Welcome to The Chicago Forager. I'm Jenna — I've spent a decade learning which sidewalks, alleys, and forest preserves in this city quietly feed people, and I got tired of keeping the good links to myself.

This is a link blog. Every other week I'll send a short roundup of the best things I've read, plus a field note from whatever I've found.

What I'm reading

• Field garlic is everywhere right now — those grassy green tufts pushing up through frozen lawns are Allium vineale. Forager Chef's primer is the one I send beginners. It's the easiest winter wild allium to start on.
• Cook County Forest Preserves trail maps — bookmark this. Forty preserves, most of them legal to walk year-round. (Foraging rules vary — more on that in a future issue.)
• Wild Food Girl on cold-weather foraging — proof the season never really ends.

Field note

LaBagh Woods, last Sunday, 19°F. The creek was iced over but the field garlic along the south bank didn't care. Snipped a handful for an omelette. The whole point of this newsletter is that January is not a dead month if you know where to look.

See you in two weeks.

— Jenna