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FORAGER | CHEF

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

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Leafy Greens | Recipes

Preboggion: The Wild Edible Plants of Liguria

Ligurian preboggion with garlic, olive oil and lemon in a stoneware bowl

Preboggion, also known as prebuggiun, or prebugiun, is a traditional mix of edible wild plants (piante spontanee or erbe selvatiche if you’re Italian) harvested in Liguria and the Italian Riviera in the Spring, and a foraging tradition I think it’s worth taking a page from.  As I researched different uses of wild plants around the…

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Turkish Nettle Salad (Isirgan Salatasi)

Isirgan salatasi: Turkish raw nettle salad in a bowl

Stinging nettle salad sounds like something you’d feed to someone as a punishment. The reality is that it’s a common, traditional nettle recipe from Turkey called Isirgan Salatasi. Last year I shared my new favorite way to cook every forager’s favorite burning weed by steaming them. I don’t think this salad will takes its place,…

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Spring Greens Pudding

Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding

A spring green pudding made from wild greens, allium leaves and barley flour is an old recipe from times when a household might have had just one pot. To me, it’s the sort of cooking that evokes ancient stone farmhouses with roaring fires heating a joint of game.  As an American who grew up with…

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Erbazzone (Italian Wild Greens Pie)

Erbazzone, Italian Foraged Greens Pie

Erbazzone, also known as scarpazonne, a rustic pie (technically called a torta) of foraged greens from Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy, is one of the first things I’ll be making again this year.  This is a traditional, Italian preparation for greens with lots of modern and unique localized variations that may or may not share…

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Jamaican Callaloo with Amaranth

Jamaican Callaloo made with amaranth

Callaloo, a dish of wild amaranth or other greens, is a great example of how Jamaican food is much more than jerk chicken, curried goat and ackee (although I like those too).  I used to date a woman from Jamaica, and, after enjoying a certain herb grown in the region, she’d get cravings for Jamaican…

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Creamed Watercress

Creamed wild watercress recipe

Creamed watercress is a great play on a steakhouse classic you should try if you like watercress, or, if you have access to watercress, but prefer it cooked as opposed to raw.  I got hired to cook a dinner this past December: an all-Americana menu filled with things like crab cakes, beef tenderloin and artichoke…

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Wild Fennel Cakes

Wild fennel frond cakes recipe

Wild fennel is one of the most invasive plants I’ve ever seen, growing in massive stands on the West Coast. It’s similar to your garden variety fennel, looking near identical, but with one big difference: there’s not really a bulb. Wild fennel cakes are one of the best things I’ve made with them, and, unlike…

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The Original Borscht

Cow Parsnip Green Borscht

Ukraine has been on everyone’s mind lately, so I thought it would be appropriate to dive into their national dish: Borscht (or maybe it’s Borshch?). As random as it might sound, borscht is something I’ve read about a fair amount about, as the famous tart stew of beets (and all its variations) are inextricably connected…

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Alan Bergo
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
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