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FORAGER | CHEF

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

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The Forager Chefs Book of Flora

the forager chefs book of flora by chef alan bergoMy first book is now available to order. 

The first in a three-part series, Flora is the vegetable portion of my life, covering wild plants, herbs, spices, garden vegetables, nuts and starches. It will be followed in time by Fungi (mushrooms) and Fauna (meat). 

Is the book only for North American Plants? 

No. I wrote the book so that it will be useful for any forager interested in cooking with wild foods (as well as some garden plants) and with maybe one exception (prickly ash) you will be able to make everything in the book no matter where you live around the world. 

UPDATE 6/21: THE ENTIRE FIRST PRINTING OF FLORA SOLD OUT BEFORE IT EVEN HIT THE MARKET!! Thank you for all your years of support, it means the world to me. 

UPDATE 9/30/21: The second printing is now sold out, but online suppliers have plenty of stock. There will be a third printing in a month or so. 

UPDATE: 11/30/21: The third printing is now sold out. Online suppliers still have plenty of stock. 

Ordering Options 

US

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Bookshop.org

Foragers Harvest.com 

Free Shipping Worldwide

Book Depository

UK Options 

Book Shop.org UK

Hive.co.UK

Amazon.co.uk

Waterstones UK

Canada

Indigo

the forager chefs book of flora by Chef Alan Bergo

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tess

    June 16, 2021 at 5:43 am

    Please tell me if you have any information about groundnuts on your site. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      June 17, 2021 at 12:11 pm

      Tess, I do. Use the search bar and type in Ground nuts. I haven’t harvested many of them.

      Reply
  2. Irene

    June 20, 2021 at 4:46 pm

    Is there a way to subscribe to your blog? I searched and tried typing in “Subscribe” in the search bar, but there still was no link anywhere that I could find. Thanks. You’re amazing.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      June 20, 2021 at 4:53 pm

      Hi there Irene. There should be a pop-up window that gives you a link when people first go to the site. Don’t worry though, with your permisson I can add you manually. I will go ahead and get you in the RSS feed, everything goes here before anywhere else. I appreciate your support. A

      Reply
  3. Violabluez

    June 30, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    I’M SO HAPPY! Just received your first book Flora in the mail and am so floored by how awesome it is! SUPER CONGRATULATIONS! Amazing!
    You are such a great researcher, experimenter, and tying everything together forager chef. I am so looking forward to your future books! WOW!

    Reply
  4. OntarioForager

    July 2, 2021 at 5:04 am

    I just received my copy, it was well worth the wait from the cold day in Februray when I pre-ordered. I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I do appreciate that the recipes are approachable for the home cook, and those new to eating foraged foods. Thank you for the inspiration. Happy foraging!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 2, 2021 at 10:09 am

      Thank you! If you’re enjoying the book I would really appreciate a review on Amazon, if you ordered from there. I have mixed feelings about Amazon but the reviews are very powerful.

      Reply
  5. Kim

    July 7, 2021 at 2:44 pm

    I couldn’t resist. Love the new book. Quick question about the green listed in a recipe called creeping Charlie. I have ahouseplant the I’ve only known as creeping Charlie. I can’t help but think the one you’re speasking of is something wildcrafted. Thanks for an inspirational , informative book!

    Reply
  6. tom

    July 9, 2021 at 1:28 pm

    Hi chef !
    I will more than probably end up buying it anyway, but : to what extent would the book be useful for european foragers ? We can find hickories, black walnuts or even paw-paws in public parks, but for the rest, i dunno …

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 9, 2021 at 1:37 pm

      Tom, with the exception of a handful of recipes for prickly ash, you will be able to make everything in the book.

      Reply
  7. Cheryl Burleson

    September 24, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    Hi! I was gifted a big bag of dried shiitake mushrooms, I was also gifted a couple small bottles of shiitake soy sauce, and it is amazing, I would like to know if you have a recipe for shiitake soy sauce, thanks you, Cheryl B.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 5, 2021 at 9:26 am

      No I don’t, sorry.

      Reply
  8. Tamara Budahl

    December 11, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    Thank you from Alaska! I ordered your book and look forward to your future books! I love spending lots of time on your website. I’ve learned so much from you and I appreciate you so much for sharing such detailed information and recipes.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 14, 2021 at 10:41 am

      Thanks Tamara!

      Reply
  9. Andrea

    February 7, 2022 at 8:55 am

    Hello Alan! I’m quite interested in you new book, the Book of Flora, but was wondering: do you cover plants and edibles from South-East Canada, more specifically Quebec? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      February 7, 2022 at 2:03 pm

      I cover mostly invasives, so you should be able to work with just about everything in the book. It’s sold in the US and Europe so I didn’t focus on hyper-regional plants really.

      Reply
  10. Wild Pinto

    April 21, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    Alan, When will your other books be available?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 21, 2022 at 6:12 pm

      First I need to figure out how I can afford to take the time to write them as it ended up being very expensive. They will come when they’re ready.

      Reply
  11. Robin

    May 4, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    Does the book teach you how to forage for these plants and how to identify them from look a like dangerous plants and mushrooms? I live the show but wish you provided more details about identifying them

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 4, 2022 at 10:03 pm

      No, it doesn’t. To cover it in the necessary depth it would be prohibitively expensive to make, and it would be difficult to get it printed. Another reason I only cover cooking is that my friend Sam Thayer has written the greatest foraging guides ever written, so in my mind another foraging guide isn’t needed.

      We made the show along the same lines. If we broke down the details of ID on everything I used, the show would be too long (by tv standards). I’d love to do a show that incorporates those elements into a longer format, but selling it to a network is a different story.

      Think of my book as a companion to field guides like Sam Thayer’s. If you have spinach or other leafy greens alone you can make a good portion of the book.

      Reply

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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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