GSBC 2018 Week #8 : Forest Foraging & Cooking

1 JUN 2018

Promising “nature” of the week 8 workshop was corroborated by the unnamed location in the forest where we were supposed to gather. It clearly meant that we would go in the heart of nature to take a little part of it with us.

Part #1 : Exploring Amsterdamse Bos

We met in the Amsterdamse Bos near the running/bike train along Bosbaan. It is my usual running trail. It was not difficult to find the meeting point. Bastiaan from The School of Nature (a Facebook group) led the foraging tour into the forest.

He showed us how to identify plants correctly and which parts of them are edible/tasty.

Ramp (Daslook) : garlic like taste, plant from onion family

Elderberry (tasty flowers for pancakes)

Reed (a tall grass) middle shoot (white) is good as a snack

Chickweed (for pesto) : has hairy stock, are short plants

Burdock (shoot can be scraped and boiled)

A (type of ) Mustard flower (for mustard sauce I guess)

On the way back to Green Living Lab, we made a crown from a sticky weed (cleaver  / velcro) and some flowery makeup for girls. I wish I had pictures of those green ornaments!

Part #2 : Cooking with fresh foraged plants

We made two pestos (one from chickweed, ramp and one from mustard flowers) with an old-school stony mortar and pestle!

Remains of the delicious pesto in the mortar and around the pestle

We also made Elderberry pancakes and boiled burdocks that tasted like artichoke

Elderberry pancake

Making of Rampesto!

Even though we spent an hour in foraging. We could not pick enough plants for our appetite. Most leaves and shoots shrunk in size (drastically) after shredding and boiling.

Lesson for the next time is to forage more (but still less than the 10% of the plant population in the area)

[… to be continued]