News

February 2012

Food Preservation - The Hardtack

I'm doing a lot of research and experiments on traditional food preservation which I can then apply to wild edible plants.

During the research, I came across the "Hardtack" which is basically the ancestor of our modern fancy crackers and biscuits. It was part of the main diet of sailors and soldiers for 3 centuries. It's main purpose of course is to last "forever" and provide some basic nutrition.

So I had to do it! It's really just 2 cups of flour mixed with a bit less than 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. The result is what I expected. It's terribly hard, doesn't taste good but will probably preserve for years! I'll try to find some interesting use for it.

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It's brewing! 2 Gallons of Mugwort Beet

I was running low on my Mugwort beer so I made a new batch.

I've gone into more details before and will probably post a step by step soon in the wild food lab section of the site but it's just extremely easy to do!

You just need water, mollasse, brown sugar and yeast. The final result taste like a good bitter ale.

Mugwort has been used for a very long time to make beer and also to flavor beer. Hence the name Mug and Wort ( which meant herb). It's an herb for a mug.

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Weekend Wild Food Harvest

Went on a foraging hike this weekend to gather some wild food for the dishes we wanted to make. There are a lot of wonderful green edible plants right now. Here is what I foraged:

Chickweeds, Miner’s Lettuce, Curly Dock , Toyon Berries, still found good Acorns hidden under leaves, Stinging Nettles, Wild Radish flowers and pods, Mustard flowers and pepper from California peppertree.

All free and organic. Yum!

(The photo is just a small sampling on what was foraged)

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Gourmet Wild Food

I wanted to make something fancy with the wild food I foraged this weekend and my quail confit.

So I made this tiny little snack packed with wild food and SO MUCH flavors.

Quail Leg confit (2 weeks old) with Black Nightshade Berries sauce,

Decorated with Chickweed, Miner's Lettuce, Mustard flowers petals, Wild Radish flowers and Yucca Whipplei Shoot (high pressure canned from last year).

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Weeds are Gourmet Food in Los Angeles

Delivering Nettles to a local Restaurant.

A local chef asked me if I could provide him with some Stinging Nettles. I thought he just wanted a sampling but...he wanted 12 pounds of it!!

I knew a good location and it took me around 3 hours to collect a bit more than what he asked for. Those were young and perfect nettles, perfect for making sauces and soups.

Thank you Jason for supporting your local foragers!!!!!!!!

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Foraging Stinging Nettles and Chickweeds

Friday's Foraging Hike

Collecting Nettles and Chickweeds

This Friday, ten people joined me to forage for Nettles and Chickweeds. It took me a very short time to fill up 2 bags with nettles (for making soup) and chickweeds (for salads).

We also went on a small hike after foraging to look at some wild edible or aromatic plants such as white sage, California Sagebrush, mugwort and much more.

After the hike we had some wild food samplings such as pickled wild radish pods and acorns. We also tasted some nettle beer which can be considered a medicinal beers and a good source of vitamins/nutrients.

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Traditional Methods of Preservation

Preserving Food in Fat.

Meat in fat is an old method to preserve food, very popular in the 1700's and still used today. The principle is quite simple, after salting the meat is cooked in the fat, placed in jars or pots with it. The cooking has removed many the bacterias that could spoil the meat and the fat creates an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment. Just make sure the fat covers the meat. On the photo the fat is still hot, once cold it is white/opaque (you actually can't see the meat inside) and can be preserved for months in a cold environment such as a fridge or basement.

I made a quail confit using duck fat and wild spices such as California bay leaves, white sage, peppers (from California Peppertree) and also some garlic. Cooked in duck fat for 5 hrs after salting. More info about this process in the Wild Food Lab.

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