Foraging

Sassafras and Homemade Root Beer

On Independence Day, what better wild ingredient to feature than Sassafras? The aromatic bark, leaves and roots were the first plant exported from North America to Europe.

Foraging

Dining on Daylilies

While I always knew daylilies were edible, I had no idea they were so delicious! We gathered a bunch on my trip to New England last week and they're so good I may grow them as a food crop.

Mushrooms

Porcini-O-Rama

One of my favorite things is to gorge on a fresh, seasonal ingredient when it's abundant -- in this case porcini mushrooms. We ate them in a salad, grilled, pureed with venison, and in porcini ravioli.

Recipe

Mulberry Sorbet

A chance encounter with a mulberry tree just a few hundred yards from my home sparked me to pick what, for me, had been an unloved fruit for many years. Now I am a changed man...

Foraging

On a Ramp-age

After many years without them, I finally get my hands on some ramps - that wild onion everyone's talking about. Are they worth the hype?

Foraging

Foraging Mallow – Hiding in Plain Sight

An offhanded remark leads me down the rabbit hole in search of the mysterious - yet ubiquitous - mallow plant. Who knew how important this weed was to the Eastern Mediterranean?

Foraging

Harvesting and Cooking Nettles

Stinging nettles are coming into season here in California, so it's time to play with the Weed That Bites. Nettle pasta, anyone? How about nettle pesto or nettle ravioli?

Recipe

The Mechanics of Eating Acorns

Everything you need to know using acorns for food. When to collect, what kind of oaks are best, how to leach out the bitter tannins, how to store the acorns, make acorn flour - and acorn flour pasta.

Foraging

Cooking Matsutake Mushrooms

After having never even knowing of their existence for the first 30 years of my life, I’ve recently been cooking…

Recipe

Prickly Pear Syrup

Well into my adulthood, all I knew about prickly pears was that they are the fruit of a cactus, the…