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Forager Chef

Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

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Eating the Whole Plant

Sunflower Artichokes

an edible sunflower bud

Until I was twenty something, the only edible part of sunflower I knew was salty, musty seeds in plastic packets. They’re so much more though. Fresh seeds are great to cook with, and their high oil content makes them *almost* a seamless substitute for pine nuts in things like pesto, which is great for saving…

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Kale Sprouts

Kale Sprouts or Kalettes

Imagine for a moment the wonder that could be if Brussels sprouts and kale had little babies. Now, contain your excitement, because it is a thing, and has been for a number of years. They also go by the name of kalettes, and they’ve been popping up all over the place, from conventional grocery stores to Trader…

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Broccoli Leaves

Baby spigariello or Italian broccoli leaves

  Yes, you can eat broccoli leaves, and they’re delicious, but even as a veteran chef, until I met some farm broccoli growing in a garden, I didn’t know about them at all.  I was walking through one of the large gardens at my girlfriends family farm, clipping some weeds (purslane, amaranth) to bring to…

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Burdock Flower Stalks

burdock flower stalks

Arctium lapa. Burdock. Nuisance of gardeners and landscapers everywhere and giver of one of the most delicious feral vegetables I’ve tasted. Spring 2016, I tried cutting a few of the central flower shoots. I knew some plants would make shoots and some wouldn’t, but I didn’t exactly comprehend the entire process. Here’s the skinny. Burdock…

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Cow Parsnip Blossoms

cow parsnip blossoms

  I’m jealous of the old knowledge and culinary traditions woven into other cultures. A few years ago I was looking for some info on where Italians pick porcini. I found an Italian website (I’ve since tried to find it and it’s gone or has been taken down) that talked about hunting mushrooms, but also…

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White Winter Vegetables

White winter vegetable slaw

As a society it seems to me we’ve more or less completely forgotten what it means for food to have a season. Every year I inevitably get questions about how much asparagus can be offered in November, or if someone can get Minnesota peas in March. But, growing up I was just as ignorant. I…

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Eating the Whole Beet

beets, stems, leaves

I need a garden. The more time I spend near them in the growing season the more I uncover about the plants as I watch their growing cycle. An edible pod here, a shoot there, a seed afterwords maybe. A couple months ago when I was showing someone how to clean chard and I had…

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Squash and Pumpkin Shoots

squash-shoots

A few weeks ago I was walking through the garden picking squash blossoms when I saw these little curly-cue guys here and there in the squash and pumpkin patches. There was a dialogue in my brain that went like this: The squash is growing on a vine Peas grow on a vine I eat peas,…

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Lily Bulbs

Edible Lilium Bulbs

Last fall I was driving home from a video shoot with my photographer friend Chris Bohnhoff and I stopped in a town to get some gas and a cup of coffee. While drinking my coffee on a bench, I noticed a sign and a bunch of dirt filled boxes in a ratty looking lawn across…

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Nasturtium Leaves And Flowers

Nasturtium leaves and flowers

  Lots of chefs like to garnish things with flowers, they’re pretty, but often that’s about it. We eat with our eyes though, and I if there’s an edible flower I can eat, or serve, it’s going on the menu.  Nasturtiums though? They’re a completely different story.  Nasturtiums are not only beautiful, but are edible,…

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Eating The Whole Dandelion

young edible dandelion

Once in a while I learn something new about a vegetable that changes how I think about cooking it. One of my favorite memories is about cooking the spinach I get from my friend, a 70 year old gardener from Oregon named George. George always sends the most beautiful, pristine greens and vegetables, air freighted…

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Wild Mustard Raabs / Wintercress buds

Wild mustard raabs-4

When we found out we were hosting the Swedish ambassador for a dinner two weeks ago, I was pumped. It was supposed to be a key moment in the drive for luring the world’s fair to Minnesota, which could be a reality if our team’s food really knocks the socks off of people at the…

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Milkweed Buds

Edible Milkweed Buds

Milkweed buds have become one of my favorite summer vegetables. They’re beautiful to look at, and watching their transformation from bud to flower has changed my thoughts about what qualifies as a vegetable in general. These will grow on roadsides and in forest clearings and open areas in parks. Even though they will fruit like…

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foragerchef

Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, the roadkill is t Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, the roadkill is too specific a term for me—I don’t limit myself to vehicular-harvested meat. 

However you feel about the topic, grab some popcorn and head over to the comment section on my blog (link in bio) for the 🔥personal stories from readers have shared from around the world. 

There’s the kid who brought home a nutria after school, a wife getting 4 deer with the same car, a train hitting a herd of elk, a bear named squish, living in a house with weasels, and more. 

#budgetgourmet #gleaning #scavenging #meatismeat #roadkill #freefoods #finderskeepers #wastenotwantnot
Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberr Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberry cultivars (3 types!) on me before the last snowfall and I honestly don’t even know where to start after processing them. I’d already made jams and hot sauce already and I have enough for a year. 😅

Great time to practice the cold-juice which ensures the juice isn’t bitter. 

Anyone else have any ideas? 

You can still find some on the shrubs if the birds didn’t get them up by the north shore. 

#highbushcranberry #winterforaging #birdberries #sweetnectar #foragerproblems #juiceme #embarassmentofriches #wildfoodlove
100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw v 100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw vegan snacks, but when I read about Euell Gibbon’s wild hackberry candy bars I had to try them. The  originals were just crushed hackberries and hickory nuts, but, I’ve read that Euell grew to dislike the crunch of hackberry seeds later in life. 

Here’s the thing though, if you sift the hackberry flour, you get a fun texture, with no worries about cracking a tooth. 

These are equal parts ground hackberries, dried wild blueberries, and hickory nuts, with a splash of maple syrup to bind.

The end product is a shelf stable, nutrient-packed bite filled with protein, carbohydrates, fats and natural sugars infinitely adaptable to your local landscape.

The texture is chewy and nougat-like, and now I’m curious to see how they’d perform baked in recipes that use frangipane or almond paste. 

#euellgibbons #energybars #hackberry #crushin #paleobreakfast #tradionalfood #wildfoodlove #rawfoods
Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and c Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and chokecherry gastrique is one of the dishes @credononfiction and I filmed for @headspace. 

I cook hackberry milk with cornmeal and maple syrup, whip some egg whites and fold them in, then bake. Eats a bit like crust-less pumpkin pie, if pumpkin pie came from a tree. 

#hackberry #souffle #wildfoodlove #chokecherry #blackwalnuts #brunching
Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made f Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made from ground hackberries and water. I grind the berries to a meal, then simmer with 3x their volume of water, strain through a chinois (without pressing) season with maple and a pinch of cinnamon. Tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass, also a decent cooking medium. 

#hackberries #nutmilk #foraging #wildfoodlove #celtisoccidentalis
Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of b Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of both. They also contain protein, fat, and carbs, and the oldest evidence of humans enjoying them goes back 500,000 years. Right now is the best time to harvest them in the Midwest as the leaves have fallen. The full break down and introduction to them is in my bio. 
#hackberry #celtisoccidentalis #winterforaging #wildfoodlove #traditionalfoods #manbird
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