Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • The Great Outdoors

Foraging for Beginners: Tips for Understanding the Wild Edible Landscape

  • June 1, 2017
  • Ben Osborne
Total
7
Shares
7
0
0
0
0
0
Total
7
Shares
Share 7
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

Ass’s foot? Cough wort? British tobacco? In Ontario, this common weed is called coltsfoot—it grows in ditches, looks like dandelion, and infused into ice cream, tastes like fresh melon.

This article is part of the Mountain Life Isolation Reading List

Introducing our Curated COVID-19 Isolation reading list. Editors from each of our publications have gone through and compiled a list of pieces from past issues of Mountain Life for you to enjoy, and we’re excited to share them with you. Sit back and relax, because we might be in this for the long haul. But most importantly, let’s not forget to do this together.
Check out the full list!

 

 

forage3
Coltsfoot. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

words :: Melanie Chambers.

A few summers ago, I foraged in Ireland. Our guide took us to the ocean where we plunged our shovels into the sand dunes and hauled out roots that when mashed created a spicy horseradish.

Near the shore, in pockets of puddles, we found sea cactus that tasted like salty pickles. The forest was the same: a hodgepodge of completely new tastes and textures. In Ontario forests, if you know what to look for, coltsfoot is only one of many treats you can find in this adventurous country market.

 

fiddlehead fern ftr
Fiddlehead fern. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“It’s about understanding your landscape in an edible sense,” says Miriam Streiman, co-owner of Mad Maple Country Inn, a two-bedroom inn on a 100-acre farm near Creemore. On the menu: the Ontario forest.

“Everything we do is showcasing southern Ontario and Toronto and bringing people closer to nature…it’s about asking what season are we in – and what can I make that really honours the integrity of those ingredients?”

 

Forage7
Chokeberries. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

But as any expert forager will tell you, don’t start picking random roots and mushrooms—unless you’re up for a potential Age-of-Aquarius trip – or worse, a bout of stomach pains from eating raw fiddleheads (note: blanch first to remove toxins) – or much worse, death from a poison mushroom (never eat anything not 100-percent identifiable).

Streiman recalls meeting Jonathan Forbes, owner of Toronto’s Forbes Wild Food, whose company features foraged ingredients from across Canada. “He took us through the woods and showed us what was what.”

 

Forage5
Wild ginger in bloom. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Eating from the forest demands a certain responsibility, she adds, and a reverence for the ingredients. When you’re harvesting from the woods, it’s not the grocery store—not in taste, texture, or quantity.

Foraging in Ontario starts in the spring tapping maple trees for syrup. Then, just under the last layer of snow, you begin to see the magic happening: a root, or a bit of greenery peeking through. One of the most popular and plentiful is the wild leek. Use the greens for pesto and the bulbs for pickling; however, don’t stock up: found in patches, wild leeks don’t cultivate on their own. That means foragers should harvest only five percent and leave the rest to regenerate.

“Wild leeks have a seven-year cycle from seed to seed, so you can see that by taking out five percent per year, by year seven you have removed 35 percent,” says Forbes. He goes one step further: if you come across a small patch, only remove the leaves – forgo the bulbs.

 

Forage4
Trout lilies. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

One of Streiman’s favourites is wild ginger for making candies and syrups; she also replaces molasses with wild ginger in her thumbprint cookies – expect a peppery flavour similar to ginger with a bit of heat. And did you know that a wild lily flower added to a stew will thicken the broth? Or that removing the flower’s stamen and adding it to stew has an effect similar to saffron?

 

Forage6
Wild leeks. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Later in the summer, chokecherries are on the menu. Found along bushes or shorter tight trees, unlike a regular cherry, chokecherries are inedible raw: soak and then dry them before eating. “They make beautiful syrup, jellies and even sauces for braising meat such as venison,” says Streiman.

Foraging encourages us to consider where our food is coming from. Streiman adds: “It gives you a newfound respect how to take care of the land around you and how important it is to preserve that knowledge… because foraging existed since the beginning of time.”

Editor’s note: We recommend foraging only in the company of an expert.

 

You might also like:

Screen Shot 2017 06 01 at 4.35.18 PMFOOD: HOW TO EAT PLANTS — 6 STEPS TO SPRING-CLEAN YOUR DIET
Spring in the mountains. A time of choice (ski gear or bike gear?) and of lessening the load (swapping the long undies for banana hammocks), but what about our food? It gets easier to sustain ourselves with lighter meals once the warmer temperatures kick in, but spring is also the perfect time for a shift in perspective with the way that we eat… Read more

 

 

 

RacletteFOOD: RACLETTE: CHEESE OF THE (MOUNTAIN) GODS
Like alpenhorns, yodelling, and enormous cowbells, raclette was a gift to humanity from the fine people of Switzerland. A semi-hard, cow’s milk cheese possessing rich, creamy, aromatic flavours, raclette is most commonly consumed in a magnificently molten state. Traditionally, the cheese was used by Swiss cow-herders who would carry hearty wheels of it on their long journeys through mountain valleys. At night, the cheese would be placed by the radiant warmth of the campfire, where it would eventually achieve a sublime state of sultry softness, before being scraped from the wheel onto a waiting piece of bread or a freshly cooked potato…. Read more

Total
7
Shares
Share 7
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • Features

Blue Mountain at 75: The Son of Founder Jozo Weider Recalls a Life Well-lived on the Slopes

  • May 31, 2017
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • Mountain Biking
  • Features

Under the Radar: Five ‘Other’ Bike Parks to Cross Off Your Bucket List

  • June 2, 2017
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors

Helly Hansen Presents: Adventure Planning 101 with Squamish SAR

  • Sarah Bulford
  • May 16, 2022
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • The Great Outdoors

Blower Pow and Disappearing Pants

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 26, 2022
View Post
  • In This Issue
  • The Great Outdoors

ML Launches Mushroom Life

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 1, 2022
View Post
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Stay & Play
  • The Great Outdoors

Spring at Sun Peaks

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 8, 2022
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • The Great Outdoors

Backcountry Skier John Baldwin Headlines VIMFF’s 2022 Best of British Columbia Night

  • Sarah Bulford
  • February 22, 2022
View Post
  • FALL GEAR
  • SPRING GEAR
  • THE GEAR SHED
  • The Great Outdoors
  • WINTER GEAR

The Legend of San Poncho

  • Editor
  • December 9, 2021
735990496 1280x720
View Post
  • The Great Outdoors
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Island of Plenty

  • Sarah Bulford
  • July 2, 2021
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors

Win Adventures to the Filming Location of the HISTORY® Channel’s “Alone” Season 8!

  • Sarah Bulford
  • June 8, 2021
Featured Posts
  • natural-selection-Redbull 1
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto 2
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Bora-Boreal-Quebec-winter-cabin-stars 3
    Bora Boréal: Frozen in Time and Ice
    • March 14, 2023
  • Uncertainty-mountains-Rockies 4
    Facing Uncertainty: The Role of Chance in Mountain Adventures
    • March 13, 2023
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin 5
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • The-High-Route-Kaytlyn-Gerbin-Jenny-Abegg-North-Cascades-High-Route-glacier-hiking
    Friday Flick: Alpine Ultra-Run Sufferfest
    • March 10, 2023
  • Lynx-OGT-Flashlight-standing-up
    Gear Shed: Top Picks for Shredding, Snacking + Seeing in the Dark
    • March 9, 2023
  • rope-tow-Vancouver-Island
    Poached Winter
    • March 7, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
THE UNINVITED INVITATIONAL April 13-16 @woodwardtahoe 😱 $40,000 cash prize purse and a whole lotta spotlight on a group of riders whose time has finally come!! Presented by @jess.kimura and @thenorthface and supported by @yeti @capitasupercorp @slushthemagazine @unionbindingco @smithoptics @sunbum @coalheadwear @fattire 🫡 watch the finals in person Saturday April 15 and join the crew + @btbounds for a public ride day Sunday April 16 @borealmtn. Time to make some history!!! #linkinbio to learn more!
Close your eyes and, for a moment, imagine yourself deep in the polar regions aboard an expedition ship stuck in the ice. The white pack-ice is dazzling, and the immobile vessel seems frozen in time and space. That experience piques your curiosity, doesn't it? Without having to go all the way to Antarctica, you can experience these icy sensations 30 minutes from Quebec City in one of Bora Boréal 's two floating cottages.
@acmg.ca /IFMGA Mountain Guide and  @parks.canada Visitor Safety Specialist Steve Holeczi discusses the role of chance in mountain adventures and how to assess the unknown.
Slopes in the morning, peddles in the afternoon = balance. #mountainlifer
That’s one way to kick off the weekend 🤿❄️
You know it’s Friday when we’ve got a new Flick for you!
From The Gear Shed: ML staff and partners pick the latest splitboards, trail-ready snacks, handcrafted skis, sustainable hand-warmers, locally-designed powerbank-flashlights and badass T-shirts.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
THE UNINVITED INVITATIONAL April 13-16 @woodwardtahoe 😱 $40,000 cash prize purse and a whole lotta spotlight on a group of riders whose time has finally come!! Presented by @jess.kimura and @thenorthface and supported by @yeti @capitasupercorp @slushthemagazine @unionbindingco @smithoptics @sunbum @coalheadwear @fattire 🫡 watch the finals in person Saturday April 15 and join the crew + @btbounds for a public ride day Sunday April 16 @borealmtn. Time to make some history!!! #linkinbio to learn more!
Close your eyes and, for a moment, imagine yourself deep in the polar regions aboard an expedition ship stuck in the ice. The white pack-ice is dazzling, and the immobile vessel seems frozen in time and space. That experience piques your curiosity, doesn't it? Without having to go all the way to Antarctica, you can experience these icy sensations 30 minutes from Quebec City in one of Bora Boréal 's two floating cottages.
@acmg.ca /IFMGA Mountain Guide and  @parks.canada Visitor Safety Specialist Steve Holeczi discusses the role of chance in mountain adventures and how to assess the unknown.
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.