Using the artist's own eye as departure point, the diptych Belladonna and eye is part of a larger work which explores the relation between the metabolism of the vegetal kingdom and human vision. It shows how the sense of sight, like all senses, is embodied in the materiality of digestion: how sight is made and affected by the same molecules of plants.

Bream and roach are two fishes that swim in cockaignian abundance in the city’s canals, lakes and Amstel river. They are the most common freshwater fish in Amsterdam though not many locals go to the trouble of eating them. This was rather different a few centuries ago when this fish was deemed perfectly acceptable for human consumption, especially during lent by the fasting multitudes.

The Locusta migratoria is, as its name already implies a very wide-spread, itinerant locust. Its ‘locus’ is worldwide, notorious for plague swarms wrecking abominable damage to harvest crops in warm climate zones. There are several sub-species of Locusta migratoria that have evolved according to each continent’s regional ecologies. Although North-west Europe has its own variant, the Egyptian [...]

Maag als Kompas expedition invited dinner participants to become involved in the process of seeking, collecting and charting the urban victuals of Amsterdam Noord. This expedition and dinner (8-9 October) was realised in the framework of Noord exhibition by Mediamatic.

Clambering our way through the wet grasses and bogs of mud we take up our hunting positions. Camoflaging ourselves as dead tree stumps. Keeping very low and still with chin resting on the dew of the grass. We whisper. Michiel gives a duck call. Some minutes go by, maybe 10. A small gaggle of geese fly overhead. Then comes the pang of gunshot with pellets of hail bullet. A goose falling out of life, out of sky.

As part of the Brussels Festival Kanal, cooks with medicinal plant know-how (Rasa Alksnyte, Wietske Maas and Christina Stadlbauer) sourced plants from garden and hidden green zones near to the canal and created an array of edible-treatments

A sidewalk snail farm set up in the former ABN Amro vitrines on the Vijzelstraat, Amsterdam as part of Mediamatic exhibition about Amsterdam Noord.

As part of an exhibition and a meal featuring the molluscan delicacies of Amsterdam North I am collecting as snails for a giant sidewalk snail farm in the former ABN Amro Bank vitrines on Vijzelstraat in preparation for the Mediamatic 'Noord' exhibition opening 10 September

An expedition organised by FoAM lab as part 'Anarchitecture' to explore the edible pioneer plants that pop up on razed ruins, wasteland and demolition sites.

Wietske Maas and Matteo Pasquinelli, the current artists in residence as part of d o m i n o k i n g d o m, introduced themselves and their interests in the "third landscape" of Brussels and the edible ecologies of the city.

Gastronomy is inextricably linked with travel and exploring new places and spaces. It is only through eating that we really get to know the place where we live or visit. Using food sources found only in Noord, Wietske Maas asks what could the edible genius loci be that orientates us through Amsterdam Noord?

Animals who call graveyard grounds home are considered a right plague by Amsterdam's cemetery clients.

'Luminous Green 2010' is one of a series of gatherings about the world. About the world that supports life today and about the possible worlds that can support more luminous life in the future. With these events, the interdisciplinary laboratory FoAM calls upon the diverse individuals to enrich the public debate around sustainability and ethical living.

The pea-like ripe linden nutlets of the linden (lime) tree Tilia x europaea, or other tilia species can be roasted and ground to a powder to make an instant coffee substitute, or even finer as a nutty flour for cakes, or eaten, roasted as they are

Mapping for Change is about defying and opposing existing structures. It decentralizes power, handing it back to individuals and allowing local communities to organize themselves autonomously. Alternative maps and visualizations are used to challenge and change official policy. They allow for multiple views and voices to live side by side.

Utrecht beekeepers are awaiting the next batch of honey, which, given the predominance of lime trees blossoming right this very moment, the next inner city harvest will be the Lime flower batch.

Utrecht-based Ethiopian restaurant owner Zeleke Zerfu brews an ambrosia in his restaurant basement according to the Ethiopian recipe, Tej. Instead of using the leaves of Gesho (an indigenous Ethiopian plant related to the Sea Buckthorn,Rhamnus prinoides) he uses hops, which has a similar bitter agent.

Comparing the plants found in Utrecht city with those that are used in Chinese medicine with acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, Dr Guo-Dong Wang

The relations between Utrecht and medicinal horticulture runs deep. The city's interest in medical plants reached its apogee in the 1630s. A specialized medical garden, the Hortus Medicus, was established to further cultivate plants and concoct herbal medicines as cures or tinctures to stave off the plague.

As a first try-out, I used the lime leaf flower and lime flower honey to make plump little madeleines inspired by the French wartime use of lime flour together with Marcel Proust's madeleine induced involuntary memory. Perhaps the most well-cited extract of Rembrance of Things Past is when Proust tatses a petite morsel of madeleine dipped in lime flower tea

Elderflower comes into bloom with the first burst of summer. There’s plenty of elder everywhere. Enough to satiate a city. I plucked a few dozen heads to turn to wine.

In early spring, urban botanist Claud Biemans  (Floron Amsterdam), led plant aficionados on an early bird excursion through the giant Intratuin garden centre. Inside the store, Claud showed the source of the Amsterdam flora of the future: garden escapees.  These ‘escapees’ are plants that are constantly redistributed as they migrate beyond their ornamental confines and into the [...]

Artist, cook, researcher Henri Roquas has been exploring the relation between humans and cultural histories, and food diversity of the dutch archipelago through a series of experiemntal dinners that he hosts withon his East Amsterdam apartment

Geuzenveldgroen-Slotersnoek is a recipe for an Umwelt of urban ingredients caught and sourced in Geuzenveld-Slotermeer in Amsterdam West.

Plants grow on disused ground and fish abound in its canals: an urbanibalist adventure which sets out to fish, forage, cook and eat the flesh and flora that thrive in Amsterdam West.

Six hours of casting the line, waiting, swapping stories and waiting again for the snoek to bite. Alas, no fish, but it was a beautiful day of being outside in the open, staring at the mercurial surface of the water, learning the tricks of the leisure fishermen and what, apparently the snoek like and don’t [...]

Thousands of thistles colonise the fallow zones of Amsterdam west. Yet these ‘plague plants’ are perfectly edible and delectable. Artist Wietske Maas and city botanist Claud Biemans invite you to join them on a thistle plucking expedition.

Domestic umwelt of albino Louisianna crayfish, saved from the pan and kept as kitchen pet.

Established by artists Martina Florians and Sasker Schreeder, this museum is devoted to the dyke destructing rodent Ondatra zibethicus.

Fisherman Piet Ruyter took us out on his boat to check his traps in the waters behind Amsterdam central station.

An exploration through the streets and weeds of Amsterdam West.

"The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog."

Two exotic aquatic decapods have taken up residence in the posh precincts of Amsterdam's canals and waterways: the American red swamp crayfish and the Chinese mitten crab.

A conversation about earth from another planet 1000 years from now: do you remember that silver birch tree? — Anton Chekov, 1899.

Making a soda starter culture using Amsterdam Shepherd's purse roots instead of ginger root.

To control its swan population, the Amsterdam city council would tattoo the black bills of cygnets with the insignia of Amsterdam: 3 Andreaskruizen

Once upon a time there was Berlin wine [!]. We went in search of the secret at the Berlin Sugar Museum

This inventory is an under-construction historical overview of survival techniques and sources of food that have been improvised and hunted in the urban environment under the extreme conditions of war.

Horse milk is the base for kumis, a fermented milk drink originally from the Steppes (predominately the 'Stan' countries). In the 19th century it was drunk widely throughout Russia, especially in sanatoriums, as a cure-all and fortifying drink against tuberculosis.

Today we went on a goose hunt. Our hunting grounds were reached within 15 minutes by bicycle from the centre of Amsterdam.

Learning the art of hunting and a crash course in Dutch wildlife management on culling the surplus of swine and deer.

At Schiphol, birds and planes share the same airspace. Sometimes it goes wrong.

Pleegzuster bloedwijn, translated as 'Nurse's blood wine' is an age-old remedial drink given to alleviate stress, tuberculosis, or most commonly as a cure for aenemia. A drink to reinforce the blood.

In early summer, a diasporia of red flander's poppyies pop up everywhere along railway tracks and the outer edges of town. A syrup can be prepared from the scarlet flower petals.

In catching snails which one will cook oneself, one experiences the joy of a hunter who stalks his prey, anticipatory stew, and that of the fisherman casting his line, with matelote* before his mind's eye. — Alin Laubreaux, The Happy Glutton

Roadside thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is best in early spring. In northern Europe this would be anytime in April until first week of May. Every part of the plant can be eaten, the stalk is best. Peeled, parboiled and then sautéed in oil and garlic. Delicious served on toast. The flowerbuds are winsome cooked and eaten [...]

In Dutch 'trek' means having appetite, in English it's a long arduous journey, a migratory route.

Swans are sometimes deemed a plague in and around the Randstad in the Netherlands particularly when they flock to pastural zones and forage and gobble agricultural crops. On these occassions, farmers or council bureaucrats have called in hunters to cull a few to stave-off the rest and prevent further harvest damage…