Green Options » foraging

Weekend Adventure: Forage for Stinging Nettles!

Marygrace Stergakos — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:14:08 +0000

I know I’m not the only foodie who has started developing an interest in foraging for wild edibles. While I’d really love to go on a mushroom hunt (morel season is nearly upon us!), I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing so unless under the guidance of an experienced forager, as novices can easily misidentify mushroom species and risk being poisoned. Stinging nettles, on the other hand, are relatively easy to pick out–if it looks like a nettle, and feels like a nettle, it’s a nettle!

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The Twelve Days of sustainablog: Bibles, High Gas Prices, and Tent-based Traumas

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:42:23 +0000

While July 2008 looked relatively normal in terms of Fourth of July celebrations and hot weather, $4 per gallon gas put a damper on that other summertime staple: the family road trip.

As you might imagine, we had a lot to say about that gas thing… but didn’t take a vacation from covering a wide range of topics.

July 2008

Chad Crawford, our minister in residence, reviewed The Green Bible.
Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris dug into another book: Paper Trails.
Robin Shreeves reported on a small town that found an innovative solution to big traffic problems: bike sharing.
Birgitte Rasine of LUCITA sent up a flare for paper shredders clogged with junk mail.

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Edible Wild Food: Sorrel

Kay Sexton — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:28:29 +0000

Today we’ve eaten the last of our sorrel until spring.

Where I grew up we had traveller families who passed through our village several times a year, and when they did, their children would join us in school for a few weeks. As they walked home, the traveller kids regularly foraged for food: hazelnuts in early autumn, mushrooms from early spring to late summer and sorrel from late spring. Many of us learned a little about free wild food from their visits, and while I’d never go mushrooming on my own, because I’m not confident enough about my identification of various fungi, I still forage for a wide range of foods: especially sloes, hazelnuts and elderberries.

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Autumn Is the Time for Persimmon Pickin’!

Justin Van Kleeck — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:15 +0000

When autumn, lovely autumn, swings round these here parts once again, so many things start to fall: leaves, acorns, pine cones, temperatures, humidity levels… Although spring and summer get the most credit as seasons for bountiful harvests, autumn has its bounty, too.

Amongst nature’s many freely offered wild edibles, we finicky humans have overlooked a vast number of scrumptious delicacies as we have evolved (or devolved) from wilderness gatherers to grocery-store, fast-food drive-thru, vending-machine gatherers. To our own detriment.

Now, summertime may be regaled as the season for sweet foraging, for then the many berries are bursting with sugary savory sweetness in bite-size bits. But autumn has its sweetness, too, in particular thanks to one oft-ignored tidbit: the persimmon.

Let me clarify: The wild persimmon of which I speak is the American persimmon, Disopyros virginiana. This is not the baseball-size, bright yellow, imported Japanese/Chinese kaki persimmon (Diospyros kaki you can find in grocery stores. No, D. virginiana is native to the American Southeast, though it has found its way out to the Midwest and even up towards the Northeast of these United States as well. Its fruit is much more humble in size, like a little ping pong ball, and much subtler in color, a sort of pale orange blending into rosy pink and purple depending on its ripeness. It is more sensitive as well, hence its absence from grocery store produce sections.

So to experience the wild persimmon, you must head out into the autumn woods and keep your eye up in the canopy or, alternatively, down on the ground for fallen edible offerings. Then you may discover the lovely American persimmon in all its autumn fecundity.

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The Fine Art of Foraging

Justin Van Kleeck — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:00:21 +0000

For this Fourth of July, I chose to celebrate a day of independence by stressing out to prepare for a holiday party, nor by figuring out which fireworks show to go to, nor by basking in the presence of President Bush during his visit to Monticello here in Charlottesville.

No, for this Fourth of July, I tapped into the American spirit of freedom by going wild and getting out into the wild: I went out foraging for wild berries.

Luckily for me this was pretty easy, given the fact that I live in the country and have been walking by a seemingly endless stretch of wineberry bushes (and a few blackberry bushes) growing conveniently along the gravel drive. Oh, the tension of temptation has been building for so, so long now as I have watched the bushes form their little fuzzy pods, the pods pop open with the unripe berries peeping out, the berries growing redder and redder like little organic rubies building up their brilliance….

So on this day, at long last, I declared my independence from self-restraint and heroic patience by diving into the (thorny!) berry patches and going wild…and pickin’ pickin’ pickin’ away.

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Cooking With Sea Asparagus

Meredith Melnick — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:23:49 +0000

I went to an unfamiliar greenmarket today and had the pleasure of meeting a whole new group of farmers. One vendor was not a farmer at all, but a forager. In fact, he has an entire network of foragers throughout Canada who trade products, enabling a far longer season than would otherwise exist (the man still has fiddleheads at his disposal!) While his mileage greatly outnumbered that of the other farmers at market, I felt that his overall carbon footprint was probably comparable. Afterall, he hasn’t cleared any forest to plant his crop, or used petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides, trucked in soil and feed or used mechanized harvesting tools. Considering this, I didn’t mind helping myself to his bounty.

I was immediately intrigued by a match-stick thin vegetable that looked like a bean with tentacles. The vendor informed me that this was called ’sea asparagus’ and handed over a sample. When I popped it into my mouth, I was immediately taken with its crispiness despite the wilting heat, but was subsequently distracted by a gush of sea water flavor. It was provocative, but overwhelming. How could this ingredient blend in a dish?

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Wild Greens in the Great White North

Meredith Melnick — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:19:39 +0000

While browsing the St. Lawrence Market last weekend, I was elated to spot the paisley-shaped heads of fiddlehead ferns. I won’t get into my love for the regional delicacy too much, as Jennie already posted a great recipe, but I felt that - despite their season of only a few weeks - the wild, gamey greens deserved more than one ode to their deliciousness.

Before I’d left the market, I’d snapped up two bunches of ramps and a bag full of stinging nettles among my regular staples. In fact, the stinging nettles purveyor was kind enough to write out a recipe for tea (pictured below). It was my first ever stinging nettle experience.

More on that and other recipes inspired by my wild green windfall after the jump.

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Weekend Grub: Wild Vegan Blackberry Cobbler

Gavin Hudson — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:41:32 +0000

This recipe is an inexpensive, seasonal treat that’s almost too good to be true. From “Wildman” Steve Brill’s Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, we get a sumptuous, healthy, seasonal, local, organic dessert that also encourages the removal of an invasive species. For the green gourmand, could life get any better?

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/