It's the time of the season to collect TOYON berries.

December 2010

Within the greater Los Angeles area , you can find Toyon pretty much everywhere. It's been used a lot as a decoration during the holidays but it's also edible.

The berries must be ripe when you harvest them, they are not really edible otherwise. Raw they are quite bitter but once boiled or dried, they have an interesting "cherry" flavor. If you do some research online, you can find all kinds of recipes using Toyon berries.

On my side, I've dehydrated a bunch which I plan to use as a flour substitute or maybe add to my acorn flour to make "Native Bread".

Saving the Harvest - Dehydrating Wild Food

December 2010

Thanks to the rain, we have lots of wonderful edible plants such as Chickweed, Nettles, Curly Dock, Sow Thistle and much more!

So what shoud one do? Gather as much as possible and find ways to save the harvest so that you can enjoy it later during the year. In Southern California, as soon as summer comes you won't be able to find most of it. We still live a desert!

I've been busy dehydrating a lot of it and will continue to do so in the coming months so that I can still make some yummy soups and dishes once the summer and winter are here. This should also allow me to do some interesting culinary experiments during the year.

Chanterelle and Nettle Leaf Lambsquarter Dinner

December 2010

One of the person attenting the "Wild Food Kimchi" class gave me a bunch of mushroom that he had collect a few days earlier (Thanks Mark!).

Chanterelle is a delicious mushroom and pretty safe (easy to recognize and not much room for mistake).

I have a lot of Nettle Leaf Lambsquarter (also called Nettle Leaf Goosefoot) were I live and decided to cook the chanterelles with it. The result was simply delicious and a perfect fit in terms of flavors.

Fermenting Wild Food Class and Wild Food Walk

December 2010

Around twenty one people showed up for the "Fermenting Wild Food" class last Sunday.

I basically demonstrated how to create what I call a "Wild Food Kimchi". I used a bit of cabbage as a base (maybe 20%) and the rest was a mix of edible plants such as Curly Dock, Chickweed, Wild Mustard leaves, etc...

For spices I used some garlic, onions and red pepper from the garden.

After the demonstration we went on a wild food walk and collected a lot of chickweed, nettles, curly dock, some wild mustard leaved and made an awesome wild food salad with it.

It was a great crowd, beautiful day and wonderful food. What else can we ask for?

Testing Various Methods for Leaching Acorns

December 2010

There are various ways to leach acorns (remove the tannin). Based on research, I tried 3 different methods: Leaching in cold water, hot water and boiling the acorns.

The small acorns I collected were quit bitter so it was a good experience. Leaching by boiling the acorns took only around 3 hrs. I would boil the water, leave it for a while and change it. I also used hot water (below 150 Degrees) and it took me around 4-5 days. In cold water, it took me a month.

I don't have a conclusion of which method is the best but I have one on which one is the most appropriate for what I need. My interest with making acorn flour is related to thickening soup stock, making acorn bread or using it as a binder for dehydrated soups. And for what I need, the cold method is the best.

Factually, boiling the acorns did cook the starch so when added to a soup, it doesn't thicken it but just add some grits to it. Boiling also removed the oil. Cooked starch is also not good to make acorn bread (which I still have to do) because it can't be used as a binder and you can to add some other means to bind it. It's really not a problem unless you really plant to use the acorn flour as the main starch ingredient.

Really hot water (below 150 degrees) did not work very well for me either. As you can see on the left I ended up with a thick grit that had a tiny bit of starch in it while the acorn leached in cold water had a nice gelatinous consistency (on the right)

Transitional Gastronomy?

November 2010

I've been looking for a name that would communicate much more the type of cuisine I create and came up with the name "Transitional Gastronomy".

Transitional Gastronomy is a culinary discipline that aims to create a unique gourmet experience using accessible resources in our immediate environment, such as home gardens and edible plants you find in the urban wilderness (wild food).

It’s very much a cooking style based on self-reliance and sustainability while incorporating old world, traditional food preservation techniques, simple ingredients and fresh, foraged wild food. The goal is to create sustainable, innovative, exciting, and nutritious cuisine that anyone can achieve.

Collecting Wild Food Seeds and Creating a Wild Food Garden.

November 2010

It's not always easy to find your favorite wild food. If I want to collect some Black Mustard, Wild Radish or other plants, it often requires a trip with my jeep. Another solution is to bring the wild food closer to you.

I'm very lucky to live on the outskirts of Los Angeles and I'm surrounded by fields usually covered with regular wild mustard and other various (not always edible) plants. Today I decided to bring my favorite wild food closer to me, I gathered seeds from wild radish, nettles, lambsquartes and black mustard and spread the seeds closer to my location.

I have no doubt this is going to work and make things easier for me. In essence I'm creating my own wild food garden in the wilderness and it requires little attention or effort. I simply let Mother Nature do the work for me!

Processing Acorns (Part 2)

November 2010

Well, processing a decent quantity of acorns is actually a lot of work!

Most of the work consisted of removing the hulls, it is quite tedious but a fun activity to do with friends. It reminded me of my youth when the family would gather around the kitchen table and prepare food from the garden. It was a time to socialize, talk to each other and share a moment together. So much better and more productive than watching dumb shows on TV!

I had two options when processing the acorns, do it the primitive way or the modern way. Instead of grinding the acorns by hand, I chose to use a regular food processor for the sake of speed. The first step was to use the processor and make a "mush" which I then placed in a cheese cloth.

The cheese cloth and acorns were then placed in cold water and the water was changed around 3 times a day. The idea is to remove a substance/chemical called tanin (which makes the acorn taste bitter). The tanin is soluble in water and immersing the acorns in water removes it - it's what is called "leaching the acorns". The natives used to place the acorns in flowing water but I don't have a stream or river nearby so... I have to do it by hand. It's been four days so far and the acorns are still bitter.

I chose to use cold water. It would actually be MUCH faster to boil water, immerse the cheesecloth/acorns, change the water after a while (usually 30 minutes), boil it again and repeat the process. Leaching acorns this way only takes a few hours but, after doing some research on the subject, by using this method cooks the starch which does not make it as suitable for soup stock or bread making. So far this is a theory and I plan to use both methods and see what the actual difference is.

Processing Acorns (Part 1)

November 2010

As written earlier, I collected around 11 pounds of acorns and probably another 6 pounds yesterday. There are various methods of preparing acorns, pretty much doing the same things but with slight variations. Some people place the collected acorns in a dehydrator and use a nutcracker to open them. I find it more effective to use two boards and cut the acorns in two. I let them dry a bit and remove the (half) hull easily with my fingers. It's actually quite fast as you can see on the video below. Next phase in the process will be the leaching.

Farm Friends

November 2010

It's been over 6 months since I moved to my new location and I must say I enjoy the farm life very much. Granted I'm not really doing the chores, I've simply helped from time to time and learned a lot while doing so about animal care, feeding, etc...

Through my interaction with the animals, I've made new friends. It's fascinating to see all the various personalities they have. Even the horse with whom I had a lot of problems interacting in the beginning (and I'm not the only one) has warmed up to me as well. Right now we have eight horses, two goats, nice chickens, two dogs and seven cats plus the regular visitors such as rabbits, quails, squirrels and coyotes.

A happy family :)

Wild Food Pantry

November 2010

During the year, I collect a lot of wild food and preserve it using all kinds of methods ranging from pickling, salting, dehydrating, fermenting, making jams and more. I use most of it during my classes, sharing it with my students.

This is my current wild food pantry composed of the following: Salted Wild Radish, Curly Dock, Green Beans, Wild Currant Jam, Elderberry Jam, Cactus Pear Jam, Wild Grape Jam, Pickled Cactus, Pickled Yucca buds, Pickled Yucca shoots, Pickled Purslane, Pickled Wild Radish, Pickled Cattail, Dehydrated Nettles, Dehydrated Epazote, Dehydrated Currant, Dehydrated Black Nightshade berries, Dehydrated Lambsquarter, White Sage, Infused Oil (White Sage), California Sage, California Bay leaves, Black Sage, Fermented Wild Food mix and much more...

During the year, I ran out of a lot of things such as the pickled Wild Mustard, Black Nightshade spaghetti sauce, canned Nettle soup, etc...

Fermenting Chickweeds, Curly Dock and Dandelion

November 2010

With a lot of new "green" wild food after the rain, my project this weekend was to ferment some wild food and make what I usually call a "Wild Food Kimchi". This time I used Chickweed, Curly Dock and Dandelion. The spices used were Garlic, Onions, Epazote, California Bay leaves and Thyme from the garden.

Last time (see October), I used the traditional amount of salt used in Kimchi but it ended up a tad too salty when fermenting curly dock. This time I used a ratio of three tablespoons (instead of four) of sea salt for four cups of water as a basic brine.

I'm very curious to see how it will taste like. I know it's going to be good!

Gourmet Wild Food Salad

November 2010

My girlfriend Mia came foraging for food with me. We had a couple of rainy days in the beginning of the month and we managed to collect a nice amount of Chickweed, Black Nightshade berries and young Thistle.

Mia is an awesome chef and she showed me how to make a wonderful gourmet wild food salad using Roquefort, asian pears and a pomegranate balsamic redux dressing.

You can't buy this stuff in a restaurant!

In search of Acorns...

October 2010

My goal of the day was to gather acorns. I knew a perfect location, near some old oaks which had huge acorns. I suspect they were actually planted by natives a long time ago as I've not been able to find similar acorns anywhere else so far.

This required me to do a trip to the Angeles Forest. The place had burned to the ground over a year ago and sadly, it has not recovered yet. I was amazed by the amount of damage the fire did. Some areas still had nothing growing which means that even the seeds in the grounds were destroyed.

My acorn trip in the Angeles Forest was in vain. Most of the oak trees were gone although I was happy to see that a few had survived, although they were in bad shape. It probably will take a few years for them to recover.

I went back home and refused to give up. I went hiking in a wash nearby and after 45 minutes I hit the jackpot. Some young oaks were full, and I mean FULL of acorns. It took me only an hour to collect 11 pounds of it.

While I was collecting the acorns, I suddenly had a the eery feeling of being observe. From tracking experience, when it happens out of the blue, the usual conclusion is that you ARE being observed. I looked for something in the direction the "feeling" came from and after 10 minutes, I finally saw some slight movement. Just a coyote around 300 yards away. It moved on top of the hill and kept observing me for a while.

Overall it was a good day, I've discovered that I have a lot of acorns nearby although not the size I was looking for, so it will be more work to prepare. The taste is not too bitter which is good.It means it won't take too long to get rid of the tanin acid (which makes acorn taste bitter) by leaching with water. Probably an hour or two of boiling will do.

Mullein - a plant full of surprises!

October 2010

Recently I've come across some beautiful examples of Mullein in the Hahamongna Wash near Pasadena. Mullein is not edible but has many interesting uses as a medicinal plant. The leaves, are used to treat respiratory illnesses (via tea or smoking). The flowers can be used as a wash to clean/treat minor wounds and scrapes. The flowers infused in oil can be helpful for earaches.

Here is an interesting fact after some online research, in the old days the leaves were placed among garments to repel moths and other various insects. The Romans used the dry leaves as an effective wick.

You can find A LOT of interesting information about Mullein HERE.

Puffball Mushrooms

October 2010

I'm adventuring into the world of mushrooms. It's really an area where I lack expertise.

Today I collected a mushroom I was quite familiar with while growing up in Belgium: Puffball mushrooms. The ones we had in Belgium could be quite huge but here in Southern California, because of the lack of moisture they're usually just an inch or two. It's an easy mushroom to identify with it's familiar round shape. However, there is also no room for mistakes. You need to inspect EVERY puffball you collect by cutting it in half lengthwise. Young puffballs in the edible stage have undifferentiated white flesh within; whereas, upon close inspection, if gills are found, it isn't a puffball but an immature Amanita mushroom.

The Amanita can be deadly (unless you get a timely liver transplant). The Puffball tastes awesome however.

Black Nightshade Wonton

October 2010

Today I went hiking with my girlfriend Mia and we collected some Black Nightshade berries (see other postings about Black Nightshade). Of course, later on I asked her to come up with a creative recipe for it and she decided to try something "Asian"...and so we made "Black Nightshade" Wonton.

Without going into all the details, we basically cooked the black nightshade with garlic and onions, mixed it with ricotta cheese and wrapped the mixture in the wonton skins. We then boiled them until they were done.

To finish it off, Mia made a "Sauce Noisette" (butter cooked until it darkens) with White Sage.

The result was just delicious!

Curly Dock Soup. (Rumex crispus)

October 2010

My girlfriend Mia has traveled all over the world and is an awesome chef, her culinary repertoire also includes various ethnic food.

She's teaching me a lot about various ethnic dishes and helping me finding ways to incorporate wild food in the recipes. .

That day, we went on a morning hike and collected some Curly Dock. After cleaning the leaves, we made a soup using it as a base. Other ingredients included garlic, onions, celery, carrots, potatoes and red quinoa with a dash of Apple Cider Vinegar and Agave sweetener.

The result was just phenomenal, probably one of the best soup I've ever had. I'll include the recipe in the book I'm writing.

Dehydrator Purchase

October 2010

Well, I decided to buy a dehydrator. So far I've only used solar dehydration but I want to do a lot more "experiments" with drying wild food (and regular food) to create vegetable soup stocks. Thus a regular dehydrator makes it easier and quicker. It's also a good thing with winter coming up in Los Angeles.

I did some research before buying it and originally was inclined to buy the usual plastic food dehydrator that you can find online or in stores such as Target, etc... but, the vast majority of those cheap dehydrators are not suited to dry meat (make jerky). So my choice was a top of the line stainless steel dehydrator (made by The Sausage Maker, Inc) which of course was more expensive but is well suited to dry meat.

I'm making some turkey jerky with it this evening.

Mixed Kimchi with Cactus leaves, Cattail, Epazote and California Bay Laurel

October 2010

As part of my culinary explorations and research related to wild food preservation methods, I'm doing all kinds of interesting experiments.

So far, I've discovered that you can pretty much ferment anything. I used some cabbage from my latest fermentation endeavor so I'll still call the experiment some sort of Kimchi. But this time I added some unusual wild food ingredients such as cactus leaves, cattail and epazote, California Bay leaves...the result should be interesting.

So far I've not had one failure with fermenting food and wild food.

Preserving Food Class (Picking/Jam/Salting)

September 2010

Today, we had our class about preserving food. It was a small group which I also like very much, it's more fun for people attending. We actually did a lot. During the first part of the class, we made some traditional pickling using apple cider vinegar and white wine. We pickled various vegetables but I also tried something new: Cactus Pickling. This should be interesting and I'm sure it's going to work out well.

I also collected some cactus pears and we made jam with it. Somehow I forgot to buy some white sugar so we used brown sugar. Really not the best to make jam, just my culinary opinion, as the taste of the brown sugar competes with the flavor of the fruit. So I'll probably do a new batch this week using white sugar. But the jam made with the brown sugar can also be used for cooking. Don't take me wrong, it is actually quite tasty though.

At the end of the class, I showed how to preserve vegetables though salting. It's extremely simple. A simple brine composed of 1/2 cup of sea salt within a quart of water is all you need. The brine solution doesn't allow bacteria to develop and you can preserve food for a VERY long time. We actually tasted some of the green beans I made a while ago. I soaked the green beans in water to remove the salt and within a few hours they were delicious!

I had a great time, thanks to all that attended!

FAIL! Salting Whole Tomatoes

September 2010

Well, I kind of saw that one coming. I found this old French recipe about salting whole tomatoes. I was kind of skeptical but hey, I'm always game to try things and sometimes I've learned a lot by making mistakes.

The thing that didn't make sense to me was the fact that if you have whole tomatoes in a salting solution (Brine), you may have the risk of the brine not penetrating the inside of the tomatoes and you get some fermentation (spoil) inside. Well, that's exactly what happened. I could see some dry salt on the side of the jar so I knew something was wrong. Upon opening the jar, the inside (tomatoes/brine) started bubbling like crazy. The tomatoes were fermenting inside and the whole thing was spoiled.

The solution is really very simple, just cut the tomatoes in 2 or even 4 slices or maybe use a fork to break the skin, basically anything that would let the brine go inside the tomato. I suspect that simple crucial step was missing from the original recipe. But hey, it was worth trying!

The Green beans are doing just fine!

Plants hike in the hills and wild food cheese

September 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I had a wild food cheese class. The first part was a nice hike through the hills for maybe an hour. We looked at various plants such as White Sage, Pepper Tree, Mugwort, etc... basically the lesson was pretty much that, at this time of the year, you won't find a lot of edible food in the hills. You need to go closer to water to find it.

During the second part of the class we made some goat cheese with Lambsquarter. I also had the class tasting a cheese I made with Pepper from my Pepper Tree and some California Bay Leaves.

Thank you Christine for the wonderful photos. Christine is an amazing photographer/writer with her own blog, you can see her blog about this class HERE .

Preserving the Harvest. Salting Vegetables.

August 2010

A couple of days ago, I decided to preserve some of vegetables I collected from my garden. Instead of using the regular canning, I chose the old traditional method of salting.

I actually never salted tomatoes before so the result should be interesting. I found a recipe in an old French book. Nothing special about it, just the regular strong brine and some olive oil to seal it. I just didn't know you could salt tomatoes but then again, I have the feeling that you can apply this method to pretty much anything (and I plan to experiment with a lot of wild food early next year)

Because of the salt concentration, you need to soak the vegetables before use.

Successful Primitive Bird Trapping

August 2010

With trapping, one thing to realize is the fact that making the trap is the easiest part. Actually catching a bird is another matter. In most "survival" classes I've attended, the instructor uses seeds (as a bait) purchased at the local pet store but in a true survival situation you will need to find your own seeds and face it, it's actually not an easy task. Many other skills are also necessary to be successful such as watching your prey's habits, when they eat, the perfect location and much more.

Recently I've been experimenting with wild seeds. Basically gathering seeds from plants such as Curly Dock, Lambsquarters, Wild Mustard, etc... Interestingly enough, I've had the most success with the Lambsquarters seeds. Even then, don't expect to catch a bird every day!

And yes, the cute birdie in the picture was released and thanked for his contribution to my "seeds research".

Water Procurement and Wild Food Walk

August 2010

Around 25 people showed up for the monthly meetup. We had a great time, hiked for a bit more than an hour and looked at various methods of water procurement. The most effective one was using a "sweat bag" directly from willow branch. The water collected tasted quite good too!

During our hike we collected some wild radish, wild mustard, lambsquarters and after the hike we had lunch with all kinds of wild food I had prepared earlier (Yucca, Lambsquarter, homemade goat cheese with wild food, pickled mustard, etc...). A new culinary addition was the elderberry jam which was very liked.

Wild Food Class

August 2010

Today we went to the Hahamongna wash near Pasadena for a wild food walk. Still foung some wild radish which is really unusual at this time for Southern California. We hiked for around an hour and looked at various edible plants. Some of the plants we collected were: Passion Fruits, Wild Radish, Mustard flowers, Epazote, Lambsquarter, red berries and a few other things.

At the end of the walk we had a fabulous lunch with some of the plants we collected and also the food I prepared the day before such as my Lambsquarter goat cheese, dried wild currant, pickled yucca and Lambsquarter cooked in creme. Wild food can be delicious!

Purslane Pickling

July 2010

My friend Robyn gave me some purslane yesterday. I tried to replant that "weed" in my garden but the rats/squirrels seem to love it as well. Purslane is a fantastic wild food, rich is Omega-3 fatty acids and thus good for the heart. You can eat it raw, cooked or pickled.

I don't have much so I decided to pickle it so I can enjoy it during the winter and share it with some of my students as well during my classes.

As usual I used a ratio of 3 parts apple cider vinegar and 2 parts white wine. I also added half a garlic clove, fresh thyme and a bit of hot pepper in each jar and a bit of salt.

Monthly Meetup Wild Food Walk

July 2010

Every month I organize a wild food walk via a web site called Meetup (www.meetup.com). I've put together a group called the Sylmar Wild Food and Self Reliance group. So far we have around 160 members. Today around 20 people showed up for the walk.

During this walk, we gathered some Wild Radish, Curly Dock, Passion Fruits, Lambsquarters. At the end of the walk, we had a wild food feast where I shared some of my recent wild food culinary experiences (Wild Food Kimchi, Pickled Yucca Fruits, Lambsquarters Pesto, etc...).

Some of the members also contributed some food, Helen had some very good pastries made from Acorn flour. You can join the meetup group HERE.

Homemade Lambsquarters Cheese

July 2010

Knowing how to make cheese is also a very good self-reliance skill to have. Making a basic cheese is a cinch. The basic components are really just whole milk (does not have to be raw) and lemon or vinegar. As usual I like to add wild food and also spices from the garden.

This cheese is basically a typical farmer's cheese with a little twist. I used 1 gallon of whole milk and 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice to create the basic cheese. While the cheese was hanging and driping, I cooked a big handfull of Lambsquarters and cut it in tiny pieces. I also crushed 2 cloves of garlic.

I mixed the lambsquarters and garlic with the cheese, added 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and some fresh thyme from the garden. Made a big ball using my hands and coated it with pepper. Voila!

It's quite delicious and very easy to make. I'll post the complete recipe in details soon in my "About Wild Food" section.

Dehydrating Wild Currant

July 2010

I went hiking this Saturday to look for wild food and see what I could find in new locations and I came across some wild currant. I already made a lot of jam with the currant in the last 2 months and this is really the end of the season for it where I live (mid-July) but I just could not resist. There was so much of it, it was literally dripping in my hand.

So what else could I do aside from Jam?

I decided that I should dry the currant as it would be a fine addition to my breakfast cereals in the morning. So I went to the store and built a quick sun dehydrator using a wood frame and a fine mesh (same mesh used for windows).

Again, due to the fact that I live on a farm and flies are an issue, I decided to make 3 frames. The middle one would have the wild currant, the top and bottom one would simply be there for protecting it from flies and birds. I placed the frames on top of a black car, the black color absorbing the heat (and heat goes up) and left enough space (6 inches) for air circulation below the frames, thus making it somewhat effective for a primitive dehydration system. We're having some hot weather right now so it should be done in a few days.

Integrating wild food into Kimchi.

July 2010

Fermentation is another way to preserve wild food. You can also pickle or can it, but there are also a lot of culinary explorations to do with fermenting wild food. In nature you can find some plants that are a natural fit for a "Wild Food Kimchi" such as wild radish or mustard.

One of my goals is to integrate as much wild food as possible in my recipes and make it taste wonderful. It's a bit of a creative process as you can't really find existing recipes for this stuff and you get some successes but also failures.

Today I made a basic Kimchi recipe using cabbage as a base. I then added some wild radish pods, Yucca fruits (cut in slices) and a bit of wild mustard. For spices I used red pepper (from my pepper tree), garlic, onion and chilies. I used a canning jar with a stone inside to keep the vegetables down in the brine. The lid is quite loose to allow the pressure from the fermentation to escape and in the same time it's a good protection against flies and such. I even placed a plastic bag around it. Living in a farm, flies can be an issue. Should be ready in a week...YUM!

Wild Food Bonanza - Hahamongna Wash

July 2010

I had to abandon my usual wild food "territory". The city of Los Angeles decided to spray some insecticides for mosquitoes. So I went back to my old foraging ground and to my surprise, it was a real bonanza!

With the winter rain, the whole area had become a huge lake until a couple of months ago. Now the water is gone but a lot of the ground is still humid and perfect for plant growth. I was able to find a large quantity of wild radish and mustard (gone in my usual foraging area). You can find a lot of Lambsquarters, Curly Dock and even some Chickweeds. I saw a bunch of passion fruits flowers - just beautiful! I collected a large quantity of wild radish pods for more pickling and Lambsquarters. Later on during the day, I had a short hike in the local mountains and picked up more Yucca buds.