Simple recipes for scarce seasons

A short while ago, I made this soup. The recipe is so simple that it barely needs explanation: wild parsnips with dame’s rocket leaves and garlic mustard, boiled together in water and eaten as a soup. There is no stock, no salt, no spices; nothing beyond that, but it is very delicious and nourishing. There is not much to gather during the Vermont winter (although this may be a rather mild one so far), but for what there is, it is rewarding to be grateful.

If I find winter mushrooms, maybe I can try adding them. I haven’t tried them, although I have positively identified them by spore print.

I always have to remind myself of this, because in my social situation, there is a pressure to eat more civilized foods like dairy, grain, and cultivated vegetables. But I have been disillusioned recently, because of how my digestive system has been protesting. I realize I need to go back to my wild staples, that they never make me feel ill, and are usually much more satisfying.

Do you have any other simple recipes for your climates that make use of natural and wild ingredients available in the more dormant seasons?

Add the white ashes of hard wood fires, for a salt taste.

We typically have greens for most of the winter. I harvest a good quantity of whatever wild greens, saute onions peppers, and garlic, then I dump the greens in long enough to wilt them down. Sometimes a tablespoon or 3 of water is needed to facilitate the willing. We like this as a side dish. If rice agrees with you, you can dump the greens over it for a meal.

I have also done the above greens and melted in some cheese. Top with a fried fish of some kind, and you have wild fish Florentino. Yummy.

Thank you both for your responses. I will try the wood ashes too, and the greens recipe sounds good too.

I may have exaggerated the extent of my gastrointestinal distress. I think it is less the foods themselves than just that my diet has been imbalanced because of my personal situation. Yes, all of the foods I mentioned are fine, and many of my ancestors would have envied me, but there is something missing that I feel can only be provided by food that is freely offered up by the earth.

I don’t mean to say that only wild food is satisfying, because there are many cultivated foods I have found to grow like weeds, and taste like weeds. Kale, squash, arugula, radish, garlic… I would agree with Fukuoka that the healthiest foods are always those grown in natural soils, closest to Nature. Trying to force a plant to grow by human effort I think is unlikely to result in food that can come to equal natural food in its flavor and medicinal qualities, which is why we need to rediscover natural cuisine. Oftentimes we try to imitate familiar foods and then base our food system around those foods, which I feel is more effortful for less. But if rather than thinking, “What can we make the land produce for us?” we ask ourselves, “What are the gifts that the land is giving us?” then maybe our cooking would be more deeply rooted.

There's a reason that even the earliest humans, learned to stash food for the winter months in regions such as Vermont.

If I was looking to eat wild there this close to the Winter Solstice, I'd be thinking squirrel. Rabbit only if you've got stored fat to supplement with as rabbits don't have enough fat to keep humans healthy. Possibly Canada geese or some wild ducks in moderation as there are concerns about heavy metals due to environmental contamination.

If nothing else, squirrel made into bone broth for your soups will add calcium and other micronutrients in a digestible form.

Wood sorrel + quail egg (or any other egg) is my favorite.  Soft boil the egg, so that the yoke is a bit runny, and the texture comes out like it has mayo dressing

You just made my stomach roar like an ogre. That sounds really good. I was reading somewhere yesterday that wood sorrel would grow fine under my black walnut trees. I'm on a black walnut kick lately. My next step after that is to adopt some quail...

Helena Green wrote:Wood sorrel + quail egg (or any other egg) is my favorite.  Soft boil the egg, so that the yoke is a bit runny, and the texture comes out like it has mayo dressing

Pesto made of any greens with some kind of herbs or garlic.

I usually add:
- nuts (my favorites are walnuts or sunflower seeds)
- oil (I use olive oil but you use what you like, and I'm sure butter or animal fat would work just fine)
- optional garlic (I like to press with the garlic press first). Or any other allium.
- lemon or vinegar (lemon keeps the bright green color but is not required for flavor)
- salt
- I often find cheese unnecessary
Grind greens, nuts and oil in the blender until smooth, or grind until it's in small flakes but not smooth. Optionally reserve some nuts to grind at the end, leaving some chunky for texture. Add the lemon and salt at the end to taste.

Spring wild: in April in Cape Cod I found nettles and garlic-mustard growing together, so I pulled the garlic mustard and harvested the clean upper halves. I harvested the nettles by snapping off sprigs but leaving the roots in place. About 1 part garlic-mustard to 3 or 4 parts nettles made a pesto with a nice savory garlic-mustard flavor and only a slight edge of bitterness.

Summer anisey: Anise hyssop and fennel volunteer around the garden here, so I added tarragon and made this pesto several times last summer. Yum! I used garlic and lemon in this, and it was delicious. I made it again and again and was spreading it on toast as well as serving it to guests on vegetables or pasta. Everyone seemed to love it. I wasn't even impatient for the basil to come online!

Thank you Jay, for including this thread in the daily-ish!
I think Life is nudging/pushing me towards wild food at the moment...
A friend of mine was doing a wild food challenge for the month of April in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and posted about it on Instagram.
She reported a LOT of health benefits after, and is still reporting her findings about it.
Wild food for her included hunted meat and locally fished fish.
You can find her posts with  @urban.herbology .
Now where's my foraging book...?

Microwave:  Start potato in microwave then chop greens int small pieces add shredded cheese peal cooked potato while greens cook 1 minute mash potato into greens and cheese and eat.  add sea salt to balance with potassium and magnesium in the greens.