August Events: Public Forages, Tastings & Wild Food Picnics
August is somehow already upon us and the past two weeks have been filled with sun and foraging fun! The beginning of the month capped off with a truly unique experience – my very first bachelor party! Baxter, an avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast, contacted me looking to do something different for his special celebration.
While I have hosted many foraging birthday parties, reunions and anniversaries, I had yet to plan an outing for six nature-loving twenty-somethings. I was thrilled! Off we went into the woods of southern New Hampshire where we meandered through open fields and mixed forest.
We encountered beautiful Chicken of the Woods mushrooms, snacked on wood sorrel, sampled wild mustard seed pods and harvested bi colored boletes. After working up an appetite, we found the perfect picnic spot right on the coast in Rye Beach.
The boys feasted on a variety of wild dishes including Chicken of the Woods Scampi (pictured below), pork loin dusted with wild sumac and ramp salt, elderflower jam atop soft cheese, Black Staining Polypore jerky, ramp kimchi, pickled sea beans and a wild greens salad made with goodies plucked from the local salt marsh. They sipped on homemade Nocino, a black cherry, yarrow and mugwort shrub and some specially crafted cocktails made with wild soda. It was the perfect day with the perfect group of people!
I was also fortunate enough to spend a lovely afternoon a few weeks back with the talented Elisabet Juan Roca, a food photographer. Elisabet and her husband attended my May forage & wild food picnic. After seeing her stunning pictures from the event, I knew we had to work together! We met up at her house for a foraged lunch, nerded out on recipes and discussed tips and tricks for taking beautiful photos (like the two gorgeous images below – thank you Elisabet!).
While the lack of rain has stalled smaller ground mushrooms, larger edible polypores like Chicken of the Woods, Berkeley’s Polypore & Black Staining Polypore are still continuing to fruit across New England. Many wild fruits are ripening along field edges and hedgerows including pin cherries, blackberries, currants, hackberries, the last of the season’s blueberries and elderberries. Sumac is prime for picking – excellent for sodas, syrups and seasoning. Wild grape clusters will soon turn sun-kissed and sweet.
With only a few weeks left before fall hits us (ugh…I know!), August offers the last opportunity to harvest summer edibles. My calendar is chalked full of public forages, tastings and picnics to take full advantage of the waning season. I hope to see you out in nature soon!
August Events:
August 16: Mushroom Identification Walk & Forage: Edible, Medicinal & Poisonous Fungi (Lynn)
August 17: Mushroom Identification Walk & Forage: Edible, Medicinal & Poisonous Fungi (Needham, MA)
August 24: Monthly Forage & Wild Food Picnic (Waltham, MA)
August 30: Foraging Walk & Tasting: Edible, Medicinal & Poisonous Fungi, Plants, Berries and Herbs (Framingham, MA)
August 31: Foraging Walk: Edible, Medicinal & Poisonous Fungi, Plants and Herbs (Lincoln, MA)
Interested in celebrating your own special occasion with a private forage and tasting or wild food picnic? Just shoot me an email and I will handle all of the details!
