A Wild Feast At Our Feet

By Nancy K. Crevier

It turns out there is a feast in the backyard, and it should come as no surprise. Many of the weeds that proliferate and drive homeowners nuts were valued as highly nutritious and tasty foods just one or two generations ago.

Nor did our hunter/gatherer ancestors starve, “Wildman” Steve Brill pointed out to a group of novice wild foods foragers, Saturday, April 10, even though they had far fewer edible wild plants available to them than we do today. Plants from different cultures that have crowded into the American landscape are generally viewed dimly, but as the foraging group discovered at Sticks and Stones Farm on Huntingtown Road, where Mr Brill led the walk, the upside is that many of them are a delicious alternative to store-bought produce.

“Wild plants are a renewable resource,” said Mr Brill, as he scrolled through photographs, paintings, and drawings of edible and medicinal plants at different phases of growth, on his iPad. The 13 participants listened attentively during the half-hour lecture that preceded a 90-minute walk, and tentatively tasted day lily shoots — “Tastes a little oniony,” commented Beckett Boyd of Ridgefield — Japanese knot weed, an asparaguslike plant with a somewhat sour flavor, and rockweed harvested from the ocean. “I like the flavor of the rockweed,” said Ryan Delgado, visiting with a group of friends from New York City.

“Like any skill, you can have problems if you don’t know what you’re doing,” cautioned Mr Brill. Identifying wild plants must be done with 100 percent certainty for safety’s sake. “Learn slowly, and anyone can learn,” he said.

It is a good idea to ask permission of a landowner before foraging, Mr Brill said, to be considerate. “Don’t pick on golf courses, roadways, or properties that are sprayed,” he advised. But chances are, he added, that most wild foods gathered will contain fewer pesticides than those purchased in a store.

Educator, environmentalist, chef, painter, sculptor, and author, Mr Brill has become an expert in wild foods and traditional medicinal plants through more than 28 years of experience. He is the author of three books, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Foods, The Wild Vegan Cookbook: A Forager’s Culinary Guide, and The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook. “I got into this through cooking,” said Mr Brill, who holds a BA in psychology. “I taught cooking classes for awhile, then I discovered wild foods,” he said.

He dropped his cooking career to pursue one in educating others about wild foods. Wild foods, he said, are a major part of the ecosystem and an instinctual part of our being. “You really see this in kids,” said Mr Brill, who has conducted many lessons for school-age children and who has developed a love of the natural environment and its produce in his own family. “We need to have hands-on contact with our planet, and foraging is an active way to do so,” he said.

A Pinch Of This And That

Saturday’s lecture, like the walk, was part science class and part cooking class, with a dash of entertainment — Mr Brill is a third-generation player of the hand and mouth “Brillophone,” proven through his “brill-iant” renditions of “Pop Goes The Weasel” and “I Got Rhythm” during the course of the afternoon.

“I’m into cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, and foraging gives me a lot to experiment with,” Mr Brill said. As he discussed the merits of the stinging nettle plant, he threw out a recipe. “Rinse and chop the nettles,” he said, after explaining the best way to avoid being pierced by the spiny plant, “and put them in a heavy pot with just the water that is on them from rinsing.” This “waterless” cooking method, he said, is a technique hundreds of year old. Cook the nettles just until wilted, he directed, then toss them with some garlic sautéed in olive oil and a little bit of tamari soy sauce. “Stinging nettles are the highest vegetable source of protein,” Mr Brill told the group, “and very high in iron.”

He readily answered questions as he spoke, providing the science behind the nutritional and medicinal workings of wild plants.

The class had walked barely half a dozen steps out of the door of the stone barn lecture room when Mr Brill spotted a cluster of garlic mustard growing nearby. A member of the cruciferous family, the leaves and roots of this invasive species that grows commonly in Connecticut yards can be eaten raw. “Use it in place of basil for a spicy pesto,” suggested Mr Brill.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump further, Mr Brill pulled from the earth wild carrots and day lilies. “The lily that is edible has these little tubers growing underground,” Mr Brill said, showing the group the root end of the day lily he had unearthed. The wild carrot, he explained, is a different strain than the orange commercial variety, but its white root holds up far better when cooking and is equally delicious. As he washed off the carrot root and passed around bits, the class became noticeably more eager to try the new cuisine. However, warned Mr Brill, wild carrot may not be the first wild food to experiment collecting for the novice forager. “The poison hemlock looks similar to wild carrot,” he said, “but it smells like a dead mouse….”

“Who wants to wash this off and eat it?” he asked, holding up his next prize. Common evening primrose is a native plant and a good root vegetable, he noted. The lancelike, narrow leaf on first glance might be mistaken for the dandelion, but the white center rib in the leaf and less toothed leaf edge differentiates these plants. The radishlike root is good in soups and with grains, Mr Brill suggested, and the smaller, young leaves are also edible.

The walk deviated from the sunny areas in which the first edible plants were found to semishady areas of the farm where mullein and knotweed were discovered growing along a lane. “Wait, I see things over here,” called out Mr Brill, and set off across the yard. Hairy bittercress, best harvested in March and April, was growing profusely, along with ground mint and chickweed, “The only plant you can find year around, even in winter,” Mr Brill declared.

Peak Picking

Edible plants are available spring, summer, and fall in New England, once a person knows what to look for, Mr Brill said. Many are at their peak right now, though, with tender young shoots and leaves providing the best flavor and texture. Some, like the dandelion, become tough and bitter once the flower appears.

His running commentary on the many uses and how and when to prepared wild foods continued as he paused to point out goats weed, jewel weed, and curly dock. “Try the leaf,” he encouraged the now fearless foragers examining the curly dock plant. The lemony flavored leaf can be used to turn “plain leftovers into something wonderful,” he said, plus curly dock is rich in vitamin A and iron.

It was with some regret that the afternoon ended, for both teacher and students. “I would love to get completely off the grid,” said Jean Cook, who with her husband, Ron, of Guilford, attended the wild food walk. “I really believe in the whole ‘tread gently on the earth’ thing. This was very interesting,” said Ms Cook.

“We just scratched the surface in two hours,” Mr Brill told the class, “but if you take the time, you’ll be able to gather food and home remedies wherever you are.” He is invigorated, he said, by the intellectual exchange on the walks “and I love being outdoors, and the diversity.”

To find out more about “Wildman” Steve Brill and wild food foraging, visit wildmanstevebrill.com. Mr Brill is available for group and school educational programs.

Locally, Mr Brill is scheduled to lead walks at Topstone Park, Redding, May 2; White Memorial Center, Litchfield, May 29; Holbrook Farm, Bethel, June 12; Huntington Park, July 25; Squantz Pond, New Fairfield, August 15; Putnam State Park, September 12 and October 10; Appalachian Trail in Kent, October 17; and Terrywile Park, Danbury, October 31. He will return to Sticks and Stones Farm in Newtown June 27, September 5, and October 9. For further information and dates, contact Wildman@wildmanstevebrill.com, or call 914-835-2153.