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

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Sweetfern Shortbread Cookies

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Sweetfern seed shortbread cookies

Simple cookies are a great place to start cooking with sweetfern.

Sweetfern is a great wild herb to know, and I love it’s delicately resinous, spicy aroma, but cooking with the leaves, as most people will be familiar with, can be tricky.

Instead of the leaves, I typically harvest the seeds or nutlets of the plant as they keep a stronger flavor, and are generally more versatile for cooking, in my opinion. If you haven’t looked at my longer post on cooking with sweetfern, I recommend giving it a read. 

Sweetfern, or Comptonia peregrin nutlets or seeds, dried

Dried sweetfern seeds or nutlets. I prefer these to the leaves for most purposes.

The only trick with the seeds is finding enough to harvest in decent quantity. To find a good location, I go to slightly over-grown, open jack pine barrens where the plants are more mature (as opposed to young or recently burned barrens).

When I find a good harvest the seeds, I strip them from the leaves using a berry rake, which cuts the harvesting time down considerably without harming the plant.

Sweetfern or Comptonia peregrina leaves and seeds

Seeds on the plant in mid-summer.

After the seeds are harvested, I dry them and store in a jar, grinding them fresh as I would other spices when I want them. One of the most successful things I’ve made with them are simple cookies, here’s a basic recipe you can adapt and make your own. 

Adapting the recipe 

These cookies are meant to be sturdy so I can make them in advance and bring them to events. If you want to use them in a favorite cookie recipe you have, feel free to just substitute a similar amount of ground sweet fern seed. I prefer firm, crisp cookies with the flavor of sweetfern compared to chewy cookies-I’d save that for when you have a craving for chocolate chips. 

By far, the most important thing (besides using a recipe you trust) is allowing the dough to rest and “equalize” in the fridge overnight. This helps to hydrate the dough, and will give you a better flavor, texture and even-cooking than cooking the dough quickly after it’s assembled. 

Can you use the leaves?

No. There’s a big difference in cooking with sweetfern seeds versus the leaves. While most foragers that know this plant will harvest and cook with the leaves, their flavor is only good fresh, and it isn’t as potent or concentrated as the seeds.

I rarely, if ever use sweetfern leaves in cooking, and once you try the seeds I think you’ll probably agree with me that the leaves are overrated. 

Serving 

I do a lot more with these than just serve with tea, although that’s good too. Here’s a few ideas. 

  • Serve with tea
  • Bake the cookies in large pieces as opposed to small, elegant cookies pictured, then crush them up coarsely for spooning over creamy desserts where you might add something like toasted nuts, as in my pine barrens sottobosco. 
Foraged sweetfern seed shortbread cookies
Print Recipe
4 from 3 votes

Sweetfern Shortbread Cookies

Crisp, buttery shortbread scented with the aroma of sweetfern are a great introductory way to enjoy the plant. Yield: about 15 cookies

Ingredients

  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter diced small
  • ¼ cup all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup whole wheat or other interesting flour
  • 2 teaspoons dried sweet gale or sweet fern nutlets
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 Tablespoons maple sugar or brown sugar

Instructions

  • Grind the nutlets to a fine powder in a coffee grinder, then combine with the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth dough.
  • Form the dough into a log, wrap in cling film and refrigerate overnight, or at least a few hours to hydrate the flour and ensure even cooking. If you haven't refrigerated cookie dough before, trust me, it's worth it.
  • Preheat the oven to 350, cut the cookie log into ¼ inch slices, and bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned, then cool and store at room temperature in a covered container.

Related

Previous Post: « Wild Rice Casserole with Ground Venison and Mushrooms
Next Post: Tepary Beans de la Olla with Sweetfern »

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Alan Bergo
I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
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
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