Foraging

The joy of spring greens

Many of us, if told we must live by foraging in the wild, would quickly go toes up – from fear, not malnourishment, like the birds in Ol’ Paul the Mighty Logger, who saw snowy white popcorn bits flurrying through the air as the giant Bunyan munched, figured winter was back, and promptly froze to death. But there’s no need to die of fear at the idea of picking spring greens. True, we love our washed and bagged “spring mixes” of baby lettuce and we tremble at the thought of dandelion greens plucked from the meadow by our own inexpert hands, uncurated by the all-wise authorities of the food industry. But vegetables do, after all, grow out of the ground, and were edible before refrigeration and produce regulatory boards existed.

spring greens

How to make a foraged mushroom and hazelnut salad

Discovering a secret hoard of chanterelles or a giant cepe hidden under an oak tree is one of the most exciting and fulfilling things a foodie can do. But please be wary: to the inexperienced eye, an innocent looking poisonous toadstool can easily be mistaken for an edible delight. Luckily, there are professional foragers out there who will discover, collect and vet wild mushrooms that you can buy in specialist food shops to fulfill this recipe. This extraordinary year seems to have made people much more interested and aware of the provenance of what they eat. Indeed, lockdown turned many of us into foragers as we looked to get better acquainted with the countryside. Outside of a kitchen our brother Oliver’s favorite activity is to go foraging for wild mushrooms.

foraging mushroom

Back in the USSR

A perfect summer day in the wild woods west of Moscow. Around us, slender birch saplings lean together, lean apart, like elegant dancers swaying to the music of the wind. Buckets in hand, Dmitri Denisovich and I walk between shimmering streaks of brightness and patches of shade, collecting mushrooms. Every Russian knows the names of at least a dozen forest mushrooms. Adults and children alike are said to be able to follow their rich musty fragrances into the darkest glades, recognizing the tastiest, rarest and most poisonous fungi. ‘Lisichki!’ cries Dmitri, spotting a cluster of yellow ‘little vixen’ chanterelles. ‘My favorite.’ In eastern Europe, all the food is on the table; in the West, it’s all in the cupboard.

russian food