Foraging Report 04/13/2011





Japanese knotweed peeking up!

It may be raining, but at least it is not snowing! The temperatures are rising to a point where we cannot collect maple sap for much longer. We froze a gallon to use in winemaking later this year. We pulled out our half gallon of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) wine and gave it a try since it has aged for about a year. It has lost some of it's odd viscosity, but retains it's vegetal aroma and taste, not my favorite. We did see the tips of the knotweed peeking up last week, so we'll be picking stalks soon, before they grow too tall. We like to pick them when they are about 6 inches tall, before the leaves unfurl. At that point, they have not developed their woodiness, and Gillian will eat them raw. I cook them in coffee cakes or muffins, as a fruity bar topping, and we are going to try a rhubarb-like jam recipe or two.





Chickweed salad and dressing

Spring greens are up, including dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), chickweed (Stellaria media), violet greens (Viola species), orpine (Sedum purpureum), and nettles (Urtica dioica). Robert washed an enormous bowl of chickweed and made a yogurt-chickweed dressing for a salad of mixed foraged greens. We also used the dressing a dip for fresh baguette and whole wheat bread chunks. The ramps (Allium tricoccum) are still just peeking up, about 2 inches now, with unfurling leaves. Robert picked just a few at a new location and is infusing them into some olive oil. The last few leaves got cooked into last night's dinner. Nettles are growing, I think a few sunny days will give them a boost and send us out into the field with full sized paper grocery bags for gathering soon. Dandelion greens have also been picked, washed, blanched, and frozen for future use, while the blanching water is saved and Robert drinks it like a tea.





Trout lily leaves,
stems, and unpeeled bulbs

A new edible for us this spring is trout lily (Erythronium americanum). We came across a large expanse of them just peeking us in some wooded areas next to a river. The leaves are mottled purple and green, fleshy, lance shaped and low to the ground. They grow in pairs or singly. Later in the season, yellow flowers appear, but all parts will die back before the end of June while the bulb focuses it's energy on spreading underground and storing sugars. We tried the bulbs of the early spring shoots. They are fairly deep in the ground, about 5 inches, and easily broken off of the stem and lost. Each is small, about the size of a chickpea, and covered in 2 loose brown skins that we peel off before eating the bulb. The taste is sweet and super crunchy, like a water chestnut. We all tried a few, but they are difficult to dig in quantity. Robert also tried the long, white leaf stem, and we have read the entire leaf is edible but have not tried it yet. It takes a long time for a large colony to propagate, so it is important to not overharvest the bulbs. We hope to give these a few more tastes before the season is over, but next time we have to remember to bring a shovel for digging, instead of our hands.

Ramps 2011



Ramps patch



Young ramps shoots

Both Robert and I have a background in commercial foodservice, it's where we met. I have not worked in a restaurant for 6 years now, but I love to read food blogs and food-based websites for inspiration, information, recipes, and to hear about trends. Last year I remember reading several articles on how foraging was the new trend, even better than farmer's markets and CSAs. During this time of year, on many websites, the talk is all about ramps (Allium tricoccum). From forager bloggers planting ramps to Rachel Ray twittering to Serious Eats with recipes, ramps have quite a showing every spring. Even we have featured ramps on our blog here, and have a ramps letterbox.

Ramps bulbs

The cold spring has delayed our hunt, but they are starting to peek up at several sites we visit. Robert has been photographing them for 2 years now, but still has to get a photo of the short lived flowers in early summer. The weather looks like it will be wet and warmer this week, so we expect to gear up for gathering this weekend. We will thinly slice most of the greens into a chiffonade, and pack them into plastic containers for the freezer. Robert already infused some ramps leaves in oil. He also loves to make ramps pesto for the freezer, and we will dehydrate some greens for tea and cooking. I love to put the chopped leaves in flaky biscuits, and I ran across a fantastic recipe for Chinese-style scallion pancakes that I am going to make with the chopped stems in place of scallions. I also find they work well in brothy soups, stirred into mashed potatoes, and anywhere you can use onions in a recipe.

Ramps seeds

Spring Foraging Report 03/28/2011

Gillian tasting sap from the tree




collecting maple sap



The recent early spring cold snap has been great for prolonging the maple syrup season. The sap runs well as long as the nights are below freezing and the days warm up to 40°F, up until the trees start making buds. Robert tapped another tree, and we have managed to get about a gallon and a half of sap a day. We are drinking this sap straight from the tree, lightly filtered through a coffe filter to remove bits of bark and dirt. The taste is like slightly viscous, sweet water, and the sap is clear. As long as the weather stays cool, we will continue to collect sap for drinking and making tea.



Nettles



We ventured out this weekend to a favorite nettle patch (Urtica dioica) to check them, but were dissapointed. The cold weather has really slowed their growth. Robert picked about 2 cups worth of tiny plants, just enough to cook into a small batch of Persian Lentil and Nettle soup. It was almost a tease, since Gillian has been asking for nettle soup for a few weeks now. This year we plan on harvesting lots of nettles for drying, freezing, and cooking fresh, along with the prettier dead nettles (Lamium purpureum) growing in the same area. The dead nettles have no sting, hence the "dead" designation. The young greens are full of iron, vitamins, and fiber. Dead nettles are in the mint family, but the flavor is more grassy than minty. We'll use them dried in teas and fresh in smoothies.

dandelion coffee substitute

Robert dug up more dandelion roots (Taraxacum officinale) to try the coffee substitute again. This time he baked the roots less, leading us to believe they were actually burned last time we tried. The smell when the dried roots were ground in the coffee grinder was of dark chocolate, and the taste was much better when the drink was mixed with sugar and chai spiced soy milk. Success!

We have been trying for a few weeks to sprout some garlic mustard seeds (Alliaria petiolata), with poor results. Actually, no results. Robert decided to try making actual mustard with the black, comma shaped seeds. He ground them into a coarse powder with the coffee grinder and added water, vinegar, a touch of honey, and salt. The color is darker than a brown mustard, but the flavor is much more like wasabi or horseradish than a traditional mustard. Very strong, but very good, I have some plans for some sandwiches and dips.



garlic mustard-mustard



Happy Spring 2011!

We are so happy spring is here. It seemed like such a long, hard winter with all the snow. Over the cold months we have been using us lots of our dried, frozen, and pickled edibles. Our supply of linden flowers is very low, we have a couple months before they bloom again. We had frozen, chiffonade ramps greens, but only have one container left. They should be up next month. I have been cooking soups, gravies, pot pies, and stir fries with the frozen chunks of chicken mushrooms. We still have lots of jellies and jams left, probably about 150 jars of assorted flavors. We hope to make more, and try some new flavor combinations this year. I think we have a few quart sized bags left of wineberries and autumn olives left.

Even though the season is just starting, we are already outside looking around. Robert was tapping some maple trees in the area for sap. He collected enough to boil down to a pint of syrup. Spring onions are up in the lawns. We snip off the tops and chop them into salads and soup, and the cloves in the bulbs are small but tasty.

Robert noticed some brave dandelions in the Yantic River Park meadow, and dug the roots and collected the greens. He steeped the fresh greens and drank the water as a spring tonic, ate the wilted greens, and roasted the roots to attempt to make dandelion coffee substitute. After the roots are roasted in the oven, they are ground in a spice grinder until powdered. The smell was nice, but I thought the "coffee" was bitter and tasted burnt. Robert thought it was OK.



Wintergreen leaves and berry



Today, the first day of spring, we went out hiking in the Salmon River State Forest. We picked a bunch of wintergreen leaves (Gaultheria procumbens) and their red berries to make tea with. Gillian found some red partridge berries (Mitchella repens) to add to her oatmeal tomorrow morning, too. We also picked a bagful of garlic mustard greens (Alliaria petiola). These are the second year growth, peeking up from the leaf litter with their head start on all the other plants. This super-early growth is the reason they are invasive, and so successful. The seeds that fell to the ground last year put up some leaves, then go dormant over the winter. As soon as the ground thaws, those young roots send up leaves. We chopped the tender, young leaves into a tatziki to go with some felafels for dinner. It is also nice to end such a great day with a glass of beach plum and black cherry wine made last autumn. We are looking forward to the season!



Garlic mustard greens



Sumac Video

Happy New Year To Everyone.

Garlic Mustard Video

Here Russ Cohen will talk about Garlic Mustard

Japanese Knotweed Video

We had a nice late fall walk with Russ Cohen in Massachusetts

Here is a small educational video about Japanese knotweed with Russ Cohen.