Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) and sweetgale (Myrica gale) are both aromatics that deserve some play in your kitchen, and one of the easiest things you can start out trying is a simple macerated liquor. Both plants have leaves that give off a great aroma, but for me personally, the seeds are the best part of both…
Wild Herbs and Spices
Spicebush Gingerbread
I asked people on Instagram what they’re favorite things to do with spicebush (Lindera bezoin) was, and I got a big range of answers. One thing that popped up more than others though, was gingerbread, and, I have to say it’s pretty fun. I do think though, that the flavor of spicebush is much more…
Spicebush Cream Cheese Frosting
I’ve been having a lot of fun working with a big bag of wild spicebush berries (the seeds of Lindera bezoin) that my friend Val sent me. Spicebush frosting is the first real winner. Granted, I don’t consume lots of frosting, or bake that often, but I suspect that knowing fat and dairy can absorb…
Sweetfern
Of all the smells I know that conjure up beautiful landscapes, sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina) is right near the top. Cracking open a jar of the seeds and crushing them transports me to the peak of summer, walking out into open pine barrens, mini-berry rake in hand, scanning the ground for flushes of blueberries, the…
Ajiaco con Guascas
Ajiaco, a stew of multiple types of various potatoes, poultry, and corn, is a famous Latin American dish probably best known around the world as being Colombian, although there are different permutations enjoyed in different places, like Peru and Cuba, to name a few, each with slight variations. A riff on the Colombian version is…
Pine Cone-Cider Jam / Varenye
“Ever eat a pine tree?”. That infamous quote from Euell Gibbons during a Grape Nuts commercial (there’s a lot of them on You Tube now and some are hilarious) has some truth to it. Sure, you can make tea (mostly I see it done with the soft needles of Easter White Pine) from needles, bark bread…
Wild Herb Gnocchi
I love a good bowl of gnocchi, and after you master the basic method, it can be nice to play with simple additions to the dough. A generous blend of freshly picked herbs is one of the simplest and most delicious I know of, and you can play around with all kinds of fun combinations…
Wild Blueberries with Crème Fraîche
Wild Blueberries with Crème Fraîche is a love letter to one of the best summer desserts of all time: berries and cream. One night during the winter, my girlfriend and I were sitting beside the fire. She was feeling snackish and asked if there was anything I could throw together quick. I went over to…
Highbush Cranberry Vodka
Highbush cranberry vodka is a love letter to my foraging friends living and from Eastern Europe. In Russia (and likely other areas) Highbush cranberries are known as Kalinka, and, at least from my experience, if you ask someone from Eastern Europe the what the best thing to do with highbush cranberries are, they’re probably going…
Prickly Ash Sausage
If you harvest your own prickly ash berries (Xanthoxylum/Szechuan peppercorns) sausage should be on your list of things to make. I love the bright, citrusy flavor and gentle numbing quality that prickly ash adds to a dish, but it can be difficult to incorporate them into foods and have them taste coherent if you’re not…
Pollen and Honey Cookies
Pine pollen and honey cookies are a love letter to the life of bees, and a little study in complimentary flavors you can use when cooking with pollen. Although bees (at least to my knowledge) don’t harvest pollen from pine trees or cattails, the flavors of pollen, and the inspiration you can use from this,…
Pollen Bread
My pollen bread is essentially pollen cornbread, with a few tweaks, and it’s a good introductory recipe to start out with if you have some pollen to use. Most of the time, when people talk about cooking with pollen, they might think of pollen pancakes, and they can be good, as well as your other…
Pollen Pancakes with Pine Cone Syrup
I have a big stash of pine pollen I’ve been waiting to use the cold months and I finally got around to making some new things with it. If you’re not familiar, pine pollen is a thing, similar to cattail pollen, but much easier to harvest in my opinion, as the window for capturing it…