I am a wild foods chef and have offered many wild food feasts where the guests come to learn, forage for wild edibles, and cook a meal together. The cuisine is sometimes Asian, Greek, Italian, Mexican and Indian or just seasonal. All non-wild ingredients are organic, farm fresh and increasingly gluten free. Meats are grass finished, happy animals from local farms or local game.
I am working on a Wild Blessings Forage to Feast Cookbook with all of my wild recipes along with tips for shopping in the wild and getting the best ripe deals… but for now some of them are posted under the Cooking section of the Wild Blessings website. Many of the recipes are adapted from Linda Runyon’s Essential Wild Foods Survival Guide recipe section and from Wildman Steve Brill’s excellent wild edible cookbook and many are just wildly inspired!
Here is a sampling of some of my favorite wild menus along with a few pics!
Spring Wild Foods Feast
(fresh Spring greens & flowers combined with Winter’s preserved harvest)
Dandelion Lemonade
Strawberries w/ Brie & Wild Seed Crackers
Dandelion Blossom Fritters
Pickled Burdock Root
Winter Root Soup Burdock, Dandelion, Jerusalem Artichokes, Yucca, Ginger Roots, Carrots & Potatoes
Apple Acorn Muffins
Wild Spring Salad w/ Wild Dressing
Violet Pine Needle Jello
Sauteed Dandelion Greens w/ Sesame Seeds
Grilled Elderberry Caper Chicken Marinated in Dandelion Blossom Syrup
Chickweed Penne w/ Wild Leeks & Mushrooms
Violet Scones
Dandelion Root Coffee
Mexican Wild Foods Feast
(Early Summer offerings)
Peppermint Tea, Peach Tea
Lambsquarter Spread & Chips
Wild Salsa & Purslane Guacamole
Wild Salad & Wild Dressing
Quelites & Beans
Dandelion Spanish Rice w/ Pickled Burdock Root
Verdolago Con Huevos w/ Milkweed Shoots
Milkweed Bud Casserole
Green Tacos & Ground Deer Meat Tacos for you carnivores!
Fresh Tortillas made w/ Amaranth Flour
Elderflower Funnel Cakes w/ Elderberry Syrup
Dandelion Root Coffee or Peppermint Tea
Greek Wild Foods Summer Menu
Wild Grapes
Sumac Lemonade, Wild Grape Tea
Wild Greek Salad
Nettle Spanakopita
Dandelion Rice Pilaf
Wild Kima Sauce w/ Purslane
Roasted Cattail Cobs
Milkweed Bud Peas w/ Feta Cheese
Gyro Meat w/ Wild Tzatziki Sauce
Amaranth Flat Bread
Dandelion Baklava
Chicory Root Coffee
Asian Wild Foods Feast
(mid Summer offerings)
Fruit Bowl w/ Peppermint Sprigs
Elderberry Spritzer, Peach Tea, Linden Tea
Wild Salad w/ Noodles, Edible Flowers & Oriental Dressing
Hot & Sour Soup w/ Milkweed Bud Peas & Burdock Root
Dandelion Sesame
Jasmine Fried Rice w/ Red Clover flowers
Stir Fried Milkweed Pods, Purslane & not so Wild Veggies w/ Sassafras Peanut Sauce
Egg Foo Young w/ W00d S0rrel
Spring Rolls w/ Lambsquarter, Chickweed & Milkweed Shoots
Sweet & Sour Sumac Sauce
Berry Balm Crunch w/ Hemp Vanilla Icecream
Hot Linden Tea (Basswood Flowers), Dandelion Root Coffee
Herbwalk around the garden
Italian Wild Food Feast
(Late Summer Offerings)
Iced Chicory Root Coffee w/ Raw Cream
Wild Blackberry Tea, Peach Tea, Elderberry Tea
Pickled Cattail Shoots w/ Brie & Yellow Dock Seed Crackers
Bruschetta Rounds w/ Wild Pesto & Tomato
Wild Greens Salad, Edible Flowers & Wild Dressing
Caponate w/ Sorrel, Burdock Stems & Elderberry Capers
Cattail Chicken Cacciatorre
Dandelion Italiano w/ Evening Primrose Flowers
Italian Milkweed Pod Casserole
Wild Spaghetti Sauce w/ Venison Meatballs or Mushroom Balls
Peach & Blackberry Cobbler w/ Hemp Vanilla Ice Cream
Hot Peppermint Tea or Dandelion Root Coffee
Harvest Feast
Sassafras Tea, Autumn Olive Berry Cordial
Beet Wild Salad w/ Goat Cheese
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup w/ Lovage
Amaranth, Plantain, Yellowdock 7 Seed Bread w/ Rose Petal Honey
Sumac & Rosemary Baked Chicken w/ Purslane Peach Chutney
Milkweed Pods Stuffed w/ Lambsquarter Seeds, Puffballs & Baked in Cheese Sauce
Dandelion & Plantain Rice Pilaf
Pumpkin and Wild Mushroom Stuffing
Sweet and Sour Burdock Root & Roasted Artichokes
Apple Pie w/ Kudzu Apple Glaze
Pine Needle Tea or Chickory Root Coffee
Winter Warmth
Wild Teas: Sassafras, Beebalm, Peppermint
Sprouted Wild Salad & Power Tonic Dressing
Pine Needle Jello
Elderberry Plum Sauce on Brie w/ Wild Nuts
Milkweed Kimchi
Acorn Muffins w/ Herbed Butters
High Bush Cranberry Jelly
Cream of Nettle Soup w/ Burdock Root
Sumac Rosemary Garlic Grilled Chicken Legs
Elderberry Puffs
Wild Root Chai: Burdock, Echinacea, Dandelion, Ginger w/ Spices
Stinging Nettle Soup….so intensely delicious
Learning to shop in God’s free grocery store is a skill that is cultivated as nature’s wave rolls by. Just as we learn when a banana is most edible (green: too early, black: too late, yellow: just right) knowing when to eat God’s free gifts is a matter of experience and trial and error. Join me in this venture and we’ll learn together…one plant at a bite! Learn more here: https://wildblessings.com/2011/10/23/hollys-wild-shopping-guide/
Wild blessings are abounding!
Holly
Holly, your menus are amazing, inspirational and educational. I am sure that you have a wild cookbook in the making and I will be first in line to get it! I have tried several of your recipes and they are a huge hit with both my boys (6 & 12). I have to modify some of the ingredients because I am still learning how to properly identify my plants as well as find places where they grow. But I am taking notes and putting plants in my calendar so I know what to go looking for and where! I love free food that is super nutritious….. Delicious!
Holly, I have been sharing your website with my 91-year-old mother. What a joy it is to show others what you’re doing. Keep up the good work.
I love wild foods, and I have tried for a few years to harvest sumac for sumac-ade, but so far I have been unable to catch the sumac after ripening, but before it is full of eggs, bug excrement, and larvae. Do you have a trick? Let me know, thanks.
Hi Travis, There are indeed tricks to harvesting Sumac. The best time of year is in late August or September when their red spires are brilliant and fresh. Always wait to collect them after the weather has been dry for a few days in a row. The hard red fruits of the Sumac is covered with tiny, acid red hairs. This is malic acid, the same acid found in unripe apples, and is soluble in water. Try to gather sumac before hard rains wash out most of the acid.
The trick for getting rid of the bugs is to put your Sumac clusters on a white sheet in bright sunshine. The bugs will scamper away quickly! Bring them in to dry.
Hope this is helpful!
Also I collect A LOT of Sumac when they are at their peak because I use it all Winter for beverages, jello, jams, as a lemon juice substitute and in marinades. Good stuff!