Forager's Life
A memoir about belonging and motherhood, told through the author's lifelong passion for wild food.
When Helen Lehndorf moves to the city after a childhood living off the land in rural Taranaki, she can't help but feel different from her peers and professors. She finds solace in long walks foraging weeds and plants along the river, but something inside her still longs for home.
Chasing a feeling of ancestral belonging, she travels to England with her new husband. There they learn about nature as the commons, shared between all who encounter it - a source of delight, food, medicine.
An unexpected pregnancy in Aotearoa changes everything, and motherhood takes over Helen's identity. When her son is diagnosed with autism, foraging becomes a space for selfhood in a chaotic world.
Weaving memoir with foraging recipes, principles and practices, A Forager's Life is an intimate story and a promise that, with the right frame of mind, much can be made of the world around us.
Paperback.
Author Event!
Helen will be in Greytown in July as part of the Festival of Christmas. If you'd like a signed copy of her book you can bring yours along, or purchase one at the event, in conversation with Mary Biggs.
If you can't make it in July but would like a signed copy, you can purchase one here.
