Foraging for coffee
I have a healthy love for foraging and have now found it to be a enjoyable part of my day to day life and I'm slowly experimenting with different types of processes to take my knowledge to a higher level ,whilst doing this I've had some great success and some great disappointments and made a comment about my newest quest to find a palatable coffee substitute and had interest to share my findings
So here we go
Figure I will start with the one we probably have all tried
Dandelion root ,
Firstly I found that location was quite important as it changed the taste hugely
I found paddock plants were not only hard to harvest but are quite tart to the taste ,
Hedgerow plants I found tended to give more root per plant the taste was very mild
Plants found near a water source in my opinion gave the best result
I also found that a flowering plant gave a more pleasing taste
To make coffee from roots I've found that the process doesn't change so I will just go through it once
Firstly after the harvesting remove all of the smaller parts and hair like pieces ( these go into the stock pot for stew ) then I split the root lengthways with smaller roots such as dandelion or plantain I split into four but bigger roots like burdock I try to get a thickness of about a centimetre .
Then I tie them in bundles and leave them for at least 5 days but up to two weeks ( this isn't 100% needed but it is the method I have found to give the best results , you can roast strait from the ground but you won't get the best result ,)
Then I cut them up into small pieces ,I've found that roasting them on the bottom of a pan tends to end up with burnt grind and again gives you a poor taste so I put the lid of my mess tin into my dutch oven on a couple of stones to raise it from the base then roast them as you would bread stopping when the root is golden brown not dark brown as you would recognise coffee then leave to cool and grind only grind when completely cool,
I've also found each plant requires different amounts of grind to get the taste right
So far I've made ,
Dandelion = done right closest to instant coffee so far
Plantain = my favourite slightly meaty taste
Burdock=bitter
Chicory =not at all coffee like but pleasant
Thistle = not strong enough in taste
Cow parsley = utter fail
Whilst I'm sharing I figure I may as well cover acorns and nuts
So acorns , we have two types of oak trees as regards to acorns in the uk the trees which give corns every year and the trees which only give corns every other year as regards to coffee the corn from the two year harvest are much better than the ones from the yearly crops which incidentally seem to make better flour ,
With the three nuts I've used ,acorns hazel nuts and beech nuts they all work best when green ,I don't recommend beech nuts as they taste foul .
Both the acorns and hazelnuts benefit from being punctured before roasting hazel nuts are nicer when small and acorns when big .
I still find my way of roasting is more efficient so tend to use that method I also two part roast leaving to cool and then chopping and then roast again before grinding
Acorns also differ in taste from tree to tree finding a good one is important I've made grind from trees and it is enough to put you off forever and the next tree was lovely
Hazel nuts are surprisingly chocolatly in taste
And a tip for acorn coffee use cream the little pots from condiment counters are great
Hope this was of some interest as I said I'm no expert just learning so any tips or advise is greatly received
I have a healthy love for foraging and have now found it to be a enjoyable part of my day to day life and I'm slowly experimenting with different types of processes to take my knowledge to a higher level ,whilst doing this I've had some great success and some great disappointments and made a comment about my newest quest to find a palatable coffee substitute and had interest to share my findings
So here we go
Figure I will start with the one we probably have all tried
Dandelion root ,
Firstly I found that location was quite important as it changed the taste hugely
I found paddock plants were not only hard to harvest but are quite tart to the taste ,
Hedgerow plants I found tended to give more root per plant the taste was very mild
Plants found near a water source in my opinion gave the best result
I also found that a flowering plant gave a more pleasing taste
To make coffee from roots I've found that the process doesn't change so I will just go through it once
Firstly after the harvesting remove all of the smaller parts and hair like pieces ( these go into the stock pot for stew ) then I split the root lengthways with smaller roots such as dandelion or plantain I split into four but bigger roots like burdock I try to get a thickness of about a centimetre .
Then I tie them in bundles and leave them for at least 5 days but up to two weeks ( this isn't 100% needed but it is the method I have found to give the best results , you can roast strait from the ground but you won't get the best result ,)
Then I cut them up into small pieces ,I've found that roasting them on the bottom of a pan tends to end up with burnt grind and again gives you a poor taste so I put the lid of my mess tin into my dutch oven on a couple of stones to raise it from the base then roast them as you would bread stopping when the root is golden brown not dark brown as you would recognise coffee then leave to cool and grind only grind when completely cool,
I've also found each plant requires different amounts of grind to get the taste right
So far I've made ,
Dandelion = done right closest to instant coffee so far
Plantain = my favourite slightly meaty taste
Burdock=bitter
Chicory =not at all coffee like but pleasant
Thistle = not strong enough in taste
Cow parsley = utter fail
Whilst I'm sharing I figure I may as well cover acorns and nuts
So acorns , we have two types of oak trees as regards to acorns in the uk the trees which give corns every year and the trees which only give corns every other year as regards to coffee the corn from the two year harvest are much better than the ones from the yearly crops which incidentally seem to make better flour ,
With the three nuts I've used ,acorns hazel nuts and beech nuts they all work best when green ,I don't recommend beech nuts as they taste foul .
Both the acorns and hazelnuts benefit from being punctured before roasting hazel nuts are nicer when small and acorns when big .
I still find my way of roasting is more efficient so tend to use that method I also two part roast leaving to cool and then chopping and then roast again before grinding
Acorns also differ in taste from tree to tree finding a good one is important I've made grind from trees and it is enough to put you off forever and the next tree was lovely
Hazel nuts are surprisingly chocolatly in taste
And a tip for acorn coffee use cream the little pots from condiment counters are great
Hope this was of some interest as I said I'm no expert just learning so any tips or advise is greatly received
to get the idea.
