• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

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

  • Home
  • About
  • Wild Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Wild Blueberry Sauce with Sweetfern

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Wild blueberry sauce with sweetfern nutlets recipe Blueberries, as delicious as they are, always seem to disappoint me when I see them in sauce form. You know the sauce I’m talking about, the thick, gloppy, sauce so sweet it will make your teeth fall out of your head stuff that comes from a can. Sure, people like it, but they like the sugar, not the taste of blueberries. Real wild blueberries though? They taste like concentrated sunshine. When I eat them, even cold out of the freezer in the middle of winter, I’m transported to a place in time, a sunny day in the pine barrens, and to the heat beating down on my blue-stained hands as I drop on my knees, bucket on my waist filled with berries, shoveling handfuls in my mouth as a reward for filling another blickey-full.

pine barrens

The pine barrens. The word barren couldn’t be more misleading since it’s filled with food plants.

After you get a bunch of berries, and not just a couple, (I’m talking coolers-full, where you’re counting berries by the gallon) you’ll be privy to one of the great joys of harvesting your own food: the paradigm of choice you get from eating the gluts of nature, or in other words, figuring out what to do with a shit pile of delicious wild blueberries. You’ll make some blueberry pancakes, waffles, mix them into yogurt and everything else. But, the time will come when you might when you want to make them into a sauce, or do something different, and when that time comes, you can return to this recipe, especially if you remember to gather some sweet fern at the same time you pick the berries.

Wild blueberry sauce with sweetfern nutlets recipe

Cornstarch gives the sauce a little body, but you get skip it and blend the sauce gently too.

The pine barrens are what made me want to make this sauce, and the sweet fern is really the novel idea here. From the moment I smelled sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) I was in love, but I had to figure out how to capture it’s flavor. The leaves make nice tea, sure, but you can make tea out of an old boot if you want. The leaves don’t hold their flavor very well dried, either–it’s much better fresh. The nutlets of sweetfern on the other hand, are a different story entirely.

Sweetfern nutlets dry well and hold their piney, resinous scent for months on end, especially if you treat them properly (I keep them in a vacuum bag in the freezer. The only problem is that if you’re in a good wild blueberry patch, you will hopefully not see too many sweet fern nutlets, as they tend to grow en-masse on more mature plants, which would mean they’re growing next to more mature wild blueberries, which means the blueberries are already established, and won’t be producing as many berries as they would the first year or two after the area was burned. Thankfully, you only need a few sweetfern nutlets, as the flavor is concentrated, and much stronger than the leaves.

Dried sweetfern nutlets or comptonia peregrina

Dried or fresh sweetfern nutlets will keep their flavor well in the freezer.

In the end you get a fun wild blueberry sauce that will be good on cheesecake, yogurt, or just about any dessert you can think of, but moreso you have something that evokes a time and place, a specific eco-region, and a specific moment in a season–the kind of food that tastes like memories. I like food like that.

Wild blueberry sauce with sweetfern nutlets recipe

Frozen wild bluebs are just as good as fresh for sauce.

Wild blueberry sauce with sweetfern nutlets recipe
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Wild Blueberry Sauce with Sweetfern

Yield: 1 pint jar
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Sweetfern, Wild blueberries

Ingredients

  • 1 cup wild blueberries
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch Optional. If you want a looser, more natural sauce, skip this.
  • 1 cup unsweetened blueberry juice or water
  • Pinch of kosher salt
  • A few scrapes of fresh orange zest optional
  • Fresh lemon zest a few scrapes, to taste (optional)
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons dried or fresh sweet fern nutlets bruised or crushed to release their aroma

Instructions

  • Wrap the sweet fern tightly in cheesecloth and tie closed.
  • Mix the cornstarch with half of the juice or water to form a slurry and reserve.
  • Bring the blueberries, remaining juice or water, maple and sweet fern packet to a simmer, then add the cornstarch, cook another minute or two until thickened, then cool and reserve.
  • Pulse the mixture with a handblender once or twice to break the wild blueberries up a bit, then stir in the lemon juice, and zests before serving or refrigerating.

Notes

You'll notice I use blueberry juice here. It makes a great sauce, but is optional. 

 

Related

Previous Post: « Nannyberry Pudding
Next Post: Corn Mushroom Puree »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Corla

    July 17, 2021 at 10:46 am

    I’m wondering if this idea work work with juniper berries crushed, in small quantity? Not sure we have these sweetfern nutlets in western boreal forest.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Sweet Fern on the Barrens | Namekagon Barrens News, Views and Events says:
    December 27, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    […] Also check out a Wild Blueberry Sauce with Sweetfern recipe in https://foragerchef.com/wild-blueberry-sauce-with-sweetfern/ […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

James Beard Award Winner

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

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
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·