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You've probably heard of foraging, the practice of finding wild plants and turning them into something for the dinner table. I wrote about food lovers who were eating their weeds last summer. Now fast forward a year later, and even more people are happily eating weeds, while some adventurous cooks are now eating edible trees as well!
A good post to introduce you to the popularity of foraging and how it connects with the Eat Local movement is this one About Foraging from Cincinnati Locavore, with great links to other food blog posts about foraging.
Laurie at Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska is passionate about foraging, and she divides her time between Greece and Alaska, so she gets to sample plants from two climates. Laurie even has a whole category of recipes for Wild Greens on her blog. Earlier this year she wrote about how to harvest Devil's Club Shoots (Laurie's photo above) and provided a recipe for using them sauteed with onions.
The latest wild food Laurie has blogged above is Spruce Tips, which Laurie says are "one of the more unusual, least used, and tastiest wild edibles in Alaska." (Laurie's photo of the spruce tips above.) If you can't find spruce tips, Laurie says fir tips or pine tips are also edible.
Priscilla at Foodielicious is doing a series of posts on Wild Foods, starting with her advice to Eat Wild Foods Responsibly. It was her second post in the series that got my attention, when she talked about eating the flower buds and seed pods of the Redbud Tree. (Priscilla's photo of the seed pots shown above.)
Purslane is a common weed that grows in many parts of the world, and it's become so popular as an edible that you can now find it at farmers markets or gourmet food stores. One reason for it's trendiness is that it's the best known plant source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Julie at Kitchenography admits she has a good supply of purslane in her vegetable garden, and tries a recipe for Rick Bayless' Purslane, Tomato, and Tomatillo Soup. Burcu at Almost Turkish Recipes uses purslane in Purslane Salad with Yogurt, which sounds delicious and easy to make. (That's Burcu's photo of the purslane above.) In France, Riana at Garlic Breath is doing a lot of foraging, and shares a recipe for Purslane Sprouted Rye Radish Salad. You must see this photo if you don't think weeds can look delicious!
More Foraging Information on the Web:
Website of Steve Brill, well-known foraging expert
More about Eating Weeds by Jennifer M. at The Ethicurean (lots of other good links in this post)
Photos of some common edible weeds from Garden Detective
Foraging Wild Garlic from Cincinnati Locavore
Foraging Morel Mushrooms from Farmgirl Fare
Have you ever tried foraging for food? If you have foraging tips or recipes for wild foods to share, please leave your link or information in a comment.
Kalyn Denny writes about food and at BlogHer.com and shares her passion for cooking at Kalyn's Kitchen.
