Greek Wild Dinner Review!

Greek Wild Foods Feast

Filling our plates

Our Menu

Rose Hip Cordial

Fruit Bowl w/Mountain Mint

Sumac, Peach, Beebalm, Spearmint, Peppermint Teas

Wild Greens Salad, Edible Flowers and Wild Dressing

Purslane Tomato Salad

Greek Nettle Soup

Gyro Meat w/Cattail Shoot Tzaziki Sauce

Spanakopita w/Lambs Quarters

Dolmathes, Stuffed Wild Grape Leaves

Kima Sauce w/ Milkweed Shoots & Burdock Roots

Milkweed Buds Feta Cheese Casserole

Dandelion Rice Pilaf

Baklava w/Carolina Pecans

Elderflower Fritters w/Elderberry Syrup and Peaches

Hot Peppermint Tea or Dandelion Root Coffee

Thanks to my wonderful wild guests: Gerald, Morgan, Joy, Cheryl, Margaret, Alaina, Jennifer, Loretta, Catherine and Judy our Greek feast was a delicious success!

Group Shot

We foraged for, cooked with and ATE 30 different wild delectables.

Drinks: Roses, Sumac, Beebalm, Spearmint, Peppermint
Salad: Dandelion, Violet, Lambs Quarter, Purslane, Daisy, Chickweed, Red Clover, Raspberry, Marshmallow, Sheep Sorrel, Wood Sorrel, Amaranth, Autumn Olive Berries (in the dressing)
Flowers: Elderflower, Lilly, Chamomile, Beardstongue, Daisy, Primrose
Dinner: Wild Grape, Parsley, Mint, Milkweed Buds, Cattail Shoots, Milkweed Shoots, Nettle, Dandelion, Purslane, Dill, Burdock
Dessert: Carolina Pecans, Elderflowers and Elderberries

Pictures and recipes of each individual dish are found in the Cooking section under Wild Recipes

Alaina and Margaret Garbling Wild Leaves

Margaret’s Purslane Tomato Salad

Following Nature’s Wave is a great deal of fun and so very rewarding.  The early Spring greens are getting a bit more bitter but the Summer flowers and berries are emerging to bring their gifts of health and joy.   Cheryl and Joy brought two grocery sacks full of primetime Milkweed flower buds for one of our casseroles.

We began the adventure learning together about foraging rules and tips for shopping in the wild.  Each person chose a recipe to cook and forage for the plants around my yard. As we took our plant walk I had fun introducing my guests to the plants we would be using in our dinner.  We talked at length about Elderflower, Burdock, Plantain, Lambs Quarters and Purslane.  Even though Mullein was not on the menu I could not pass up this tremendously powerful and beautiful wild blessing without extolling it’s many gifts.  Milkweed and Cattail were main ingredients in our dinner but I don’t have them here on my acre, not yet anyway!

Milkweed Flower Bud Casserole w/ Feta Cheese

Gerald brought a grocery sack of Violets from his land to share and the salad preparers were blessed to discover that the greens were not the tasty Violet leaves but the unedible look-a-like Groundsell.  I’ll write a separate blog on the importance of accurate identification when foraging and as a safety net, ‘garbling’ the groceries to sort out the various plants.  Thankfully we had a ‘Groundsell free’ salad complete with Kalamata olives and an amazing dressing that Morgan made with Autumn Olive Berry infused apple cider vinegar.

Wild Teas chilling in the frig

Spanakopita with Lambs Quarters

With baskets full, the chefs kicked into high gear and manned their stations cooking up our wild Greek feast.  As usual, we watched my mentor, Linda Runyon’s fabulous DVD while eating baklava with wild Pecans and Elderflower funnel cakes with peaches and Elderberry syrup, sipping Peppermint tea or Root coffee.

Ready to Eat

An evening to remember.  Thanks everyone for your hard work, great attitudes, the interesting discussion…  I hope the wild fire is burning in each heart!

May you eat wild everyday and reclaim your heritage as God’s children on His green earth.

Wild Blessing abound!

Holly

“They all wait for You to give them their food in due season.  You give to them, they gather it up.You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created and You renew the face of the ground.” Psalms 104:27-30

Serving Elderflower fritters and Wild Baklava

Flowers on the table

A Happy Wild Woman

eating together on the porch