Field Notes

A collection of recent stories

Elspeth Hay Elspeth Hay

SHADBERRIES | The Local Food Report

Shadbush berries are delicious—kind of like a cross between a beach plum and a blueberry, with small nutty seeds. Most of the time we just eat shadberries—they're so good, and also they don't keep that well—but in the rain this weekend I decided to experiment.

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Elspeth Hay Elspeth Hay

SPRING FORAGING | the local food report

I reached out to friends all over the Cape about what they're foraging. Together, we compiled a list of what's out there this time of year. The idea is to help you keep yourself healthy and fed during these difficult times. The links are either to old blog posts on these wild edibles, or other websites that have good identification guides.

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Elspeth Hay Elspeth Hay

MIGRATORY BEEKEEPERS | the local food report

Most people have no idea migratory beekeepers even exist—they do their work at night, moving bees while they're all back in the hive and unloading into orchards and fields in the dark—let alone how important they are to our huge, industrial food system.

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Book Coming July 2025

The day Elspeth Hay learned we can eat acorns, stories she’d believed her whole life began to unravel. We’re thinking about agriculture all wrong, she realized. Feed Us with Trees is her hopeful manifesto about a new and ancient food system centered on our keystone perennial nut trees: oaks, chestnuts, and hazelnuts.