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FORAGER | CHEF

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

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Prickly Ash

Dried Mushroom Chili Crisp

Homemade dried wild mushroom chili crisp

Dried mushroom chili crisp has been on near constant rotation in my lineup of favorite condiments for a couple years now, and, also happens to be the only recipe including mushrooms in my book (it was really hard to separate my culinary loves and write a book on plants, vegetables, nuts and starches, but it…

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Prickly Ash Sausage

Wild prickly ash or Szechuan peppercorn sausage recipe

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…

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Fermented Knotweed Pickles

Brine fermented japanese knotweed recipe

One of the best parts about this site I never would’ve imagined as it was hatched when I lived in my friends basement years ago was that I’d be able to talk to people outside of the Midwest. In hindsight, the Internet being, well, the Internet, I should’ve known, but it came as a real…

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Szechuan Parsnip Leaf Salad

Parsnip leaf salad with wild Szechuan peppercorn / prickly ash dressing recipe

Parsnips and their relatives like carrots are loved and cherished food plants around the world for good reason: they’re relatively easy to take care of, they can be stored for long periods of time—even over winter, and most importantly, they’re delicious. One thing no one talks about about though is that the leaves are also…

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Liver Ketchup

Liver ketchup, a condiment made from venison, lamb or other livers

Liver ketchup is another piece of history I came across doing research on lamb and goat in an old Scottish book by An Comunn Gaidhealach (a seriously legit Scottish name) first published in 1907 under the title of The Feill Cookery Book. Like most of the old books I have, a lot of the recipes…

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Chilled Melon Curry with Kinome Leaves

Chilled Melon Curry with Kinome

I’ve been on a cold soup kick lately at the restaurant. During the Summer, I crave cold and room temperature food. Of course I’ve had tomato gazpacho, but It wasn’t until I tasted Daniel Patterson’s now famous chilled pea soup with buttermilk and nasturtiums that I started to understand the possibilities and thought process of…

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Kinome Leaves

kinome, sansho, wild szechaun peppercorn leaves prickly ash

In Minnesota and the surrounding area, its too cold for citrus plants to grow, or is it? Prickly ash/Zanthoxylum species is technically in the rue/citrus family. It doesn’t make a fruit like a lemon or lime, but it does make fruit-small, limey tasting berries which are technically wild Szechuan peppercorns, which I talked about previously…

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Watermelon Pickles With Zanthoxylum

Watermelon Pickles With Wild Szechuan Peppercorns or Zanthoxylum

Old family recipes can be treasured heirlooms. For a while, I got on a kick where I would reinterpret dishes I remembered the women in my family making. To get inspiration, I called my grandma one week and asked her if she had any recipes from Granny Alice (my great grandma), who was always referred…

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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
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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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