I’ve always loved the idea of foraging for food, but the idea of dying from a poisonous mushroom overdose has always put me off from plucking edibles from the ground for dinner. Luckily, you can often find a carefully selected array of wild and exotic mushrooms at grocery stores or farmers markets. Sometimes, when there’s potential for serious injury, I find it’s best to leave things up to the professionals.

I found this gorgeous array of exotic mushrooms at the Sporeboys stall at London’s beautiful Broadway Market. Mushrooms are easy to cook, good for you, and have a deliciously rich, almost meaty taste that’s a great vegetarian substitute. I made a simple sautéed mushroom mix with olive oil, herbs, and cheese that tasted great on toast as well as pasta. It could also top a number of other dishes that you’ve already got in your kitchen. It’s simple, versatile, and oh so tasty…and no fear of poison! What more could you ask for?

Here’s an easy way to cook your mushrooms and a number of ways to serve them too:

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Eco-activists often insist that vegetarianism is the only truly earth-friendly diet for humans.  On the other hand, there are many people, honestly trying to live as green as possible, who are not yet ready to take that step completely.  Others of us find that we are just not healthy without some animal protein in our diet, and that there is some logic to the argument than humans are biologically omnivorous.

If you are a meat-eater, whatever your personal reasons may be, the problem still remains — the beef industry is a nightmare.  From enormous factory farms raising animals in horrific conditions, to growth hormones interfering with our bodies, to mad cow disease resulting from herbivores being fed ground-up brains of their kin, to the ecological devastation…  We simply cannot allow ourselves to support this industry by buying its products.

So what is the conscientious carnivore to do?

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What’s a local foodie to do if you don’t have the right spot for a garden? Maybe you just don’t exude the green thumb karma and enthusiasm for growing your own seasonal fare? Or what if there isn’t a farmers’ market nearby for one-stop local food shopping?

Join Charlene Torchia and be a local food forager, developing connections, routines and routes for regularly traversing your area and buying direct from area family farms and food artisans. “I call it my ‘food run’,” explains Torchia, who runs the eco-friendly bed and breakfast, Journey Inn, in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, about an hour from St. Paul/Minneapolis. “Once a week I make my rounds and stock up on key supplies such as meat from Anderson Farm, goat cheese, organic parmesan from Eau Galle Cheese, apples and cider. Vegetables come from a local CSA – Community Supported Agriculture – and I can even buy bread through them as they grow and grind their own wheat.”

With no dirt under the fingernails required, Torchia exemplifies the spirit that if you’re passionate about the local foods movement and supporting sustainable agriculture, you can find direct sources for bootie in your area. Try plugging your zip code into the Local Harvest database for a starter list of area options. “It’s all about relationships that go beyond shopping transactions,” Torchia adds. “Friendships developed from my food run. I feel part of the community and my B&B guests love hearing the personal story of where each breakfast ingredient came from.”

Here are some starter tips for becoming a local foods forager in your area:

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Wild Vegetarian Cookbook

Late summer brings many treats, but my favorite is ripe wild blackberries. Blackberries are an abundant and delicious “wild” food in many parts of the world. There are many varieties within this large family, from the Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) to the Arctic raspberry (Rubus arcticus). Take advantage of the season while you can and sample some of nature’s offerings by picking these tasty berries wherever you find them. The next time you walk through a woody area or park, take a look around and see if you can spot the woody, thorned vines and generally white, rose-like flowers characteristic of blackberry plants.

The recipe, which serves 6 to 8, calls for a number of other ingredients that you can find growing locally, either wild or cultivated: apples for apple juice, oranges for orange rind, salt from the sea, and berries from the common spicebush. Depending on how many ingredients you can find around you and where they come from, your blackberry cobbler can be both inexpensive and organic.

Before we start, rest easy knowing that for this recipe there is an excellent backup plan. If you’ve gathered a basketful of berries only to realize that baking is not really your forte, sit back, relax, and enjoy a bowl of fresh, raw, local blackberries!

Now, on with the show. You’ll want:

• 5 cups wild blackberries
• 2 tablespoons tapioca pearls, ground into powder
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon apple juice
• 1 teaspoon dried orange rind or 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 teaspoon dried mint, finely crumbled
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seeds
• 1 1/2 cups sweet brown rice flour or 7 ounces any whole grain flour
• 2 tablespoons apricot kernel oil, walnut oil, almond oil, or corn oil
• 1/4 cup corn oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/4 teaspoon common spicebush berries, finely chopped, or ground allspice [if available, freshly ground from berries]
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons soy milk, almond milk, or unsweetened fruit juice, or as needed.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix the blackberries, ground tapioca, 1/2 cup of the apple juice, the orange juice, the orange rind, mint, and cardamom together in a large bowl. Transfer the mixture to a 14 x 9 x 2-inch oiled baking dish.

3. Sprinkle the fruit mixture with 3 tablespoons of the flour and dot with the apricot kernel oil.

4. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the remaining flour, the cream of tartat, baking soda, cinnamon, spice-bush berries, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in the corn oil, and then stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon apple juice and enough soy milk to make a dough that’s neither sticky nor crumbly.

5. Using a rolling pin [or, in a pinch, a wine bottle] covered with a floured sleeve and working on a floured pastry sheet, roll the dough out 1/4 inch thick in the shape of your baking dish. Transfer the rolled out pastry onto the berry layer, cut slits for steam to escape, and sprinkle on more cinnamon for color, if desired. Bake the cobbler until bubbly, about 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

In all instances I know of, blackberries and raspberries are such hardy plants that you can eat your fill from a plant, and still there will be more to pick for tomorrow’s cobbler or pie. In North America, blackberries have done so well by cultivation and cross-pollination with non-native strains that in many places certain varieties are now considered a “weed” that out compete other, native plants. Preparing this scrumptious cobbler is therefore also a good way to make some a small but rewarding impact in protecting native plant populations.

For a wild vegan blackberry cobbler that also combats climate change, try cooking your cobbler during the day in a solar oven, then serving it in the evening for a truly green gourmet treat! This may require a longer cook time, but it turns your cooking into a fun, green adventure.

Bon apétit!

References and Resources:

Learn more about wild foods with “Wildman” Steve Brill.

Buy Wild Vegetarian Cookbook.

This recipe was reproduced with permission from The Harvard Common Press.

Identifying blackberry bushes:

Photo Sources:

Wild Blackberry Cobbler: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38229873@N00/940551013/

Blackberries: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44987917@N00/1223686687/

Himilayan Blackberries: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximillian_millipede/370352385/

Blossoming Blackberry Bushes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035720546@N01/743028652/