Common violets, or Viola odorata, are a great, unassuming wild flower, but they have a lot more use than in a bouquet or as something to enjoy on a trail: you can eat them too. For me, violets are one of a lot of greens I pick in the spring, along with sochan, nettles, ramp leaves,…
Leafy Greens | Basic Profiles
Watercress
Watercress, a.k.a. Nasturtium officinale You’ve probably heard of it, maybe even seen it in a nice grocery store, but, if you’re unfamiliar with harvesting your own watercress or cooking with it in general, I hope I can share a couple points to help you enjoy it. Watercress is one of the building block plants of…
Cow Parsnip
“It makes ye go blind!” “It can only die from a silver nail through the root!” “Eat wild parsnip? Never! There’s only poison parsnip!” “It’s all over the roads and trails, storm the woods! kill it with fiyaaaah!” These are pretty much the sayings and overall feeling conveyed by the well intended but torch-wielding public…
Lamb’s Quarters / Wild Spinach
They taste great, run 8$/lb wholesale, yield multiple rounds of crops in the time regular garden plants give a single one, and, they’re weeds. They’re lamb’s quarters, and if you appreciate good food, you should be familiar with them. Along with nettles, these were one of the first wild green that I picked and ate….
Chickweed
Chickweed, which one was that again? When I started researching plants I could forage they all looked the same. Almost every guide and piece of literature I had would mention it, but I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. Eventually I figured it out, the key was having someone show me exactly what it was,…
Galinsoga
2017 to me was the year of the plant. Working with my network and connections I was able to bring in more wild-harvested product by weight than any restaurant I know of. One week in the Spring I remember I clocked us going through 50lbs of nettles alone. The hardest plants to get my hands…
Broccoli Leaves
I was walking through the gardens at the farm, clipping some weeds to eat in between the rows of broccoli. I’d cooked nice farm broccoli and commodity broccoli over the course of my career, and I knew that the commodity stuff would generally have larger heads and less flavor, but I’d never really stopped to…
Cow Parsnip Blossoms
I’m jealous of the old knowledge and culinary traditions woven into other cultures. A few years ago I was looking for some info on where Italians pick porcini. I found an Italian website (I’ve since tried to find it and it’s gone or has been taken down) that talked about hunting mushrooms, but also…
Virginia Waterleaf
Another winter of cooking root vegetables nearly over, my mouth and psyche have watered dreaming of the first sweet, tender greens and shoots of Spring. A new one I’ve been adding to the mix is Virginia Waterleaf, and it’s a fun one. I learned about these on a plant walk with my friend Kenton of…
Nasturtium Leaves And Flowers
Lots of chefs like to garnish things with flowers, they’re pretty, but often that’s about it. Nasturtiums though? They’re a completely different story. They’re not only beautiful, but have a great flavor-candy sweet and peppery like watercress, all at the same time. With how good they taste, It’s surprising to me that more people…
Hop Shoots
<a class=”more-link” href=” https://foragerchef.com/tag/hop-shoots/More Hops</a> Meet the most expensive vegetable in the world. Hop shoots are the young, tender shoots of hop vines, and they taste a bit like beer meets asparagus. I haven’t done experiments with different varieties, so for the purposes in this post I’m referring to common hops or Humulus lupulus that…
Wild Mustard Raabs / Wintercress buds
When we found out we were hosting the Swedish ambassador for a dinner two weeks ago, I was pumped. It was supposed to be a key moment in the drive for luring the world’s fair to Minnesota, which could be a reality if our team’s food really knocks the socks off of people at the…
Common Stinging Nettles
In Europe, cooking stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) is common right of Spring. There aren’t many American’s that crave them, but that’s slowly changing. They’re a special plant, and the first thing I look for after a long Midwestern winter. Why would you want to eat them? Because they’re delicious, and incredibly healthy. In the kitchen,…