How to eat weeds in Hawaii

Oahu-based public artist Gaye Chan once told me and Marko that we were part of her lost tribe. If by that she means we are into Free Stores, foraging free food, and eating weeds, then yes, we are!

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Wild garlic in Berlin: it’s Bärlauch time again

Since spring is so early this year in Berlin, the Bärlauch (wild garlic) is already at the height of its season here. We went foraging yesterday at the Volkspark Pankow. Some Bärlauch tips I’ve posted earlier:

• Take an edible herb walk in Berlin: Post 1, Post 2
• Recipe ideas for Bärlauch (sandwiches, barley risotto)

What spring vegetables and fruits are coming in season where you are? What are you foraging?

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Warsaw: Solidarność, jam and juice

Jam session in pictures, ©Pixxe.org

Warsaw foragers were almost foiled (unintentionally) by Solidarność protesters before convincing several marchers to save the day. Don’t miss this great post by Pixxe on an eventful fruit-preserving party. The fruit — including dogwood cherries, apples, pears and mystery fruit — looks delicious.

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Berlin: Bärlauch, or, cooking spring

As I’ve mentioned, spring has felt massively delayed to many Berliners this year. Maybe our expectations have been warped by global warming, but it feels like we’ve been waiting, shivering at near-zero temperatures, on the brink of spring for ages. We’ve watched reports on TV about Germany’s beloved spring crop, white asparagus, whose harvest has been delayed for more than four weeks by the cold rain. Same for my favorites, bright pink rhubarb and Bärlauch, the tender wild garlic greens that Berliners forage in city parks, which both have been nowhere to be seen… until this week!

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Berlin: First spring harvest – chives – and recipes

So many chives! Although we had not cared for, planted or even visited our community garden plot until yesterday, we arrived to find a ridiculous amount of lush chives to harvest. Now in their fifth year, our plants are apparently robust enough to take care of themselves and provide a hands-off first spring crop for us to enjoy.

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Foraging Resources: Herb encyclopedia, purslane and hops

If you like beautiful books as much as I do, maybe you won’t mind that the Foraging Resource I’m sharing today is in German. And out of print. You see, I’d like to continue introducing edible plant resources that I personally use, even if they are specific to Berlin or in German, since those are the ones I know well. I hope they will inspire you to find your own favorite resources. Also, I’ll also share tips and info from them, giving you a peek into the books and websites, so you can benefit from them right here on this blog. Read on to look inside this book…

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Berlin: Foraging season opens with edible wild plant walk

Can you feel it? The weather’s getting warmer and wetter. Winter’s on its last legs. Urban gardeners and foragers like myself are  itching to go planting and plucking plants all around the town. Since many readers come to this blog precisely for info on edible plants, a topic we’ve neglected this winter, I’m celebrating March and the approaching spring with a series on edible plant resources. Read on for more!

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Berlin: Potato harvest & rainbow roasted vegetables

Let’s take a detour into our community garden, which, by the way, was featured on Deutschland radio on Wednesday morning. More importantly, the evening before, Marko harvested our potatoes! To give you some context, above is one of our baby potato plants back in in May, just starting to sprout out of its hill. Read on to see how the potatoes look now…

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Berlin: Houseplants for Lunch

Litte did I expect, when I walked into my neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant for lunch today, that I was about to enjoy yet another edible urban plant experience. It all happened because I happened to sit down text to this large, flourishing houseplant, whose shiny, black, beetle-like fruits soon caught my eye.

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