Show #45/7406. A Farm-To-Table Feast

Check Your Backyard Or Nearby Areas For Ingredients To Incorporate Into A Dish

Eric thinks one of the most exciting things that we can do as people who love nature and love food is to start putting your toe in the water of foraging because there are so many things, more than what most people would imagine, that are literally just right out there. And, oftentimes, they're the most delicious ingredients we could incorporate into a dish. Many people stay away from foraging because they feel like it's dangerous or it just takes a substantial amount of education to get into it. We shouldn't do it blindly, for sure. There are many, many mushrooms that are not good to eat, but, with a little bit of knowledge and with help from other foragers, who can point out things that are native to your area, there's just an abundance of wonderful wild herbs, mushrooms, things that grow throughout the forest and the prairies that are great to incorporate into our food. Eric knows that that's something Kristin is very passionate about and that she incorporates these elements into her cooking all the time.

That is correct. She moved up here about seven years ago and one of the very first things she did was take a forging class. It was so inspirational because, the gal that led it made it seem really approachable. She highlighted a lot about the very first things one can identify that don't have similar poisonous counterparts, things that come up in the spring. For example, the nettles, basically a lot like spinach in flavor, but you can't confuse it for something else. Any of the wild herbs, they have wild peppermint that grows in the area, there are even medicinal things, like yarrow, things she never knew one could eat, like goldenrod, which also has medicinal properties. So it makes cooking with them a two-level way of experiencing their benefits. They started with a lot of the greens, which always felt very safe to Kristin and then really started learning a lot more about the mushrooms. She still sticks with the ones you can't go wrong with, like chanterelles. We're going to have wine caps in the meal that she's going to cook today and with those you really can't go wrong. She still would recommend everyone double checking or asking somebody that is really knowledgeable to go with them.