It IS dreamy, but let’s not over-romanticize it.  

The food did grow somewhere, seeds were moved about and then nestled into soil. Or underground runners ran and sprouted up at just the right spot. When you find food growing wild, take note- because you are witnessing that plant’s ideal growing conditions. What a gift!

You know I love growing my own good food, but when Mother Nature does it for you, why not join the good food party!

Forage Responsibly

In order to forage or harvest responsibly from an area and not kill the remaining plants (or yourself) you need to do a little research before you start ripping food from the earth. Thank you internet!

Know Before You Go

Know what variety you’re looking for, where they typically grow and when. Unless you stumble upon a field of ferns or a cattail dell you’ll have to get out, hike around and for your food- which is part of the appeal!  But knowing the habitat of the plant you’re after goes a long way!

Also- did you know you can help our local plant communities by pulling up (and then eating) Garlic Mustard! Foraging for nature in new ways.

the native plants thank you!

Know the land you’re harvesting from. Is the land you’re planning to peruse public or private. Do you have permission to be there? Who can you ask you verify there haven’t been any pesticides/herbicides sprayed? Determining how far back you want a clean record is something to figure out before you jump out of the car!

Know how you’ll use the food when you get home! Food waste is food waste whether you bought it at the store, or found it growing in the wild. It helps me to remember that some animal could have eaten what you foraged, or the plant would have been stronger next year- so make use of what the earth grew for you! Search out recipes before you start foraging!

Local Food Line Up

Ramps:  

These are truly the first of the first to emerge in my neck of the woods. Their mild garlic taste screams spring to me. From eggs to soups and breads, these add a depth to whatever dish they’re in.

Please gather these sustainably, as Minnesota ramp flushes are dwindling with the uptick in foragers. I go into details about ramp harvesting in this earlier blog post but basically, don’t take many from each stand, and try to cut above the bulbous root so it can recover and grow back the following year.

Stinging Nettles:

A solid source of iron and a natural spring tonic to help flush toxins, there are so many reasons to eat your nettles!

Yes, they sting- or some say burn, so I always wear gloves and use tongs when working with these.

Blanching and drying do take the sting out, as does pureeing the heck out it, I still recommend blanching before pureeing as the BRIGHT fresh green holds longer after blanching.

Fiddleheads:

Tasting of mild asparagus , all kinds of ferns start as these adorable fiddleheads. Ostrich ferns are the gold standard for springtime delicacy as far as I’m concerned- this is one that you’ll have to scope out the year before- to see what the ferns turn into after unfurling they’re deliciousness.

Cattails:

Who knew the shoots tasted like cucumber! These are one of the easiest items to forage as they can be seen a mile away, and there’s not really anything else that looks like them  These are simple, fresh + delicious, especially early in the season (like right now)! Do make sure they’re coming from a clean water source as they are a natural water purifier and accumulate toxins. You basically eat the heart of the stalk or shoot, and can also be pickled.

Mushrooms:

This is where it can tricky! Confessed MN Mushroom Newbie! I’ve only foraged for mushrooms in Sweden with experts, so I’m hesitant to dive into this. That and my kids don’t really enjoy them (but my hubby and I do, so…) It is best to go with knowledgeable friends or guides.

Some of my favorite LOCAL guides:
Sam Thayer of Forager’s Harvest
(Gorgeous new Field Guide book)
Alan Bergo of Forager Chef
Tim Clemens of Ironwood Foraging
Jamie of Chick of the Woods

For now I mostly buy them as a treat from my local mushroom farmer, Finney and the Fungi or at Forest to Fork at Keg + Case. However, a few favorites I’ll be keeping my eyes open for are Chanterelle and chicken of the woods.

I love that there’s always more to learn about the natural world growing all around us!

Lambs’ Quarters

The one non-native MN plant I always like to mention for early Spring foraging: lamb’s quarters. You’re going to find this beauty in disturbed soils. Most people think it is a weed, and it an aggressive little bugger, but I deal with it because I love the flavor and huge mineral stores it possesses. Well worth the space. Similar to spinach it often shows up before and lasts longer than my bolted spinach.

Spring Foraging Recipe Ideas

What’s tastier than foraged nettle + ramp pesto… Eating it with foraged cattail hearts and early harvests from the garden.

I am at best a half-hearted recipe follower, so if you’d like a specific recipe, please google any of the following ideas that tempt you. Bonus: most of these are easy to make with your own spin by substituting ingredients and altering to your taste preferences.

Ramp Salt:
Dried ramp leaves- dehydrate and crush/pulse with sea salt for a sublime seasoning for soups and stews, fish and chicken.
I’ve done ramp butter, but the salt, and just dehydrated leaves work better for my kitchen.

Nettle Pesto:

I blanched the stinging nettles before blending with ramps, pine nuts, cheese and EVOO for a fresh green powerhouse pesto.

Nettle Soup:
Scandinavian Nasselsoppa sounds so much better that stinging nettle soup, right! This is a basic ‘boiled with potatoes and broth’ kind of pureed soup to get you all caught up on your greens!

Nettle Tea:
Simply hang and dry. I mix with other leaves, such as raspberry, lemon balm or mint as I find it too strong on its own.

Cattails:

You’ll peel off over half of the outer layers of leaves to get to the white hearts. I always say I’m going to gather enough to pickle, guess its good to have goals really these are divine just eaten raw with some nettle pesto, or chopped on salads!

Add perennial vegetables/herbs like Rhubarb, chives and Asparagus into the mix and you could be eating flavorful, healthful and delicious meals after taking a walk. Spring in Minnesota is truly a bounty of good wild food!

What will you be foraging?

What other questions do you have about Foraging in Minnesota?

I love Digging into local food with you!

Michelle

The post Foraging + Feasting appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

In case you’re not quite there, hang with me for a minute. Ramps, mushrooms, fiddleheads (the still unfurled fern) and the elusive wild asparagus are all Spring favorites of the Minnesota forager. Berry season is another bountiful blessing. If you want to look at some beautiful ‘found’ eats check out this Pinterest page! Now, that’s the kind of page I could get lost on.

Ground Rules of foraging: respect private land, find out if the public land you’re on allows foraging, sustainable harvesting and to find out what if any chemicals have been sprayed.

For our cozy little time together let’s tackle the savory, short lived ramp; AKA ramsons or wild leek. You know you’re cool when you have three names.

I’ve known about the patch of ramps in my parent’s woods for years, I remember I dug one up decades ago and was utterly confused because they looked like an onion but smelled like garlic and were not so great raw. Turns out they’re the trendy hipster cousin to the onion now in high demand. I usually steer clear of trends (I’ve finally learned my lesson, thank you 1980’s) but these potent little pearls have me jumping on the spring foraging bandwagon. These alliums are taking over the foodie world again this Spring and my kitchen will smell like ramps for the foreseeable future.

What exactly are we talking about here? They are in the allium family, meaning onion. And what they lack in size, they make up for in smell. You can sometimes locate them by smell just as well as sight, but they are some of the earliest greenery popping up from forest floors each Spring.

credit: MinnesotaWildFlowers.info

credit: MinneostaWildFlowers.info

Here’s a close up from the Minnesota Wild Flowers website, showing the flowers and later season seeds. I’ve heard the seeds will take hold if given a loamy deciduous woods home.

Minnesota Wild Flowers   is such a great site. Within each of the listings you can add info on where/when/how many plants you spotted, helping to build a living breathing network of plant life. Fun way to be part of something bigger!

Please, let’s be smart and practice sustainable harvesting of these little guys. There are two ways to go about this: either taking only 10% of a found ramp field or leaving roots intact. You can leave the roots intact by digging down around the ramp leaves, and then cutting where the bulb fattens, so you leave the bottom of the bulb and roots in the ground.

That way you’ll be able to come back the next year and harvest again, and again, and again! Once harvested, get them cool ASAP- I found that a plastic bag (thank you Target) rolled up in the fridge works for a day or so. Past 48 hours and I’ve got no data for you, they have yet to last longer than that in our kitchen.

Since ramps are rocking at the same time as asparagus, and in my case grow about 100 feet apart, it’s only natural that I’d want them to co-mingle their flavors. This is the epitome of simple, local, healthy, flavorful food!

Planting our asparagus patch was one of the best additions to our veggie situation, early perennial vegetables add weeks to our local eating every Spring.

I never follow specific recipes (that’s why my baking is hit or miss!), I’ll just say to go easy on the ramps, you don’t need many to turn up the flavor of eggs, potatoes, pork, or as my ‘faux recipe’ below shows; asparagus.

Heat olive oil over med-high heat in cast iron skillet.

Chop asparagus stems (look how fat yet still tender & juicy ours were) throw them in to sear for a few minutes.

Then add asparagus tops and let them sizzle for a few more minutes.

Then add whole ramps, letting them get roasty so they can show off some smoky flavors.

Devour as soon as the steam allows.

Adding a few chopped ramp stalks to eggs in the morning has even chipped away at my chive love.

I’m going to have to gather some more leaves only (not even digging into the ground) and try the Ramp Salt Recipe at the end of this  article from Carstens Smith, writing for the Star Tribune.

There are ample posts about the uber-love of ramps, including these from Wild Edible and Eater. This is one trend that I hope stand the test of time.

Have you foraged for any food before, for ramps? Want to try it now?

I dare you to dig in this summer and forage at least one food!

Michelle

The post Finding Treasure in Foraged Food appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.