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FORAGER | CHEF

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

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Soup

Foraged Spring Vegetable Soup with Ramp Pistou

foraged vegetable soupe aux pistou

Every year in the spring one of the first things I do is make a few dishes that are pure spring on a plate, or in a bowl as the case may be here. Vegetable soup aux pistou is a classic French recipe for vegetable soup, and one that’s perfect for celebrating springs bounty of…

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Wild Mushroom Chowder

Wild Mushroom Chowder with hericium and yellowfoot chanterelles

A good, simple chowder made with wild mushrooms has been a reader request for a while here that I finally got around to posting. It comes together in just under an hour, and is a good way to use some fresh or dried wild mushrooms if you need a bowl of comfort food.  A soup…

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Hot and Sour Soup with Wood Ears and Yellowfeet

Hot and sour soup with wood ears (17)

I’ve been saving a bag of wood ear mushrooms my friend from Forest Mushrooms gave me the last time I saw him for a good batch of hot and sour soup for months. Wood ears are special in that, after rehydrating they’re nearly indistinguishable from their fresh state. Finally I got around to using them…

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Hedgehog Mushroom Soup with Beans, Watercress and Tomato

Hedgehog mushroom soup with foraged greens, beans and tomatoes

I love hedgehog mushrooms (especially the giant ones) but during the off-season here in Minnesota I sometimes cook with the smaller Hydnum umbilicatum sold commercially out of the PNW during our winter when I have a craving for fresh mushrooms. Hedgehogs are great in just about anything you’d add them to, but I love them…

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Dried Venison Soup with Timpsila (Bapa Wohanpi)

Dried venison soup with timpsila or prairie turnips (Bapa Wohanpi)

Venison bapa wohanpi soup is a rich stew made from all-dried ingredients that makes for a delicious, creative meal in the winter. After I cooked my venison trotters, the first thing I wanted to make was a traditional Lakota bison hoof soup, but, once I saw how much meat I got off the venison trotters,…

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Smoked Venison Neck Chili

Smoked venison neck chili recipe

I love a good bowl of chili, and smoked venison chili is a great one. Deer chili is probably one of the most trusty recipes a lot of people who cook game keep around as it’s a great place to toss a couple pounds of ground or stew meat: just forget about it for a…

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Wild Mushroom Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup)

Chicken of the woods mushroom tom kha gai recipe

Oh this is a good one, and a recipe for chicken of the woods (or other wild mushrooms like hen of the woods) I’ve been meaning to get up for a while. Tom kha gai is a classic Thai soup typically using chicken, mushrooms, coconut milk, and a few aromatics. It’s a well known soup,…

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Smoked Rams Head Posole

Lamb head posole recipe

Some people might say an image of an animal head is unappealing, down right spooky. What I think is unnerving is the fact that we’re disconnected from where our meat comes from. More and more, and I feel like most Americans just can’t deal with the fact that the meat they eat had a life,…

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I co Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I cover in my book you might not know are squash and pumpkin shoots. 

Tender and delicious, these are eaten around the world. The US is still coming around, but I see them occasionally at farmers markets. 

I like to give them a dip in boiling water to wilt them quick, then toss them with some fat or stir-fry them quick. The little curly-cues make them look like fairy tale veggies to me. 

#squashshoots #cucurbitaceae #eatmoreplants #kehoecarboncookware
Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickwe Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickweed, lemon, hickory nut oil and tarragon from the @wild.fed shoot. 

I spent a couple days trying to cook the rhizomes, and it works, but raw is my favorite prep. 

I add some smoked trout both for the salty pop and because it’s fun to mix aquatic edibles. Runner bean flowers for a splash of color. 

#cattails #foraging #chickweed #runnerbeans #saladsofinstagram
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine caps on hardwood sawdust from my lumberjack buddy.

Next up blewits. Spawn from @northsporemushrooms

#winecaps #strophariaaeruginosa #allthemushroomtags
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