To Foragers, the Hunt Is a Thrill, --and the Price Is Right

How many times have we heard that California is so bountiful that you can reach out your window and pluck your meal from a tree?

Being poor and jobless, and having watched the price of lettuce skyrocket, I’ve determined it’s time to do some plucking. Foraging is actually quite the underground tradition in Los Angeles, but it isn’t always for the weak.

There’s the danger of addiction--to the jolt of adrenaline that comes with recognizing that, say, the tree on the public easement on Curson Avenue just north of Beverly Boulevard is a fig, and that suckers are paying for the fruit at the Farmers Market practically across the street.

“It is the sheer delight of finding that rogue tomato plant in a field,” said Jean Dickinson, a Beverly Hills forager who admits to jumping over fences for a gander at free fruit. “I don’t advocate taking anything that doesn’t belong to you ... but there are delights you can find when you are hiking.”

Tomatoes do grow like weeds here, literally. There’s a yellow teardrop variety sprouting out of the parking lot wall at 20/20 Video in the Fairfax district. The seeds are so hardy that you can soak them in a cocktail of battery acid and uranium and they’ll still sprout on your windowsill. Dickinson also reports a rock wall full of peas near the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Chances are, that stuff that looks like pine needles, growing out of countless planters or landscaped areas, is the same rosemary that’s sold at the supermarket. Ask the owners for permission before you pluck, lest you peeve people like Jennifer Gordon, a spokeswoman for the new mall the Grove. “We’ve planted [the rosemary] for people’s enjoyment,” she said.

Yes, that’s probably wild fennel growing out of the noise abatement wall on the northbound 405 at the 91. But don’t pick stuff that’s been soaking up car exhaust. Try the fennel along Runyon Canyon park instead. (Be sure the flowers are yellow and the leaves give off a licorice scent; otherwise you’ve got poison hemlock.)

Even during this dry season, Griffith Park is bursting with mustard greens, which have about the same kick as late arugula--without the $9-a-pound price tag.

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Knowledgeable foragers are eager to help. Start with the L.A. Mycological Society (www.nhm .org/lams) or the local message board at www.chowhound.com.