Foraging

Most of my favorite childhood memories rush back to me with a whiff of mint because I likely had a birch twig clamped between my teeth when they happened. This was thanks to my best friend's older brother. He was a born-in-workboots kind of farm boy with a talent for cussing so impressively that he...

The name “chaga” is a borderline buzzword these days. So, I feel it’s safe to assume you’ve either heard it or seen it on the label of some trendy health product. However, I’ve found that the actual organism is still pretty vague and mysterious to many people. I support its popularity wholeheartedly...

I don’t fluster very easily—it takes a lot to make me mad. But when I learned that the word “acorn” was removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, I was beside myself. I read further and salted the wound by learning that most of the words removed were rooted in ecology, and most of the new words...

There may not be another food that's been more valuable to humans throughout history than nuts. They’re uniquely nutritious with a trifecta of starch, oil, and protein that offers humans and wildlife a well-balanced fuel. They’re travel-friendly and can store for years in the shell. They can be...

Mushrooms can be expensive. Really expensive. It’s part of what makes foraging so attractive to me: the opportunity to work with the freshest, often prohibitively expensive, gourmet ingredients—all without spending a single dollar, besides the gas it takes to get there. One particularly coveted...

Elderberries are one of the few things left in the world that almost everyone can agree are a good thing. You’ve no doubt seen them front and center on the chain drugstore shelves come cold and flu season and they’ve got the same prime real estate in most local herbalists’ cupboards—and for good...

Spring may get all the attention, but summer is a great time to be out in the mushroom woods. There are plenty of choice edibles popping up and many of them grow in high concentrations, creating a windfall for foragers looking to stock the pantry or freezer with some of the finest edibles Mother...

Chanterelles are one of nature's most delicious gifts, especially when sautéed with garlic and butter. They fruit from the ground following a good rain in warm weather, and often that rain will kick lots of dirt up under those delicate frilled edges. While cleaning chanterelles off without damaging...

I know—it’s September and all you can think about is the negative space in your freezer and how you’re going to fill it with fresh game. We all have meat on the mind this time of year, but take a second and imagine something with me: It’s February and everything is frozen solid. You haven’t eaten a...