Euell Gibbons

Ep. 7: Foraging with Rachel from Yellow Elanor

 
Rachel Zoller of the Yellow Elanor website and video series. Photo by Trevor Hiscocks

Rachel Zoller of the Yellow Elanor website and video series. Photo by Trevor Hiscocks

Ep. 7: Foraging with Rachel from Yellow Elanor

Show Notes

In this episode we chat with Rachel Zoller (you might know her as @yellowelanor on Instagram). We love chatting with Rachel because she brings her self-taught knowledge and enthusiasm to foraging and combines it with her ability to teach and explain in such an approachable way. While we aren’t currently able to forage in Washington State (recorded in April 2020 during coronavirus quarantine) we came away encouraged to use this time to educate ourselves so that when restrictions ease, we’ll be all the more ready to get out and find some fungi.

Links

 

Online Resources for Wild Food Foraging

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This is a wonderful time of year to be outside, enjoying the spring warmth, watching the earth wake up from winter and collecting a bounty of wild foods. The only problem is that we are extremely limited with how and where we can gather and collect while we are in the midst of a pandemic.

The good news is that many delicious edibles can be found right in your backyard. Many of the “weeds” we loathe are not only edible but incredibly delicious and nutritious.

This is a perfect time to get familiar with a few wild edibles and enjoying adding some “weeds” to your diet.

We’ve put together a growing list of online resources that we have found helpful when expanding our knowledge of the wild foods that surround us.

Eat Your Lawn

Our friend and foraging expert, Hank Shaw, recently published a post highlighting the bounty of edible greens found right outside his house. The extensive post covers dandelions, miners lettuce, nettles and more. Spend some time digging into Hank’s blog as it is a bountiful resource of wild food recipes and information.

Here are a few other of Hank’s posts that will keep you busy foraging in your neighborhood.

Foraging for Wild Greens

Grasping the Nettle

All About Lambsquarters

Foraging Miner’s Lettuce

Also, be sure to catch our podcast episode with Hank.

Stinging Nettle Soup

Langdon Cook is another great example of a gifted writer and teacher. His blog is a wealth of recipes to turn your wild foods into a memorable meal. This recipe for stinging nettle soup is a classic.

Here are a few others I’m eager to try:

Dandelion Jelly

Halibut with Nettle Sauce, Peas and Miner’s Lettuce

I also really love this interview Langdon did with Becky Lerner, author of Dandelion Hunter.

Here are a few more great resources for backyard foraging we’ve been learning from:

7 Edible Weeds in Your Backyard

All About Japanese Knotweed then try this sour cocktail

Wild Greens Salad from Forager Chef

Unless you’re real lucky edible wild mushrooms probably don’t grow in your backyard, but this is a great time to learn all about mushrooms. Yellow Elanor is one of our favorite resources on mushroom knowledge. She is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher. If you, like us, are now thrown into the world of homeschooling, grab the kids and watch some videos.

And just for fun check out this New Yorker article on Euell Gibbons from 1968

Podcast Ep. 6: Hunt, Gather, Cook with Hank Shaw Show Notes

 

Hank Shaw has done pretty much everything. He’s worked in restaurants, fished commercially, been a political journalist, written books and more. His website HuntGatherCook.com is a treasure trove of recipes, essays and how-to’s on anything related to wild foods. He’s fun to talk to and knowledgeable about pretty much everything. We think you’ll enjoy listening to our conversation with him. And even though we’re currently limited on our outdoor pursuits (recorded in April 2020 during the Covid-19 quarantine) we can dream of the time when we can get back outdoors and harvest some wild foods together.

Links: