dog rose hips] and we'd take them back and make rose hip syrup and rose hip jelly," she said.

Despite enjoying their fruits, Ms Spaulding said her grandparents would curse the weeds introduced by the English, and it was only in high school that she began her own research into the invasive species growing throughout the countryside.

"It became more clear, and it made so much sense because [the English settlers] used the hawthorn for hedges as well as medicinal purposes and for food — same with the blackberries, same with the sloe," she said.

Rose hips, sloe berries and hawthorn berries gathered by Ms Spaulding. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

How to be an 'invasivore'

The weeds often eaten by Ms Spaulding today include Scotch thistle, dandelions, dock, mallow and gorse, among many others, and she calls herself an "invasivore".

"So that could be a plant species or an animal species, a fish species or a seaweed species — any that are not normally growing there."

Ms Spaulding says she chooses to forage for weeds over native species for a few reasons.

"If I come along and harvest the invasive species, I can reduce their number," she said.

Eating gorse flowers means the plants will produce fewer seeds. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

"[For instance] a thistle has 120,000 seeds per plant, so if you harvest one plant-ful, that helps stop … next year's weed problem.

"[Also] weeds are very plentiful — whereas some native species that are edible aren't any more."

However, Ms Spaulding said it was essential for foragers to do their homework before heading out for a day of wild-weed  harvesting. 

Foraging with benefits

Aside from food, foraging brings Ms Spaulding resources for "all aspects" of her life, including weaving materials, soaps and medicines.

She and her dog Holly go on foraging walks every day, which in themselves, are "very beneficial".

"We walk at least 6 to 10 kilometres every day [and] it's excellent exercise.

"We're out in the fresh air … and you can walk along and immerse yourself in the natural beauty."

Ms Spaulding and Holly go on daily foraging walks. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

Being in close contact with nature, Ms Spaulding says, is important for knowing when to harvest certain plants.

"Each season offers a different food source or a different resource," she said.

"Autumn is optimal harvest time … you've got all the hawthorn berries, rose hips, sloe berries, black berries … all those things are out in fruit right now, so you can collect as much as you like.

'Aha!' moments in the field

Despite free food and other resources being available across much of the state, Ms Spaulding says few Tasmanians forage.

"I don't see many people out doing it," she said.

"[People] look at me strangely when I'm harvesting blackberry canes, or I'm over at the gorse bush picking the flowers," she said.

Foraged willow twigs can be used to help propagate other plants. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

Ms Spaulding says many people who are regular foragers belong to local foraging Facebook groups, which have become important sources of information.

Foraging vs fast food

Pre-COVID, Ms Spaulding ran foraging workshops, in which participants would forage for a few hours before returning to prepare, cook and eat their foraged foods together.

As a way of sourcing food, Ms Spaulding is well aware that foraging in the Tasmanian countryside could barely be less like buying fast food from a shop.

Hawthorn berries are used to make jams, jellies and syrups. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)

She says she can understand why people on the Standard American/Australian Diet, which is rich in sugar, refined carbohydrates and saturated fats and low in nutrients and fibre, feel unwell.

"[Also] I see the amount of packaging, and …  transportation and everything else that's involved in getting that food to your belly [and it] is incredible," she said.

"To me, it's not environmentally friendly."

So, how does Ms Spaulding reconcile serving fast food around preaching the benefits of wild-weed eating?

Ms Spaulding forages across much of northern Tasmania. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Sarah Abbott)