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FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Garden

Fresh Horseradish

Fresh dug horseradish

Fresh horseradish. Just the thought of it makes my eyes water with glee.  Horseradish is an ancient condiment, and It’s kept a good popularity compared to other root crops like skirret and parsley root, the former of which I’m still dying to grow. It’s popularity has to be due at least partly to the fact…

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Raw Turnips with Acorn Oil

Raw turnips with acorn oil recipe

Raw turnips with acorn oil might sound like something you’d be served during winter in a Polish Gulag, but I can assure you, it’s a far cry from a punishment.  The idea for this came from a couple different places, but the most inspirational was a book many of you will know (and love): The…

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Homegrown Horseradish Cream

Homemade horseradish cream sauce recipe

Nasal-clearing, bracingly hot, creamy and delicious. Fresh grated horseradish cream sauce lives in the Valhalla of ultimate condiments, and is one thing that everyone should have in their culinary toolkit. It’s a snap to make, keeps for a very long time even though it’s dairy based, has tons of fun variations–two of which I’ll share…

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Sunflower Artichokes, with Galinsoga and Smude’s Sunflower Oil

Braised sunflower buds wtih galinsoga, sunflower oil, and lemon

This is a simple recipe using a bunch of plants that taste like sunflowers, using my sunflower artichokes I mentioned in this post. Immature sunflowers can be cooked similarly to artichokes. Sunflowers cooked like artichokes, with related plants and virgin sunflower oil

Lamb Shanks Braised with Cardoons and Tomato

Lamb Shanks Braised with Cardoons (7)

I’ve done a lot of research as the executive chef of Lucia’s. The restaurant, once known as the Chez Panisse of the Midwest lost it’s way somewhere along the line, the chef got bored, let the restaurant slide into disarray, then left. What was once a bastion of locally sourced food slowly evolved into what…

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Hosta Buds

Edible hosta flower buds

Wait a minute, that looks like an artichoke! I stooped down and snapped a hosta bud off of one of the plants in the garden of my apartment building,  put it in my pocket, and went to work. When I got to the kitchen, I took the little bud out of my pocket, it was…

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Root Vegetable Sauerkraut, with Wild Caraway

Sauerkraut with fermented root vegetables with wild caraway: parsnip, celery root, carrots, turnips, rutabaga

Fresh sauerkraut is a world of difference from the mostly overcooked, mushy versions sold in jars at the store. Besides having a mild flavor (if you choose) the cabbage is still crisp, which gives you more freedom for cooking with it in the kitchen and having it keep it’s integrity. Cabbage is only one thing…

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How to Make Nasturtium Capers (Lacto-Fermented)

Nasturtium Capers

Lots of people know you can eat nasturtium flowers, but nasturtium capers, also called poor mans capers are my favorite part of the plant. I’ve fermented unopened flowers from a lot of plants, and these are the best substitute for capers I know of. The only tricky thing in making these is that it’s not…

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Alan Bergo
Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of t Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of the plant, besides the pods in my opinion. They need to be cooked to be edible. 

I only pick from common milkweed in areas where there’s very large colonies. 

I leave some buds to flower on each plant, I also avoid any tops that have insects or monarch caterpillars. Plenty of food to go around. 

#milkweedisafoodplant #foraging #milkweedbuds #asclepiassyriaca
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
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