It is May and the roses are blooming, just like the elderflower, acacia, dandelions, and lilacs. Time for action, say these foragers. Dip blossoms in beer batter, make mushroom pizza, or make syrup, vinegar, or oil from everything that is now growing and blooming.
You can eat almost the entire elder tree throughout the year. The blossoms in spring, jam and juice from the berries in summer, and in autumn, the Judas ear mushroom grows on the trunk of this tree. A lime leaf tastes mild, fresh, and sweet and is a tasty addition to your salad. And if you walk across the Oosterschelde, the Dutch wakame salad is there for the taking.
Foraging is hardly a trend – picking and eating from nature is as old as humanity. A clear trend is distinguishing yourself as a restaurant or chef by using local, sustainable, and wild products, says chef Freek van der Vlist.
The Dutch restaurants with a green Michelin star forage from nature all year round. By fermenting, smoking, pickling, drying, or infusing our native plants, flowers, roots, and fruits, unique flavors and dishes are created. “It strikes me that quite a few people can cook well or are interested in it. By extracting wild ingredients from nature, you can add very special flavors,” says Van der Vlist.
A homemade smoked rose oil from the Japanese rose, for example. Super tasty on a fish or to make mayonnaise, suggests the chef. Or woodruff, a native white flower that you can soak in milk. You can then use that milk for crème brûlée. Van der Vlist: “These are nice, new flavors that you won’t find in a wholesaler or supermarket.” The chef shares his new discoveries and recipes on KikkerKultuur.
‘At Most Twenty Vegetables in the Supermarket’
You probably have to get used to wild flavors a bit, says forager Gydo van der Wal. He organizes foraging walks through various landscapes in the Netherlands with his company Buit Eetbare Natuur.
“We don’t eat that varied, and the selection in the supermarket is limited. I think you’ll find at most twenty different types of vegetables. It’s not realistic for everyone to pick their food together every night, but it’s great fun to supplement your meal with foraging,” says Van der Wal.
As a result, you get a little closer to nature. This gives it more value and hopefully you take a little better care of it, thinks the forager.
What do you pick or gather? That differs per season, and within that season it is different every week. At the moment it is unmistakably the time of the blossoms. Pick elderflower now, because that flowering time only lasts two to three weeks.
You can pick the large flower screens, dip them in a batter of blond beer and flour and then fry them, says Van der Vlist. “You can also grind some flowers finely with caster sugar in the food processor. Then you have elderflower sugar that you can sprinkle over it.”
Making elderflower syrup is popular and accessible. But elderflower champagne is even tastier, says Van der Wal.
How to make elderflower champagne
Ingredients:
Preparation:
1. Collect the elderflower and let it sit for a while. Remove the thick, green stems.
2. Dissolve half a kilo of sugar in 4 liters of water.
3. Add the juice of three lemons and half of the zest.
4. Place the elderflower with the sugar water in the bucket. Cover with a tea towel and elastic band.
5. Let it simmer at room temperature for four days. Stir every day with a clean spoon. Wait another day or two if fermentation has not started.
6. After four days, you can strain the liquid through a tea towel and put it back in the bucket.
7. Stir every day and check that it smells fresh.
8. Bottling can be done after about ten days in bottles with a screw cap.
More Fun If You Get Further Than The Park Around The Corner
Also nice to pick now is the Japanese rose, the hysterical, bright pink nineties rose, says Van der Vlist. “You can make a super simple cheong, Korean syrup, from it.” Pick about 300 grams of roses and put them in a jar with 300 grams of caster sugar. “The sugar extracts moisture from the rose, creating an intensive syrup. The longer it can infuse, the tastier. Eat it for example with strawberries and hangop.”
Picking and collecting is extra fun if you get further than the park around the corner, says Van der Wal. On the beach, for example. “We also have seaweed here. Use it in your pokébowl, or dry it and use the seaweed as a flavoring. Samphire and sea kale are fantastic if you fry them and deglaze with white wine.”
And do you see the meadowsweet? That blossom tastes like almond honey and is a real flavor enhancer.
Many Leaves With the Same Grassy Flavor
You can eat a lot from nature, but not everything is equally tasty, says chef Van der Vlist. “Many leaves are of course edible, but have the same grassy flavor. Fine in a soup or salad, but not very interesting. Nettle is nice for a soup. But nettle seeds that you roast briefly, I find much more interesting.”
Foraging is fun and interesting for many people, says Van der Vlist. He sees that as a countermovement. “Our food system is so complicated. So more and more people are thinking: I prefer to keep it more in control. We take a vegetable garden and learn more about what grows in our own Dutch nature. That is no longer something for hippies.”
A surprising addition to your meal is the chicken of the woods, say both nature pickers. It is a fleshy mushroom that is similar in structure to chicken and also tastes fleshy and firm. Van der Wal: “This is a spring mushroom that you can pick now. I happened to prepare it this weekend: cut it into strips, fry it, and then put it on a pizza with mozzarella, onion rings, and wild fennel.”