Although most of the groceries we need can be found in our neighborhood stores — or can even be delivered directly to us — many home and professional cooks enjoy using fresh, tasty, and, sometimes, unusual ingredients that they can forage on purposeful searches in parks, forests, or even in their front or back yards.
The Great Lakes area is rich with edible treasures and treats for enthusiastic foragers: nuts (black walnuts, hickory nuts, beechnuts, chestnuts); wild berries, including raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, elderberries, juneberries (tasty, purplish fruit, similar to the blueberry and used in smoothies and baked goods); mushrooms, with morels and chantarelles among the most popular; wild greens, including dandelion, leeks, ferns (especially fiddleheads, the top of ostrich ferns), garlic mustard leaves, chicory, and nettles; and many others.
It’s important to note that there are laws, rules, and ethical procedures for foraging. In her classes and on her In Your Element website (iyewellness.com), Katie Venechuk, a Michigan State University-certified Michigan Master Naturalist with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and many other skills and certifications (including wilderness first aid/CPR training and therapeutic yoga), shares vital information for foragers.
“If you’re on your own or on other private land or have permission from the landowner, you’re good to go. Public lands aren’t so simple, as each type of public land has its own rules. It’s not uncommon for specific parcels of public land to have their own specific rules, as well.”
There are also rules that pertain to specific items. For example, fiddlehead ferns, ramps (wild onions), and all plants that are cut or killed upon harvest may not be taken from public lands, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/foraging).
If you’re able to find these items on private property, it’s important that they are harvested conservatively, leaving the roots or bulbs intact, since they take many seasons to reproduce and mature. And if you’re lucky enough to have property you’d like to forage on, Venechuk has a “Forage-at-Home” service package that includes a home visit for marking and identifying the property’s wild foods.
Some people are interested in the social and outdoor aspects of foraging, in addition to reaping fresh edibles.
“A few years ago, when we had a cottage in LeRoy (south of Cadillac), we started foraging for mushrooms,” says Royal Oak resident Bob Wayner. “It’s great fun to be outside, searching for morels. And if you find something, it’s a bonus!”
He and his wife, Tenchi, joined the Michigan Mushroom Hunter’s Club (michiganmushroomhunters.org) and began going on weekend mushroom-hunting trips, learning to identify different types of safe, poisonous, and “false” mushrooms.
“You need to be careful,” Wayner shares, “but once you learn, it’s great to find so many types and be able to enjoy them.”
You can also find button mushrooms in Michigan woods — or just head to the supermarket if you’re craving a mushroom-y dish and don’t want to work for it. Certified Executive Chef Mary Brady shares a lovely mushroom pâté recipe in her new book, “Looking Back, Cooking Forward.” (Book available at chefmarybrady.com.)
“It’s from the Cork and Bottle in London. Tom (Brady Sr., her late husband) and I were visiting my sister and happened upon a tiny downstairs bistro-of-sorts while waiting to see a play. There were no servers, only a case with the few choices on the menu displayed. The ramekin of a veggie pâté looked amazing, and it was. I asked the chef, a delightful Jamaican gentleman, for the recipe.”
Brady also says that rhubarb can be spotted in the wild in Michigan, but she’d prefer to grow hers in her own garden. It’s said that the leaf blades, in contrast to the stalks, are poisonous and may even be fatal if eaten, so avoid leaves at all costs. “One of the first things I added to my new garden, nearly three decades ago, was a small but hearty rhubarb plant. I’m not sure why. Until that point, I had little experience with it,” Brady says. “Now it grows by leaps and bounds, and I can get dozens of delicious, easy-to-make pies every season. Although rhubarb is often thought of as a fruit, it’s botanically classified as a vegetable. I’ll also make jam or a savory salsa that’s great on salmon.”
Mushroom Pâté
(From “Looking Back, Cooking Forward” by Certified Executive Chef Mary Brady. Recipe creates four servings, as an appetizer. )
Tips for Success
“You can eliminate the roll; the pâté will be lighter and gluten-free,” says Chef Mary Brady. “I have successfully substituted Neufchâtel cheese, which is lower in fat, and cut the butter to a quarter pound. It won’t be as rich, but for those of us who like lighter, it’s delicious, and the sweet and sour onions give it
a great oomph. The recipe divides or multiplies easily.”
Ingredients
- ½ pound salted butter
- ½ medium onion, medium diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic, about 2 large cloves
- 1 pound sliced button mushrooms
- 1 cup of sourdough or dense bread, cut into large chunks
- 1 pound cream cheese, room temperature, cut into 2-inch pieces Salt and pepper, to taste
Preparation
Melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Add the onions and garlic, and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until they’re soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add the bread and toss with the mushroom mix until softened. Put softened cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor. Add the warm mushroom mix and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill before serving, preferably overnight. Top with chives. Serve on croutons or crackers.
Let’s Eat!
An optional and delicious way to enjoy this pâté is with a dish of pickled red onions for garnish. Heat ½ cup sugar with ½ cup apple cider or white vinegar until the sugar is dissolved and bubbly. Meanwhile, cut 1 medium red onion in slices, ¼-inch thick. Add onions to the sugar/vinegar mixture and cook until soft. Season to taste.
Mary Brady’s Rhubarb Custard Pie
(From “Looking Back, Cooking Forward” by Certified Executive Chef Mary Brady. Recipe creates four servings, as an appetizer. )
Tips for Success
Organic sugar works equally well in the same quantities as the sugar in the ingredients list. Also, half-and-half works in a pinch for the heavy cream.
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch deep dish pie shell, homemade or purchased, defrosted Custard Filling
- 2 cups thinly-sliced rhubarb, about ½ inch long
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prick the bottom of the pie shell (this keeps the bottom from puffing up) and bake for 15 minutes. Cool. Toss the rhubarb with 2/3 cup of the sugar and allow to sit until the juices release from the fruit, about one hour. Strain, saving the juices.
Beat the eggs with the cream and the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar until the sugar is well incorporated. Stir in the reserved rhubarb juices. Distribute the rhubarb over the crust and add the custard mixture. Bake until the custard is set, about 40 minutes. Check by inserting a toothpick into the pie. It should come out clean. Do not overcook, as the custard will crack.
Let’s Eat!
A drizzle of salted caramel sauce is the perfect finishing touch!
Honey Murray’s Fresh Garlic Mustard Green Pesto
Tips for Success
Garlic mustard, an invasive plant that’s bountiful in Michigan and found in wooded areas, smells like garlic when crushed. The Michigan United Conservation Clubs (mucc.org) suggests harvesting and eating garlic mustard when the plant is young and less bitter. If using the pesto after it has been refrigerated, first let it come to room temperature.
Ingredients
- 5 cups of washed and destemmed garlic mustard leaves, with larger stalks removed
- ¼ cup of pine nuts; walnuts or almonds may also be used
- 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese, preferably fresh- grated
- 1/3-½ cup extra-virgin olive oil Salt to taste, about
- ½ teaspoon Preparation
In a food processor, pulse the nuts several times for a rough texture; be sure it’s not too fine. Add the parmesan and the greens. Pulse again, thoroughly mincing the leaves until all ingredients are blended. While continuing to pulse, slowly add the olive oil, until the mixture is moistened. Add the salt and pulse again, taste, add more salt if needed.
Pesto can be frozen or stored in the fridge for up to a week.
Let’s Eat!
This pesto can be used on pasta, spread on a sandwich, mixed in with yogurt or cottage cheese, mixed in with meatloaf, and more. Mustard garlic is a tasty green and is said to have medicinal qualities, especially healing and cleansing for the liver and kidneys.
Honey Murray’s Sautéed Fresh Morel Mushrooms with Onions
Tips for Success
Make sure the mushrooms are dry and the oil in the pan is heated to the almost-bubbling point before adding the mushrooms, to give them a browned color and a richer flavor.
Ingredients
- Light olive oil for sautéeing: 1-2 tablespoons, depending on quantity of
mushrooms; enough to thoroughly coat pan - 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of butter, depending on mushroom quantity
- Morel mushrooms, prepped for cooking
- Diced onion, to taste
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- If desired: minced clove of garlic
- If desired: dash or two of Worcestershire sauce
Preparation
Clean mushrooms well. Cut each in half lengthwise and rinse gently. Soak them in a bowl of cool, heavily salted water for one hour. Gently rinse, and lightly pat dry with paper towel. Let dry on towel for an hour. At this point, you can freeze some for future use, if you’d like (on lightly sprayed cookie sheet, then in freezer storage bag).
Add the olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. When the oil just reaches the bubbling point, toss in the mushrooms. Increase the heat for one minute, letting the mushrooms cook on one side, and then decrease the heat back to medium. Add the diced onions and, if you’re using them, the garlic and/or Worcestershire sauce. Gently stir. Add the butter, salt, and pepper. Gently stir and cook until the mushrooms are softened.
Let’s Eat!
“These are delicious over burgers or steak,” Wayner suggests, “
and as a side dish, anytime.”
