I’m not going to write a love song here the way I normally might about the virtues of wild greens. My love for them is stronger than ever, but in these strange times it feels more appropriate to cut to the chase. Chances are you’ve got bigger things on your mind than the omega fatty acid ratios in wild greens vs. cultivated ones—things like your health, your loved ones, your job, your future. I’ll save the sonnets for another day. In uncertain times we reach for comfort food, but at the risk ...

Nothing makes me feel richer than eating foods historically made by the poor: soups, stews, organs, ferments, sinewy cuts of meat, unrefined grains and fats and sugars. Most peasant foods are born from a combination of necessity, accessibility, and a little of what we in Maine call “redneck ingenuity.” You take what you have and use what you know to turn it into something more. The ancestral need to feed ourselves in lean times has led to methods of preparation and preservation that yield ...

Tag Soup tastes better with Squirrel. Make it Hot and Sour - like defeat. Going into winter we crave meat and fat and weight, the prelude to spring when we’ll salivate at the thought of bitter greens to cut the grease. Going into winter it makes sense to pursue larger animals to get the most caloric bang for our buck, but don’t discount the heft of a November squirrel. Throughout the final week of deer hunting season I ate this soup with just broth and squirrel. I kept it lean and simple, ...