Foraging

A few weekends ago we went foraging with "Wildman" Steve Brill at Millstone Farm in Wilton, Connecticut.  More than 50 people paid $25 (including a yummy and well-timed lunch beforehand) to learn about the kinds of things you can eat from the ground, bushes and trees.  It was a hoot, notwithstanding Brill's overly practiced one-liners . . . and the required "hold harmless" liability waivers we needed to sign in advance.

We foraged for pokeweed, wood sorrel, clover and lamb's quarters, among others.  Most sought after were mushrooms which were nowhere to be found except for some leathery "polypores" growing on tree trunks. 

Today's Wall Street Journal has a report on Evan Strusinski, a forager in Maine who ships mushrooms to chefs at NYC restaurants like Ssam Bar, Momofuku and Vandaag.

"Mr. Strusinski is a food forager, rummaging through woods and rivers from Vermont to the coast of Maine to Portland to gather cattails, pineapple weed, wood sorrel and other offbeat ingredients. He supplies about a dozen restaurants in Maine, but this year he's expanded to New York."