Foraging
Many of the olives I cure each year are done in a brine. But year after year I've been curing more with lye. I know it sounds scary, but it's not - if you follow these simple instructions. The result is a buttery, firm olive that I actually prefer over the brine cured ones.
Wild Game
Grilled doves basted with homemade huckleberry (or blueberry) barbecue sauce. You want this. Yes you do.
Recipe
If you want to make your own fruit wines - wines worthy of the snootiest wine snob - this is how to do it. I've been making fruit wines for 20 years, and here is my method. It requires some special equipment, a lot of patience, and a little math. But the result is more than worth it.
Mushrooms
It is chanterelle season in much of America right now, and I am even hearing a few isolated reports of chanties here in California. What to do when you want to extend your season? Pickle your chanterelles. They're awesome preserved this way.
Venison
Chimichurri is one of the best sauces for warm weather: It's an herby, garlicky, tangy sauce usually served with beef. Here I am using wild mountain pennyroyal and serving the chimichurri over venison.
Recipe
There is something naive and joyful about sitting on a stream bank, catching crayfish. I have vivid memories of catching crawdads as a kid, and jumped at the chance to catch them again in the Sierra Nevada.
Berries and Fruits
Hollyleaf redberry is sweet, pretty and abundant. It is also a mystery. I am confident about eating this berry now, but it took some research -- the kind of research anyone who dares eat something unknown ought to do before popping it into your mouth.
Recipe
A surprisingly wonderful ice cream from a surprisingly wonderful wild plant. Wild ginger grows on the forest floors of much of the United States, and, when eaten in moderation, is different - yet just as good - as the ginger you buy in the store.
Foraging
Elderflower fritters are wonderful, but most recipes for them have a serious flaw: They simply dip the flower heads in batter, leaving the toxic stems attached. How to fix that problem? Make a beignet instead.
Mushrooms
I make a lot of risotto, but I love mushroom risotto most of all. This is what I do when life gives me a basket of pretty fresh morels, and life's been good to me this season.
How-To (DIY stuff)
I've been spending long days by myself, combing the piney woods of the High Sierra, looking for Mr. Brown, the spring porcini mushroom. I am happy to say I've found him.
Recipe
When life blesses you with porcini mushrooms so beautiful you could just weep over them, the right thing to do is serve them simply. In this case, grilled with wild onions.
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