Going wild at the table

One particular food concept that has been gathering ground and becoming increasingly fashionable in recent years is the (re)discovery of wild food for human consumption; ‘bringing the woods to the table’.
The renewed trend for ‘foraging’, or gathering wild food for free – and the associated arts of preserving and cooking wild food- are really nothing new. Our ancestors did just that. But the concept has been resurrected, dusted off and given a new shine!
The aim is to know and use what nature provides, choosing ingredients from the most pristine natural environments to prepare them for the table. The principle is to select seasonal food to complement our usual diet: eg, berries in the winter and sprouts in the spring. Nettles, asparagus, chesnuts, walnuts, dandelions, bilberries, mint, watercress, sorrel are just a few examples of tasty foods that can be found in the wild.
The type of food that we can forage are often rich in nutrients and vitamins and occuring naturally, carry no harmful ‘cultivation’ impact on the environment. Environmentally speaking, using wild food avaliable naturally in your local fields and woods goes well beyond the concept of counting food miles. You could say that wild food is not only a useful and free source of nourishment for the body, but scores ‘good karma’ points, too, with zero impact on the planet! The country that provided the initial inspiration for, and is considered the home of, wild foraging is Finland.
In Italy, the place to learn more about the scape of foraging is ” Wooding”, a fab wild food lab in North of Italy.
For each of us, it’s not only about being environmentally friendly but about being smart when it comes to our daily consumption and being progressively aware of what is edible in nature.
To coin Steppenwolf :…”Take the world in a love embrace… born to be wi-i-ild!”…