FRIED COFFEE

Wild foods are a great way to cut your grocery budget. There is an abundant supply of greens and other wild edibles as near as the first few steps out your door. Dandelion greens spring to mind as well as a multitude of edible flowers. Some require hunting, a great family activity, and others can be cultivated in the garden to provide sustenance as well as beauty.

Garlic is my favorite. Green garlic is the bee’s knees. The cat’s pajamas. You will find an excellent article about it at Chez Pim and Gourmet Sleuth. Daniel Patterson extols the virtues of it and offers recipes showcasing the subdued delights of the softer / gentler form of garlic. What’s Cooking in America ? offers a thorough primer on all things garlic and In My Kitchen Garden tells you how to grow it.

Cattail shoots are a delight, too. I really enjoy the slight peppery taste of them on salads and sauteed in pasta or chicken. They are exceptional sprinkled raw over salmon that has just come off the backyard grill accompanied by a good Graves, a dry white Bordeaux, with a crisp, flinty appeal that also pairs well with seviche. Wildman Steve Brill offers a bounty of recipes for cattails and other wild edibles. The pen and ink watercolors on this site are notable. The Wild Gourmet ( Chef Lee Gray ) has a video for you on foraging for them and you should check out the other videos he’s done on related topics.

As I have said before foraging is a great way to augment the food budget and have quality time with the family as a unit learning about nature and planet husbandry.

Good Hunting !!

eth•i•cu•re•an n. (also adj.) Someone who seeks out tasty things that are also sustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical — SOLE food, for short.

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“Once we sowed wild oats, now we cook them in the microwave.”      anonymous