The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
It’s now officially spring, and while winter weather is still hanging on across much of the country, we can’t help but anticipate warmer weather and all the wild spring bounty that comes along with it. Fresh ramps, or wild leeks as they’re known in the north, are beginning to shoot up and should be ready for harvest in a few more days, but in the meanwhile, we’re satisfying our cravings with plump, mellow ramp bulbs that were frozen at the …
This rather unusual salad is one of those dishes that comes together quite naturally in the early fall. The first frost has not yet arrived and while nights are cool, the days are still sunny and warm. Colder weather is just around the corner though. Days are growing shorter and backyard gardens are winding down, yielding the last few sweet, sun-ripened peppers of the season. But while tame, cultivated crops are ending, wild mushrooms are exuberantly bursting forth from …
As deeply colored and glossy as black pearls, tiny uncooked black lentils have a flavor that is earthy, nutty and satisfying. Black lentils are very like lentilles du Puy, also known as French green lentils. Both varieties differ from common brown or green lentils in significant ways. Black and green lentils take less time to cook and they both hold their lens-like shape better, making them perfect for salads and side dishes (although they’re both wonderful in soups, too). Black lentils …
While almost everyone has heard of “fiddlehead ferns,” most people think only of the Eastern fiddlehead, the ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris), as edible. But there is another widely consumed wild fern, the lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina), which grows along the west coast of North America from California to Alaska. Often simply called “Western fiddleheads,” lady fern fiddleheads differ only slightly from ostrich fern fiddleheads in appearance and flavor. Both fiddleheads have a distinctly “wild” green flavor that is often compared …