When it’s time for me to cook or bake something really special, I look through my foraged spice cabinet. I don’t do this for just anybody. Foraged herbs and spices take time and effort to gather, and I only use them when I’m cooking for someone I think will appreciate their specialness.
Pennsylvania Bay Leaf, aka Myrica pensylvanica, aka Northern bayberry
Let me start by saying that Myrica pensylvanica is not a misspelling. (Yes, I’m a bad speller, but I looked this one up.) I don’t know why the botanical name is spelled with only one n when the state is spelled with two, but whoever made that mistake made it a long time ago and taxonomists are not going to…
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Queen Anne’s Lace
The queen has hairy legs. Don’t forget that. It’s a key identification factor for Queen Anne’s Lace. Queen Anne’s Lace is a member of the carrot family, Apiaceae. Foragers know: you don’t mess around with the Apiaceae. It includes a number of highly poisonous plants, so understanding how to safely identify the edible members of this plant family is very…
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Wild Blueberries: A Gateway Food
When I teach a foraging class, I like to talk with my students first, to get a feel for how much they know and what they hope to learn. I ask if they’ve ever foraged before, and most people say no. But when I push a little harder, and ask if maybe they picked blueberries at summer camp, they almost…
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Melilot Blancmange Recipe (with fresh blueberries!)
Whenever I hear the word blancmange I think of the Monty Python sketch where a giant blancmange (from the planet Skyron) turned everyone in England into Scotsmen, so it (the blancmange) could win Wimbledon. Which is only one of the reasons I smile whenever I eat this melilot blancmange. The other reason is because it’s delicious.