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

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Highbush Cranberry Vodka

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Highbush cranberry vodka schnapps with sweetfern 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 to mention vodka. Every. Single. Time. 

The funny thing, is that the highbush cranberries from Europe are different from the ones in the Midwest that I pick, I should say, different from the ones that I eat. Highbush cranberries, for all culinary intents and purposes, come in two different flavors: tart, bright-tasting highbush cranberries, and highbush cranberries that taste so foul the best description of the flavor I can give you is that they taste like licking a wet dog, if that wet dog as also very bitter. 

Highbush cranberries or Viburnum trilobum

The reason (see more in my intro post on highbush cranberries here) is that there’s a few different types of highbush cranberries around. The native North American highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum and friends) tastes good. The native European highbush cranberry (Viburnum opulus) tastes awful. 

Highbush cranberry vodka with honey and sweetfern (3)

I can tell you how to process highbush cranberries, and plenty of things to do with them. I can tell you when I like to harvest them, and where. What I cannot tell or explain to anyone, is why, for the love of things that taste good, anyone would eat (or drink) any comestible product made from European highbush cranberries. 

I can also tell you that this highbush cranberry vodka (it will taste a bit like cranberry schnapps) is great, and makes a nice nip after dinner and a conversation piece to pass around the table.

Highbush cranberry vodka with honey and sweetfern (3)

Basically, it’s a simple maceration: take your highbush cranberries, put them in a jar with vodka and some spices (I use sweetfern nutlets here) and add some honey to taste (the floral flavor profile is much better than sugar).

After that, you let the jar sit in a cupboard for a couple months, until it’s cold outside-the season for warming drinks. Drink it in small glasses as a digestif, warm or cold. 

Sweetfern 

Sweetfern nutlets

Sweetfern, showing the aromatic nutlets.

Quick aside here, macerated alcohols like this are a great place to sneak in some of your wild spices, especially strong ones.

Here I use sweetfern nutlets, the wonderfully aromatic seeds of Comptonia peregrina, which just so happens to grow right beside highbush cranberries in some of the places I pick.

If you have access to the dried fruit of Myrica gale / sweet gale it would work great here too. You’ll also notice there’s cinnamon and clove in small amounts here-don’t skip them. Just a little bit adds a nice backbone and works well with the sweetfern. 

Highbush cranberry vodka schnapps with sweetfern

Highbush cranberry vodka schnapps with sweetfern
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Highbush Cranberry Vodka with Sweetfern

Spiced highbush cranberry vodka with honey is a delicious Russian inspired nip.
Prep Time5 mins
Maceration90 d
Course: Appetizer, Drinks
Cuisine: American, Russian
Keyword: highbush cranberry

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs blackcap raspberries or other berries
  • 8 dried sweetfern nutlets or 1-2 teaspoons crushed dried nutlets*
  • 750 ML bottle of decent vodka not too cheap, not too expensive*
  • 1/2 cup mild flavored honey or to taste
  • 1/2 inch piece cinnamon
  • 2 cloves

Instructions

  • Mix half of the honey and vodka well. Taste it. If you think you'd like it more sweet, add the rest of the honey. Add the sweet fern nutlets to the vodka, if you want a stronger flavor from them, crush them in a mortar first. Add the cinnamon and clove without crushing them.
  • If needed, separate the highbush cranberries from their stems and look over for any debris. Wash the berries gently as a last resort if they're dirty or sandy, which is possible, but rare in my experience.
  • Cover the berries with the vodka-honey mixture for a few months (I'd suggest at least 2-3) in a non-reactive container in a cool dark place.
  • Taste the maceration from time to time to check on it's progress.
  • When you're pleased with the flavor, strain without pressing on the berries, then bottle the liquor.

Notes

*Something like E and J is fine here, just don't use some bottom of the barrel pain thinner. 

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Highbush Cranberries

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
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Alan Bergo
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
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
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