When I started EdibleWildFood.com six years ago I had no idea where this journey would take me. It has been an incredible experience meeting so many wonderful people both in person and online. Knowing that people are eating healthier by adding wild food into their diet brings me a lot of happiness!
Every week I get a plethora of emails, some of which includes heartwarming messages from people all over the world thanking me for the work I do and providing an educational website that helps them learn. The volume of emails I get filled with kind words is truly the fuel that keeps me going; and I always send a thank you to these people letting them know just that.
In addition to some of these amazing comments I receive are emails from people who have a variety of requests. Some of these requests may be for additional information, help with getting to know a plant better, and help with identifying a plant. I have always helped out as best as I can and I will continue to help so long as the emails include something very important – good manners. After all, good manners make this world a whole lot nicer!
Over the years I have received countless emails with photos from people asking if I can help them identify what they have discovered. More often than not I get photos that are incredibly out of focus. So when the person asks “what is this?” I’d quite honestly like to say bad photography; but of course I don’t. I also want to say its bad manners. More and more I am getting lots of emails from people who, in my opinion, haven’t a clue what good manners are.
You can’t imagine how many times I have received an email in which the subject of the email says something to the effect like: “What is this and is it edible?” or simply “Can I eat this?”. Nowhere is there a “please can you help me?” anywhere to be found and this, quite frankly, I find this to be rude. Where have good manners gone to? These people want me to take time out of my day to help them and can’t even scribe a brief message with good manners? I used to help these people, but I have reached a turning point. If a person is not willing to take the time to use good manners then I will not spend any of my time to answer their question.
To all of you who have emailed me over the years asking for help and were thoughtful enough to use good manners, I truly appreciate it!
To reiterate what I mentioned above, the amount of fabulous emails I have received over the years has provided me with an incredible amount of fuel to keep EdibleWildFood.com going for a very long time to come!
Thank you everyone for your incredible support!
The best article! Thank you.
thank you for your comments about good manners. I recently have become interested in wild edible and inedible plants. I live on an island in western was. state. My property is “over run with wild plants:) I would love to send pic. of some of them , in the hopes you could help identify the. I really would appreciate your time and expertise:) Thank you:)
Could you please advise me on how to send attachments of pics? I was unable to see any links. Thank you.
You can send me no more than 3 photos in 3 separate emails – info (at) ediblewildfood (dot) com .
I get the same sort of thing on my Edible Wild Facebook group, (post a photo) “What is this and can I eat it?” Funny, I never thought of it as being rude, I took it as laziness, but when you think of it, anyone who expects someone else to do some work for them, it’s not only lazy, it is rude – the key word being “expect”. It’s the same as, “Can you change my flat tire for me?” Why? So I can get my hands dirty instead of yours? Now if they ask me instead, “If it’s not too much trouble, could you show me how to change a flat tire, Please?”, I would still probably end up with dirt on my hands instead of theirs, but you know what I mean?
I agree Peter. That word “please” goes a very long way. It is a very powerful word – and let’s not forget the thank-you as well!
Didn’t realize I was offending….