Introduction: Sarah Lohman

Ok. I'm in.

After giving this project some very serious thought, I've decided to join this grand experiment.

However, my participation in the event is greatly complicated by the fact that I live in a fourth floor apartment in Queens, New York.

A little background on me:  I spend much of my time writing on my blog, Four Pounds Flour,  where I document my adventures in "historic gastronomy."  I research, recreate and consume historic recipes. I love creating something that looks, smells, and tastes just like it did hundreds of years ago. And to me, that's the next best thing to time travel: it's a window to the past that lets you understand a little bit about another way of life. I first learned how to cook these recipes over a wood stove at my first job in high school. Later, they inspired my thesis, a restaurant reinterpreting historic cuisine for a contemporary audience. Now, I do it for the daily adventure.

Sometimes, I spend a week immersing myself entirely in the foods of a certain time period, culture, or social movement.  These culinary experiments have included the miserable (but fascinating) Tenement Diet and  the bowel-moving glory of the Battle Creek Diet.

So, of course I was fascinated when Mark proposed the Starting from Scratch challenge.  But living off of what you hunt, find and forage is a hell of a lot easier in rural Ohio than it is in the middle of New York City.

Here's my plan, thus far:

• Forage.  There is a great deal of forage available in my neighborhood, and I've had some experience gathering these wild plants.  Thanks to a nearby housing project with a large, unkempt lawn, I have ample access to violets, dandelions, wild sorrel, and lamb's quarter.  I can start gathering these plants in early May, and store them up for the big week.  There is also a pair of Mulberry trees nearby, and I know there are more wild edibles in Central Park.
• Gardening.  Currently, I have a windowbox on my fire escape (illegally) that gets about six hours of sun.  The only thing that grows there is mint, which I cultivate soley for the purpose of summer mint juleps.  That is the extent of my personal outdoor space.  I plan on speaking with my landlords, and finding out if they would be opposed to letting me plant a small garden on the roof.  If that fails, I'm going to poll my friends and clients and ask them to donate outdoor space.  Perhaps I can grow enough food in tiny patches spread out over the five Bouroughs.
• Fishing. Hunting in New York is definitely a no-go, because there ain't not way I am eating rat.  But I do live right on the east river, and I see Latin-American dudes fishing there all the time.  I was pretty good at fishing when I was a kid, but we just put them back in the river at the end of the day.  My family seldom ate seafood, so i have no clue how to gut and clean a fish.  And can I get mercury poisoning from NYC fish? Probablly. 

Those are my ideas.  Other suggestions?