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FORAGER | CHEF

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

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Wild Fennel

Wild Fennel What’s that on the side of the road? Is that fennel? In the ditch?!

Wild fennel is one of the most abundant wild foods I know of, and a non-native, invasive plant you can feel good about harvesting. I have to travel to the California coast to see wild fennel since the plant doesn’t like the cold winters of the Midwest, but, after seeing first-hand just how invasive the plant is, I’m ok with only seeing it on vacation. Whether you think of wild fennel as a noxious weed, or as a food, one thing’s for certain: fennel is an ancient plant, with a long history of being used as a food. If you have it near you and enjoy foraging, you owe it to yourself to give cooking the plant a try. 

Wild Fennel

The first wild fennel I saw. It’s everywhere along the roadsides in the San Francisco area.

Greens/Fronds

Most chefs toss the greens of bulb fennel in the compost or put them in soup stock (another way of throwing something away) but wild fennel fronds and all of the young green stems are actually great to eat. Wild fennel greens are a well-known edible in the Mediterranean, with Greece, Crete, and Italy all having a long tradition of eating them and, although it took me a little time to come around to them, I can tell you that they’re great, they just need a little extra cooking compared to most wild plants I know. 

Wild Fennel

Fronds, Not Bulbs 

All of the above-ground leafy parts of wild fennel can be eaten as long as they’re young and green, and considering the ease with which you can harvest large amounts of them for free, I think after you try them you’ll agree. The cooked greens and tender stems keep a subtle licorice flavor that’s very good. You won’t be tossing wild fennel greens into a pan as you would other greens though. To cook wild fennel fronds, you’ll need to simmer then in water until they’re tender and taste good to you, which can take 15-20 minutes or more. 

Traditionally in the Mediterranean, wild fennel greens are cooked like any other leafy green, often mixed with other greens. One of the most well-known recipes that specifically calls for wild fennel greens is a dish called Tsigarelli from Greece or Crete (depending on who you ask) where wild fennel and other plants are cooked with garlic and hot paprika. 

Greek foraged greens with garlic and paprika or tsigarelli

Tsigarelli: a traditional dish from Crete relying on wild plants including wild fennel.

Seeds 

Fennel seeds are probably the most well-known and widely used part of the plant, and, just like regular fennel, wild fennel makes delicious seeds I prefer to the garden variety fennel you’ll find in a store. 

Wild fennel sausage confit with watercress and wild plum sauce

Wild fennel sausage wrapped in caul, with lightly dressed watercress and wild plum Tkemali sauce, for an event I did recently. Note how small the wild fennel seeds are.

Besides having a unique flavor, wild fennel seeds are great in that they’re very easy to harvest in bulk. The plant is so prolific that even in the spring I’ve been able to find older plants from the previous year that still had plenty of seeds on them. Harvesting is a breeze as the seeds dry naturally on the stalk. With a little shake and a gentle hand, they come off easily and you can get a year’s worth of seeds in just a few moments. The only tricky part I found was locating colonies of the plant that weren’t on the side of a busy road, since that isn’t the best place to gather food. 

Wild Fennel Seed
A dried umbel, with clusters of seeds. You have to be careful to remove small pieces of stem that inevitably get in with the seeds.
Wild Fennel Seed
Wild fennel seeds are a lot smaller than your typical variety.

After harvesting wild fennel seeds, make sure to pick them over for small pieces of stem that inevitably get mixed in with them (see picture above). You can also winnow them “the old way” by putting them in a bowl and gently tossing the seeds in the air, which can help separate the fragments of stem that weigh less than the seeds. After harvesting and winnowing, dry your seeds in a dehydrator at 90-100 F for a couple hours or until they’re completely dry, then store in a container with a lid as you would other spices. Toast the seeds lightly before cooking to bring out the best in their flavor. 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aaron El Sabrout

    March 19, 2018 at 3:26 pm

    In my experience, wild fennel is mostly a west coast thing. I used to live in the Pacific Northwest and it was an omnipresent roadside weed, so I incorporated it tons into my cooking. I found that the young fronds were actually lovely when used the way chefs commonly use bulbs. When I moved to the Northeast I was devastated to discover that it is not a weed everywhere. Where before I only had to walk up the block to an abandoned lot to get fennel, now I have to either buy or grow it myself.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      March 19, 2018 at 3:50 pm

      Yes in CA it is EVERYWHERE, unfortunately, like in your case, it doesn’t grow in Minnesota and I have to buy mine, and make due with the sub-par tasting fronds. Thanks Aaron.

      Reply
  2. Saengthip

    April 4, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    Wild fennel reminds me of my childhood. My parents came to California as refugees, originally from Laos. KHMU folks that were already in the area introduced wild fennel to that wave of refugees who came to the Bay Area In the late 80’s. When ever we went hiking my parents would forage for it. They steamed it and made a Spicy dip to pair it with. The tender parts of the stems, has so much flavor and was my favorite. I never really cared for the fronds. For many years I didn’t know the name of this plant, never saw it in cultivated or sold anywhere. It felt like a special treat that only people who were brave enough to try it would enjoy.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 5, 2020 at 7:54 am

      You’re lucky to come from a culture that values feral plants! And yes, things like this are definitely special treats for the brave–a great way to describe it. Do you know what sort of dip they would make for the steamed stalks? Fish sauce, chilis, oil?

      Reply

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
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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
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