{"id":36434,"date":"2014-11-26T09:33:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T13:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=36434"},"modified":"2015-08-17T09:53:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T13:53:46","slug":"author-interview-ava-chin-in-bloom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author-interview-ava-chin-in-bloom-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview: Ava Chin [in Bloom]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ava<\/a>Thanksgiving approach-eth! Don\u2019t you want to know what will be on the Urban Forager\u2019s table? Read on!<\/p>\n

Ava Chin<\/a>, author of recently published Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal<\/a><\/em>, chats about family, motherhood, writing, and the art of foraging \u2013 complete with blackberry-saturated toddlers and Chinese grandmother-types.<\/p>\n

Of course, the first question has to be \u2026 has your mother read the book? And \u2026?<\/strong>
\nBecause I write about people whom I care about, most especially my mother, I had to approach them before the book came out. When Eating Wildly<\/em> was still in pages, I sat my mother down and discussed all of the places in the narrative \u2013 in depth \u2013 in which she appeared. I didn\u2019t want her to feel blind-sided, and if she really objected to anything there was still time to make changes. My mother is the only person, aside from my husband and daughter, by the way, for whom I would make changes in my writing. I was initially worried that she might object to being written about, but she was fine with it \u2013 in fact, our conversation sparked some reminiscing for her. Now that the book has come out, I think she may have more mixed feelings, but I think that\u2019s natural when you\u2019re part of someone else\u2019s story and it\u2019s not your perspective.<\/p>\n

How has becoming a mother to a daughter changed your relationship with your mother? How has your mother changed since becoming a grandmother?<\/strong>
\nMy becoming a mother to a beautiful daughter, whom I\u2019m thoroughly ga-ga over (does that feeling ever go away? Don\u2019t tell me if it does), just makes me feel more mystified over\u2014not so much my mother\u2014but my father\u2019s conspicuous absence. How could you not be totally in love with your own child? I now see that the love that I had for the grandparents who helped raise me, which was vast and intense and all-encompassing, was nothing in comparison to how they felt about me. My relationship with own my mother has changed in the sense that I see her and hear from her more\u2014she comes over because she wants to see her grandkid.<\/p>\n

Near the end of Eating Wildly<\/em>, you see your father from a distance on a city street after a series of disappointments over missed meetings, and you decide then and there that you\u2019re finally ready to stop chasing after him. You silently watch him walk away. Have you seen him since?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not in touch with my father, and haven\u2019t seen him since I let him go.<\/p>\n

How do you think your grandparents might have reacted to the book?<\/strong>
\nMy grandparents were very conservative \u201cdon\u2019t-air-the-dirty-laundry\u201d types who probably would have been dismayed that I\u2019d written a memoir about our family. But the book is mainly about how foraging and finding my own food helped me to heal from the wounds I was carrying from childhood, and how I learned self-sufficiency and self-acceptance through urban natures. I think, in a way, if they stepped back from the shock of my having written about them, they would ultimately have been proud.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been involved with writing \u2013 learning about it (literature degrees galore), practicing it (lots of anthology, magazine, newspaper credits), teaching it (that\u2019s Professor Chin!)\u2014since you were in your teens (or earlier?). You edited an essay collection, Split Stories From a Generation Raised<\/em>, which pubbed in 2002. But this is your first book that is all yours \u2026 so \u2026 to be blunt (and since this is Bloom<\/em>), what took you so long?<\/strong>
\nHa! Good question. I\u2019ve been a slam poet, a fiction writer, a performer, and a journalist, and while I have all manner of manuscripts scattered across my apartment and office \u2013 poetry, short stories, and even a novel \u2013 I\u2019m very picky about what I want to get published, and what will ultimately represent me. This is probably a very bad strategy for a writing career, but there you go. Eating Wildly<\/em> was the first manuscript that I thought I could really stand behind and feel good about well into my old age. It was a special thrill to learn recently that it made \u201cLibrary Journal<\/em>\u2019s Best Books of 2014\u201d in Memoir<\/a>!<\/p>\n

You mentioned in Eating<\/em> that your own writing initially featured complicated mother\/daughter relationships, and missing fathers \u2013 variations on your own life, but fictionalized. Now that you\u2019ve told your own true story, do you think you might begin to tell other stories? Perhaps we might expect a novel or short story collection to be hitting shelves in the near future?<\/strong>
\nActually, my creative writing in the beginning featured single mothers in difficult situations, plus daughters reconciling with missing fathers (I didn\u2019t write about the complexities of mother\/daughter relationships\u00a0\u2013 saved that for later).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty busy at the moment guest-editing a food literary journal and writing personal essays (about foraging). While I\u2019m not at liberty to say what the next book is going to be, I am always writing, and I do have some ideas in the works!<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also a former slam poet? Any plans on returning to the stage?<\/strong>
\nNot really, although I did write and perform my first slam poem about food, foraging and cultural identity \u2013 for a Change Food event back in May.<\/p>\n

So foraging \u2026 what advice would you give a first-time forager?<\/strong>
\nFirst-time foragers should always go out with an expert who can show them true edibles vs. potentially poisonous lookalikes. Luckily, these days there are more and more of us leading foraging tours across the country, so we\u2019re not hard to find. Plus, if you\u2019re interested in learning more about mushrooms, there are local mycological societies (mushroom clubs!) that go on walks throughout the year in various seasons.<\/p>\n

If you go to my website<\/a>, there is a page of pictures devoted to the plants and mushrooms<\/a> of Eating Wildly<\/em>, useful for readers as there are no illustrations in the book.<\/p>\n

Do you forage wherever you go? Any place(s) you might consider off limits? Any favorite foraging destinations?<\/strong>
\nI love foraging on the college campus where I teach, as well as the city parks. I recently went bolete-hunting in Telluride, Colorado, and loved it. The Colorado porcini there are considered some of the best-tasting boletes in the world. Industrial and former-industrial areas are off-limits for foraging and are for identification-only purposes. I was once asked to give a foraging walk in industrial Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and I said no on account of how polluted the area is.<\/p>\n

So you write, teach, chase a toddler, and have family and friends to enjoy. And you seem to cook from scratch, even! How to fit foraging into your schedule? Do you have a schedule of sorts? How often do you\/can you go?<\/strong>
\nI forage wherever I go. Sometimes, while I\u2019m pushing our daughter in her stroller through our neighborhood in Manhattan or across the college campus where I teach on Staten Island, I will see edible mushrooms and plants. If I\u2019m in a really good spot, like my college campus, I will sometimes use the bottom of her stroller as my special collection basket.<\/p>\n

Could you estimate how much of your meals are foraged?<\/strong>
\nOnly a small portion of our diet is foraged throughout the year, although in mushroom season (aka now) it\u2019s much greater. Right now, I have over 10 lbs. of wild mushrooms in my refrigerator\u2014so it\u2019s mushroom pizza, mushroom linguini, and mushroom bruschetta most nights for us.<\/p>\n

Is foraging a family affair? I know from the book that hubby Owen is a mushroom hunter. Does he forage with you for other goodies? And your daughter Mei Rose? Has she been taught to recognize ramps and morels yet?<\/strong>
\nOwen and I go mushroom hunting in the spring and fall together. We\u2019ve taught Mei how to find wild edibles, including blackberries, which grow rampantly throughout rural England [where Owen is originally from]. The first time we taught her how to pick them, she loved them so much she didn\u2019t want to leave the bush. Her fingers were purple with juice, despite the thorns, which she managed to avoid like a pro.<\/p>\n

Are you still writing your New York Times<\/em> column<\/a>? When (and where else) should readers look for your pieces?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m mostly writing for other places these days \u2013 I just had a piece in Organic Spa magazine (\u201cWild Beauty<\/a>\u201d) \u2013 including on my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Locally sourced. Micro and urban farms. Freeganism. Maybe even dumpster-diving (Americans surely seem to have some of the most wasteful, toothsome garbage). Foraging has certainly joined such foodie catch-phrases. Just how popular is foraging today? Where are some of the hot spots?<\/strong>
\nForaging has definitely increased in popularity over the course of the last five to eight years. More people are leading foraging tours around the country. Our local NYC mycological society has seen the number of members go up, particularly due to the increased media attention from high-end chefs who are providing more wild foods on their menus.<\/p>\n

As for hot spots\u2014I\u2019m not really sure. I can say that some people forage commercially, especially for mushrooms. The Pacific Northwest, for example, is known for mushroom hunting. But, in general, I think foraging is still a bit of an underground activity. It\u2019s also very seasonal.<\/p>\n

One of the chapters in your book, \u201c13: The Yellow Morel,\u201d deals with the sustainability of foraging \u2013 something along the lines of, \u2018If everyone is out there foraging, eventually nothing will be left.\u2019 That\u2019s an argument you consider unlikely. What do you think the future of foraging will be, especially in dense urban areas like NYC?<\/strong>
\nNew York City actually has a very long history of foraging that was lost when the Native Americans got pushed off the land. Most of that foraging culture disappeared with the Native populations. Foraging didn\u2019t come up again in the American consciousness until Euell Gibbons wrote Stalking the Wild Asparagus<\/em> in the early 1960s. A brief resurgence happened, but foraging went underground again in NYC until the 1980s when naturalist Steve Brill<\/a> began leading foraging tours around the city. He was initially arrested and fined by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, but the city soon dropped the case, and actually hired him to do foraging walks through Central Park!<\/p>\n

The National Park Service allows for foraging for personal consumption, with limits on the amounts that can be taken; it is up to the individual parks to determine how they want to follow this. Here, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation doesn\u2019t want you to forage through their city parks. Taking plants is discouraged, but people still forage. Interestingly, some of the popular foods that foragers consider food, the Parks Department considers weeds that they need to get rid of. Certain crops are highly abundant and aren\u2019t in any danger of getting over-picked. Right now ginkgoes and acorns are fruiting all over the city, and you\u2019ll see many Chinese grandmother-types gathering the former to use for food. I don\u2019t think there have been any issues there; with ginkgoes or acorns, there\u2019s no danger of overharvesting. Of course, with all plants, we want to make sure to forage sustainably: take only a small percentage so the plant can continue to grow throughout rest of the season.<\/p>\n

As for the future of foraging in dense areas, even though people are more aware that they can forage for food, many still react with comments like, \u201cI would never do that myself,\u201d \u201cI won\u2019t know what\u2019s poisonous,\u201d \u201cIsn\u2019t that so dirty?\u201d and the like. Frankly, I don\u2019t think foraging is ever going to be a widespread practice in urban areas, especially when it\u2019s so much easier just to order in or go to a restaurant.<\/p>\n

Since this is Turkey Week \u2026 what are you most thankful for?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m most thankful for my family, but also for the abundance that appears in the natural world. There are so many lessons that I learned about love, timing, and reconciliation\u2014lessons that even my own parents weren\u2019t able to teach, which I could only learn through Nature.<\/p>\n

And in addition to gratitude, what will be on your Turkey Table?<\/strong>
\nAside from a traditional spread, I will be making a wild mushroom risotto with maitake and \u2018chicken of the woods\u2019-mushrooms which I plucked with my own hands.<\/p>\n

Author interview<\/strong>: “Q&A with Ava Chin,”\u00a0Bloom<\/em>, November 26, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving approach-eth! Don\u2019t you want to know what will be on the Urban Forager\u2019s table? Read on! Ava Chin, author of recently published Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal, chats about family, motherhood, writing, and the art of foraging \u2013 complete…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,5842,4,21,5843,107,20,5846,6535],"tags":[6005,182,6608,6004,10,109,135,111,13,129,309,39],"class_list":["post-36434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audience","category-author-interview-profile","category-chinese-american","category-genre","category-memoir","category-nonfiction","category-origin-ethnic-backgound","category-repost","tag-ava-chin","tag-bloom","tag-bookdragon","tag-eating-wildly","tag-family","tag-food","tag-grandparents","tag-how-to","tag-love","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-nature","tag-parent-child-relationship"],"yoast_head":"\nAuthor Interview: Ava Chin [in Bloom] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author-interview-ava-chin-in-bloom-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Author Interview: Ava Chin [in Bloom] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanksgiving approach-eth! 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