Processing wild foods to make them fit to eat

[Toadflax]

I have been watching Wild Food again and one of the things that stands out is the, sometimes complex, processing that is needed to make the food fit for consumption, either to remove toxins or to make it more palatable...

...and it struck me, when I was peeling some potatoes, that this isn't really any different to much of the 'normal' food that we prepare and eat (unless you follow the philosophy of someone I saw on a trailer for a TV program a few months ago who said something like "anyone who prepares food from scratch must be mental").

• Potatoes - green parts contain toxins, if the potato isn't processed by heating then it is at the least unpalatable, at the most toxic.
• Meats - chicken and pork can be severely toxic if not processed by heating.
• Dried beans - need processing by a long period of soaking in water, followed by heat treatment in order to neutralise toxins.
• Swede - needs processing by heating to make palatable.
• Passion fruit, bananas, melons, etc. - the inedible outer skin /shell needs to be removed.
• Rhubarb - only the stem is edible - other toxic parts must be removed.
• Flour - fairly complex processing (grinding, winnowing, etc.) followed by moderately complex preparation and heat treatment to make into edible form (bread, pastry, etc.).
• Etc., etc., etc.

I think the big difference for most people is that they don't have the knowledge of how to process unknown (i.e. wild) foods, but it does imply that processing and eating wild foods is, in many ways, just an extension of 'normal' cooking.


Geoff

 

[gregorach]

True. Plus we've automated many of the most labour intensive processes, and selectively bred certain plant varieties to improve palatability and reduce processing (no-one wants to eat a wild banana).

 

[xylaria]

Wild food is hard graft. Most things are fiddly in some way. I know alot jobs are quicker and less effort if done in group. It makes a chore a social activity. But I do have philsophy that life is too short to do certain jobs, like enough peel chestnuts for stuffing a bird, deseed rosehips, or pine cambium flour. Some foods are worth the graft, the starch from bullrushes bakes to a really tasty cookie when mixed with maple syrup, but it is very fiddly to extract. There is real nice feeling to making stuff from completely from a natural environment.

I watched a repeat of wild food yesterday aswell. I have noticed when ever RM uses a pestle and morter, he declares the food calorically insufient. He doesn't seem to think maybe the nicely bushcrafted log freshly made out of green wood might be heavy or that his technque of using his only shoulders not the back and legs maybe the problem. He also never uses group effort unless he is with a tribe.

 

[Toadflax]

I think that what I was originally intending to say is that it seems that some people have a perception (myself included) that wild foods need 'special' processing (if we leave aside fiddliness and effort in gathering and preparing), whereas 'domesticated' food does not. I think that this probably comes from familiarity with the processing methods that we use in the kitchen - because we do these things by habit, we don't think that they are unusual and perhaps don't even think about it as a process (e.g. boiling potatoes as heat treatment) . To be fair, as Xylaria points out, processing wild food may in some cases be more effort and may not justify the energy return but it still seems that we are already familiar with many of the 'wild food processes' from the kitchen (e.g. soaking, heat treating). It's just that we may not know how to apply them to a plant we see growing at the edge of a footpath. While we are on energy returns, I personally like the idea of trying different things, even if the return is not worth the effort - so I'd like to make things like pine cambium flour once in my life, just so that I know I can do so.

And when I get to this stage, I'm starting to wonder to myself why I'm having this discussion. I suppose it beats talking about what may or may not have happened in East Enders or Coronation Street last night or which so-called celebrity is 'going out with' which other one.

Anyway, this leads onto what I was intending to say in this post. The other 'process' which I haven't yet really tried is using flavourings (wild or otherwise) to make wild food more palatable. This is another thing that I do without really thinking about in the kitchen, but for some silly reason I feel is inappropriate for wild food 'because I want to experience the natural flavours'. We use stock cubes, salt, pepper, spices, etc. to make our 'domesticated' food more interesting to eat, so what's wrong with doing it for wild food? Plain boiled potatoes are pretty boring eating (OK, nothing like the bitterness of dandelion leaves) so we make them better by adding butter, or salt, or gravy. We might add chili powder and beans to mince to make a chili con carne, because plain boiled mince is pretty boring.

What a ramble. If nothing else, it has cleared my mind a bit about what I want from wild food. Bushcraft is about being comfortable in the wild. Using wild food should be about being comfortable with wild foods - enjoying them rather than tolerating them.


Geoff

 

[Toddy]

I like the preparation of materials, the quiet domestic *industry* of it all. I grew up being shown how, and then taking my part of the workload alongsides my mother, grandmother and aunts. Now I frequently find HWMBLT and I working together to gather, process, prepare for storing, and the like. But then, we know this area, this is home, we both grew up wandering the woodlands around here, both had families that grew and made so we kind of have an accord.

I do take dgc's point about the preparations but I think of shelling chestnuts like shelling peas, it needs done, do it. I dislike the sticky gunk of rosehips on my fingers, but I do like the dried pieces for tisanes and the syrups, so again, it needs done, do it.
Nowadays so many feel that life is too short to spend time doing things like this, but what do they spend their time on? glued to the tv?

I also like the seasonal round of changing availability of produce, and things like strawberries at Christmas (unless I've stored them myself) have a sour taste, not quite right somehow, but come May when the first of the real ones in my garden start to appear, oh they're a delight

It's supposed to fall to -4oC here tonight, so there go many of the fungi, and remaining brambles will become mush, so I'm away for a last pick

atb,
Toddy

 

[lottie.lou]

This is another thing that I do without really thinking about in the kitchen, but for some silly reason I feel is inappropriate for wild food 'because I want to experience the natural flavours'. We use stock cubes, salt, pepper, spices, etc. to make our 'domesticated' food more interesting to eat, so what's wrong with doing it for wild food? Plain boiled potatoes are pretty boring eating (OK, nothing like the bitterness of dandelion leaves) so we make them better by adding butter, or salt, or gravy. We might add chili powder and beans to mince to make a chili con carne, because plain boiled mince is pretty boring.

I do like to add things to wild food, garlic to nettle soup and a dressing to dandelions, but I suppose I'm less inclined to because of the amount of time I've spent collecting them. Its quite easy to go to the veg patch and pull up a load of potatoes but it takes a lot more to find and collect suitable wild food, so I want to really taste the fruits of my labour.

I understand what you're saying about the preparation, its something I hadn't thought much about before. I think you're mostly right but I also think the foods which are easier to prepare are the ones we have ended up eating on mass. Peeling a potato in my eyes is a lot simpler then removing the seeds from a rose hip... although maybe if someone had invented a rose hip deseeder things would be different. Good point

 

[gregorach]

Peeling potatoes? Now there is a prep step I can do without... I mean, why spend time and effort to make your food more bland and less nutritious? Never could see the point of it.

 

[John Fenna]

Got to go with Gregorach on this one - I have not peeled spuds in years.
Wash, cut out the dodgy bits and cook, be it fry, boil, mash, roast or whatever. Much better!

 

[lottie.lou]

Thats a very good point I don't know why I said that I never peel potatoes. I think its because it was mentioned earlier. If forced to eat unorganic though you should always peel carrots and mushrooms, they collect all the chemicals.

 

[Toadflax]

I think it's one of those things you never think about - I've always peeled potatoes because that's what my Mum did (even though she grew up during the war and helped her Mum to make things like rook pie)...

...except when I bake them. Then I eat the skins. So why don't I eat the skins when I boil and mash them? Interesting question.


Geoff

 

[andy_e]

Yum, roughly chopped, unpeeled, parboiled potatoes, roasted with a liberal dose of olive oil and sea-salt and a sprig of fresh home-grown rosemary. Is it lunchtime yet???

Just my tuppence worth, but perhaps the peeling of root vegetables harks back to a time when water was too precious to waste washing food and the habit has stuck.

 

[gregorach]

I'm not sure - I suspect that it harks back to a time when having a large kitchen staff and being able to afford waste were marks of social status.

 

[Tadpole]

I think it's one of those things you never think about - I've always peeled potatoes because that's what my Mum did (even though she grew up during the war and helped her Mum to make things like rook pie)...

...except when I bake them. Then I eat the skins. So why don't I eat the skins when I boil and mash them? Interesting question.


Geoff

Until a few years ago, like 99% of the population I peeled potatoes, unless they were for baking. Then Monty Don did a programme called “from fork to fork” I tried his method of cooking potatoes and have not looked back since.
Boil in their skins, drain out all the water, pour in a good glug of good quality olive oil and a big pinch of rock salt then leave to steam in their skins till needed. I realised then that I liked potatoes, as they had flavour whereas before they were just bland lumps of pale starch
I learnt a lot from the series, not least that good food took time to grow, but was worth it, and picking your own was its own reward.
Flour milling for one’s own use is not that labour intensive, nor is baking or picking wild fruits, it becomes hard work, and therefore historically it has been mechanised, when trying to make a living from it, or for feeding more than just a few members of ones own family

 

[Toadflax]

Flour milling for one’s own use is not that labour intensive,

Just out of curiosity, do you use a hand mill or can you get little electrical ones nowadays? Also, where do you get the raw materials (i.e. grain)? We have a flour mill near us, so we have sometimes got flour straight from them but I've never thought of milling my own?

Maybe you should do a little thread /tutorial to show us what you do, with some nice piccys. Even if I /others don't go ahead and do it ourselves, it would be interesting to see.


Geoff

 

[andy_e]

I'm not sure - I suspect that it harks back to a time when having a large kitchen staff and being able to afford waste were marks of social status.

Hehehe - so not because it was too precious since it was all being brewed into beer? ;-)

 

[Jodie]

Nicely observed dGeoff (I think of you with a silent d now ), and everyone else.

I meant to give this four stars but seemed to have clicked on the superlatives button,
but I did think it was a very interesting thread

Every now and again I like to have a bit of a cook and pretend I'm an alchemist turning
basic materials into edible delights, or at least something passable and filling.

I'd add to the 'perception that wild foods need special preparation' the notion that wild
foods need identifying in the first place (and, ideally correctly!) whereas the supermarket
helpfully marks "potatoes" or "aubergines" for me. Once I saw a sign saying "Eggs - as
seen on TV"...

 

[Toadflax]

whereas the supermarket
helpfully marks "potatoes" or "aubergines" for me. Once I saw a sign saying "Eggs - as
seen on TV"...

A complete aside to the thread, but I bought some loose lemons a couple of weeks ago (to keep up the Vitamin C level!), I handed them to the assistant at the checkout, who typed away at the screen for a couple of minutes, before looking at me in a rather confused manner: "Are these limes?". "No", I said, "they are lemons."


Geoff

 

[John Fenna]

Fork to fork sounds good - never saw it, can you get DVDs?
I am too lazy to peel food except oranges - and then I save the peel for firelighting...

 

[xylaria]

Human progress is about making things easier. I like going out and collecting edibles. I like pestling things. It is a really enjoyable activity. This year picked alot hazel nuts and the quickest and easiest way I found of shelling them was put the bowl on living floor and sat as family and used teamwork. It was so much more fun than watching tele. Crushing things is easier teamed up with my daughter. Bushcraft in that sense gives such a bound with hunter gathers. Humans have sat down for millenia as families and communities and processed and cooked their food, and we are losing those moments of bounding in the modern world.

I am not one those people that can find time form ironing or dusting, and I like in intellectual challenge of trying to find the easiest way of making wild food taste good. I add modern ingredants all the time, sugar is indispensible. The RM hawthorn fruit leather is a good example of us not have the same palette as our for barers.

 

[Tadpole]

Just out of curiosity, do you use a hand mill or can you get little electrical ones nowadays? Also, where do you get the raw materials (i.e. grain)? We have a flour mill near us, so we have sometimes got flour straight from them but I've never thought of milling my own?

Maybe you should do a little thread /tutorial to show us what you do, with some nice piccys. Even if I /others don't go ahead and do it ourselves, it would be interesting to see.


Geoff

Much as I would like to, it's been 20 years since I milled by hand. My point was if you are just making bread for a family, even using a saddle quarn, it would only take half an hour to mill enough rough flour for an old fashioned loaf. Ok they would have to do that every day, spend a nice warm dry morning milling, and then bake the bread.

for a couple of minutes effort and £50 you can mill your own flour, fresh and whole Not tried by me, but still a good looking tool

As for buying the wheat, you can get it online, spelt wheat is about £2.50 a litre, normal wheat is about £1.20 a litre. (most online firms have a minimum order of 10 litres)