Foraging, Chefs & the Natural Wild Larder: Explore, Discover, Connect...

Cracking day out yesterday introducing two very talented, creative, food passionate chefs to a range of natural, native & non-native wild edible seeds, roots, tubers, foliage, nuts, berries, herbs, spices & fungi. I took a range of preserves, pickles, tinctures, drinks, syrups, dried goods to demonstrate some of the techniques/practices I use with wild foods, they brought plenty enthusiasm, ideas and fun, oh and a bottle of elderflower fizz that fell out of the back of the jeep and met a grizzly end on the tarmac
Alex Bond is setting up his own restaurant in Nottingham later this year and Liam Sweeney will be joining him as Sous Chef. Both already had a good take on many wild edibles but required some assistance in fine tuning and developing their knowledge further (where I came in to the equation) so as to be able to play/experiment/understand and get creative with their menu. I learned plenty great ideas/techniques on the cooking/cuisine/creativity side from them both - though I will have to pester them in the future to re-jig my memory on some stuff they mentioned. I find it very exciting that chefs have the desire and passion to explore our natural wild larder alongside a dependency on more commercially available or homegrown foods. I appreciate that for many chefs and their teams that not realising or knowing about wild foods is a factor, alongside the time aspect - make time I would say My understanding is that all fruits, vegetables, grains etc initially came from a wild ancestor and they are very often, very exciting and can teach us much about our culture, evolution, nature and ourselves...

Here are some of the treats that I harvested for myself while out with them.

Unripe Figs
Chaga
Scarletina Bolete
Noble Fir
Mugwort
Angelica

The Figs have now become:

Unripe Figs in Syrup

http://edible-leeds.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/preserved-unripe-figs-in-syrup.html

If any chefs are interested in learning more about the natural wild larder and it's culinary potentials, I'm available for 1 - 1 or group tuition. Email me at: edible.leeds@gmail.com or call Craig on 07899752447 Happy foraging folks

‪#‎wildfood‬ ‪#‎foraging‬ ‪#‎naturalconnections‬ ‪#‎thebiggerpicture‬‪ #‎naturalnotfashionable‬ ‪#‎wildedibleexploration‬ ‪#‎creativecuisine‬ #wildandwonderful

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