This simple recipe is part of a series I've created on foraging for wild spring greens. Foraging for food is not as daunting as it might seem. Much of what you'll need for this recipe can likely be found a few steps from your back door. If you're looking for more information on common plants to add to your weekly spring meals then check out my other article, A Beginner’s Guide to Foraging Spring Greens. If you enjoy this pesto recipe I think you'll also enjoy my piece on Salted Wild Greens, ...

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 ...

This article is among a series I’ve created focused on foraging wild spring greens. If you’re new to foraging, I encourage you to check out my other article on the topic, A Beginner’s Guide To Foraging Spring Greens. You may also enjoy my Wild Green Pesto recipe, something that has become a staple in my house. This particular recipe is adapted from one found in Pascal Baudar’s book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine. I use this recipe as a base for most of my soups, stews and braises and in any ...

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 ...

Wild fruit is a food collector’s fantasy, a gift that practically begs to be taken. Starting in spring, the plants wave their white flower flags to show you where to find them come summer – juneberries and cherries in the hedgerow, strawberries in the sand, blackberries and raspberries along the logging cut, elderberries on the streambank, and blueberries from the mountaintop all the way down to the granite pond. With every passing day in spring, a new place flushes white with beacons of ...

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, ...