Plant Nerding Out from Coast to Coast!

Hey wildcrafters,

I hope you had an awesome summer, I sure did.
I drove to the Atlantic ocean and back again, while checking out a lot of new ecosystems loaded with new and familiar plants.
I also got the chance to meet up with a few fellow plant nerds and learn about these new places. Over the next little while I'll be posting a few photos from my journey with descriptions of the plants and places I visited and also my observations of the similarities and differences in foraging across the country!

Check out the pictures to learn what I got up to!

 

Despite the dry year I managed to gather enough tender greens to make a large salad for Firemakers Gathering (http://www.firemaker.org/) this contains Lambs Quarters (Chenopodium album), Siberian Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia sibirica), Lance Leaved Plantain (Plantago lancelata), Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Pea Flowers (Lathyrus nevadensis), Huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium), Native Black Berries (Rubus ursinus), Black Raspberries (Rubus leucodermis) , and Thimble Berries (Rubus parviflorus).

 Some grasses and sage brush in Summerland. while summerland was very dry and most of the natural areas looked like this I found abundant lambs quarters growing wherever the irrigation reached, it is much more common there then in Victoria.

As you can see despite the dry arid climate the Okanagan Valley is very lush due to nightly irrigation, this makes it a great place for foraging, lots of weeds under all those vineyards and orchards.

 We found a ornamental cherry tree loaded with cherries in a small little mall in the Okanagan Valley, they were just as good as those that you would pay for, just a little smaller.

 Here is me with our harvest after only a half hours work.

 We made a stop near Lake Louise to appreciated the beautiful colored water and lovely wildflowers.

 Some beautiful wildflowers near Lake Louise, the purple is a species of aster (Aster spp.), the red is Common Red Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), and the yellow is Balsam Ragwort (Senecio pauperculis).


That's its for now folks, stay tuned for the next segments of my cross country voyage!

Happy hunting

- Katherine

Spring is Here, and so are The Wildcrafting Workshops!

Hey Wildcrafters,

It was been a while since I've updated my blog here, I have been pretty active through my facebook page.

But I figured I should also be active here for my non-facebook friends.

So far this season I have taught two workshops, one for the Junior Master Gardeners Program at The Horticultural Centre of the Pacific last Thursday. This was a group of 20 children ages 5 to 11 who were keen on gardening and plants in general. This was my first time teaching a group of such young children and I really enjoyed it, I look forward to working with kids in the future. Sadly I was so busy teaching I only managed to snap a couple photos, here is one of our finished Salad we all gathered, and a dressing I put together using wild berries, onions and grand fir.

The other workshop I taught at was this amazing Event put on by Gather Victoria this last Sunday called simply called Urban Wild Food Walk, although it was much much more then that. We took a group of 16 people (there was meant to be 20, but the pouring rain and wind meant a few didn't show up) on a walk around Bamfield park looking at the edible plants growing wild there and then when everyone was good and wet we all went inside for some grand fir tea, and the most amazing wild crafted tasting menu I have ever seen. If you have facebook, check out the photos from the event.

I posted a few here as well:
here we are all standing in the rain, you can see I'm obviously the best dressed for the weather in my cotton hoodie...

And here is the amazing tasting menu we enjoyed after:

As you can see, it was one epic event!



I've got a couple of other fun events coming up this spring, the first is Wild Spring Salads, March 28th at the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific from 1-4pm
We will be wandering the Western Woods for this workshop gathering salad greens and learning how to identify them, then head back to their lunch room to clean and prepare our salad, finishing the workshop off by devouring our harvest with some completely wild crafted salad dressing I will prepare before hand (may contain ants ;) ) there will be an olive oil vinaigrette for those not interested in trying the wild dressing.
Here is all the information, contact The HCP to register.


This event and all other I teach at the HPC is cheaper if you become a member of The HPC for 42.50 a year, this also allows you free admission to their gardens anytime, and gives you discounts to a number of nurseries around town, so is a great investment if you're into gardening!

This is a Salad a made about a month ago using some plants I found while out on my bike, my family really enjoyed it:

My other event is 6-part Sustainable Foraging class I am hosting at Swan Lake coming up April 14th through May 25th

This will be an in-depth class teaches ethno botany of the Victoria area, plant identification skills, modern foraging practices; including sustainability and safety, and then will include several plant walks discussing ID characteristics of numerous food plants, including trees, herbs, roots and berries/fruits. When you finish this class you should have a good grasp on foraging and be confident enough to go out on your own and forage anytime of year!


Here is all the information including how to register.

As usual I have spent a lot of time outside photographing wildflowers, so here are a couple of my favorite to finish off this entry:
The well known, and easily spotted in almost any woodland around here White Fawn Lily (Erythronium oregonum)!

One of our earliest wildflowers, the beautiful but poisonous Stain Flower (Sisyrinchium douglasii):

A shrub I have never seen before in the wild: ribes lobbii, or the Gummy goose berry. What beautiful flowers!

This guy isn't a flower, but he sure is cool, he's a rough skinned newt, read about them here

Well, that's it for toward, Happy foraging, and watch out for those beautiful wild flowers if you find yourself off the trail!

- Katherine

Spring greens in December!

Well, I was feeling a little sad, the chickweed I had growing in planter by my front door wilted with the recent frost and snow. I figured I was gonna just have to go without wild greens for a month or two until spring kicked into gear.

Then when I was out for a jog with my dog I found a patch of miners lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)! while I had no camera with me to snap a picture, I did happen to have a dog poop bag. the poop bag became a foraging bag (don't worry it was clean) and I grabbed myself a handful or two!

As you can see it isn't in flower yet, so you don't see those classic lily pad leave, they are just in their basal rosette form. You can recognize miner's lettuce when not in flower by the basal rosette growth form (leaves spreading out from a central point), the almost succulent juicy quality of the leaves, the rounded diamond shape of the leaves, the light almost lime green colour and the stems are usually fading from green to white and then to a pinkish-red.

For those that aren't familier, here is a miners lettuce in bloom:

 That was taken late april this year. The species name of miner's lettuce; perfoliata roughly translates to mean perforates through the leaf, like the stem does to the leaves on the flower stalks. Although this isn't entirely true as the lilypad leaf is actually two leaves fused together. But that does make a nice trick for remembering the name :)

Anyway, I think I am gonna go make myself a little salad, I'll get back into mushrooms next time.

Happy Hunting

- Katy

Chanterellicious Part 6) Wild Mushroom Stirfry

This is a great recipe for a weekday night, or whenever you are short of time and want something healthy. I made this recipe after a very successful mushroom hunting trip and was able to use a few different species of wild mushrooms. Since this is a simple stir-fry feel free to substitute any of the vegetables and mushrooms for whatever you feel like.

Wild Mushroom Stir-fry

-          2 tbs coconut oil

-          3-4 cloves garlic

-          1 small onion

-          1/2 cabbage

-          1 whole red pepper

-          1 small head broccoli

-      handful almonds

-          1 tbs chopped ginger

-         1/2 cup hedgehog mushrooms

-          1 cup angel wings

-          ½ cup hawk wings

-          1 cup lobster mushroom

-          2/3  cup chanterelles dry sautéed

-          2-3 cups cooked rice noodles

-          2 tbs oyster sauce

-          2 tbs ginger honey garlic sauce

 Bottom left: Hawkwing mushroom. Top left and right: Lobster mushroom. Middle: angel wings. Lower middle: chanterelles. Middle right: Hedgehog mushroom.  

the non-mushroom ingredients

Place coconut oil in a wok or large pan, add onion, garlic, broccoli, ginger, hawk wings, hedgehogs, lobster and chanterelles.

Add oyster and honey garlic ginger sauce.

Cook high heat 5-10 minute stirring constantly until vegetables just starting to cook.

Add cabbage and angel wings

Serve on rice noodles or sauté in rice noodles.

There you go, simple, healthy, and delicious.

Until next time, happy cooking!

- Katy

Speaking Tomorrow at Living in the New Economy

Hey everyone,

Just a quick heads up, I am speaking about my buisness idea tomorrow as one of the flash presenters at Living in the New Economy:
https://www.facebook.com/events/535925199827872/?directed_target_id=0
Check it out, should be an interesting, educational day. :)

Back to chanterelles tomorrow ;)

Happy Hunting

- Katy

Chanterellicious Part 5) Cream of Chanterelle soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes; I took a cream of mushroom soup recipe and modified it slightly for my own uses. This recipe takes a little longer then the last but is still do-able on a weekday night.

Cream of Chanterelle Soup

-          4 cups chanterelles

-          1  medium onion chopped  

-          1 bulb garlic, chopped

-          2  tbs coconut oil  

-          2 tbs organic spelt flour

-          4-5  cups chicken broth  

-          1-2 cups homo milk

-          Dash of nutmeg

-          Salt and pepper to taste

So those above proportions may be a little off, as I have mentioned before I don’t measure ingredients I just estimate and taste, so I would recommend the same.

To start off dry sauté your chanterelles to remove any moisture, strain off liquid and set aside (this is your mushroom stock).

Combine roughly half of the chanterelles, onion, garlic, coconut oil, nutmeg and flour in a large soup pot on medium heat.

Sauté until onions are translucent and light brown.

Add chicken and mushroom stock and simmer 20 minutes.

Blend until all ingredients are completely disintegrated.

Add other half of chanterelles.

Simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste (possible more chicken stock at this point if flavor is too weak).

Add milk and simmer 10 minutes.

Serve with chopped parsley.

If the soup isn’t thick enough before milk is added combine more flour with water and stir until a fine paste then add to soup and boil. This will thicken it up.

This soup is perfect for an autumn meal and freezes well so is a great thing to make and store for a cold winter night as well.

Until next time, happy cooking.

Chanterellicious Part 4: Chanterelle and Puffball Fettuccini Alfredo

So this next recipe is a creation of mine. I am a pasta fanatic and a health freak, I know, not a good combination. I am always looking for new ways to remake old recipes to make them healthier but still delicious. This recipe uses coconut oil and spelt flour instead of the classic butter and white flour. You can substitute it for the classics if you so choose. This recipe really doesn’t take long so is great for a weekday night when you just need some good hearty pasta.

Chanterelle and Puffball Fettuccini Alfredo

-          2 tbs organic spelt flour

-          2 tbs organic coconut oil

-          1 cup milk

-          ½ bulb garlic

-          1-2 cups fresh chanterelles

-          ½ cup fresh puffballs

-          300g whole wheat fettuccini

-          1 cup shredded parmesan

-          Fresh parsley and basil leaves

Combine spelt flour and coconut milk over medium heat until well mixed, add milk slowly, stirring constantly as sauce thickens to desired consistency.

 In a separate skillet sauté chanterelles (dry sautéing beforehand if soggy), puffballs and garlic in oil until mushrooms appear cooked.

Combine sautéed mushrooms and garlic into white sauce, simmer 15 minutes to combine flavors

Serve over cooked fettuccini noodles.

Garnish with parmesan cheese, parsley, basil, and garlic bread.

And there you go, a rich, relatively healthy pasta recipe that will dazzle your dinner guests. I would recommend going light on the puffballs, they have a very strong mushroomy flavor and too many could overwhelm the dish.

Until next time, happy cooking.

- |Katy