DIY Prometheus

a "fire" made from pretzels and candy

The Eagle Rock School of Self-Reliance has “Wild Food Outings” where you forage and then make a salad, and classes in survival skills, but I would totally go for the class on fire-making!! It also has a salad so you are getting two for one.

FIRE WORKSHOP, $25. Learn to make fire from bow and drill, hand drill, magnesium, flint and steel, batteries, the sun, etc. We’ll also go for a short walk and collect a salad. Hahamongna Watershed Park, Location 2.

When I was in Girl Scouts (shut up) we learned how to make fire using pretzels. You use the pretzel nuggets to symbolize coals and wadded up newspaper, and the thin sticks for kindling, and the logs for logs. It is amazing I have retained this knowledge, but I could not tell you one thing about the Louisiana Purchase and I have to look up Manifest Destiny on a regular basis.

Attention, Professional Foragers!

The Spotted Pig has an opening:

Full-time position sourcing seasonal ingredients for two restaurants in New York City.

Responsibilities are to:
•    Know the products available at the Union Square Greenmarket (season, source, price, quality, availability).
•    Meet with the Chef and cooks regularly to discuss the changes and availability of Greenmarket products.
•    Research the source and availability of any ingredient the kitchen expresses interest in.
•    Take orders every market morning, communicate what’s available/new that day, make purchases, and transport produce back to each restaurant.
•    Sort invoices and check for price changes for all food products coming into the restaurant.
•    Check the quality of all food delivered to the restaurant each morning.
•    Take a weekly inventory of all food products in the restaurant.
•    Buy and organize the repair of kitchen equipment.
•    Cost out recipes when necessary and keep track of weekly food cost.
•    Record the quantities of each food product coming into the restaurant each week.

A year-long commitment is preferred.

Please send resume and cover letter to annie@thespottedpig.com.

No word on if you actually have to sniff out truffles, but it can’t hurt if that’s on your resume. Thanks tipster! —Snacktime

Donner Party Not Such Hardcore Foragers After All

Once the undisputed champions of the “eat local” movement, the Donner Party has now been demoted to mere cattle and dog eaters by a recent study that found no evidence of cannibalism.  But cheer up—it is still 100% hilarious to give that name at restaurants.

Also I just want to say that I found this image on a site called The Enchanted Porkfist.

—Snacktime

Eat Local? Eat Locust!

What could be more locavore than going outside, getting some indigenous wildlife and putting it on your pizza? That’s just what folks in Mildura, Australia, did when they suffered a plague of locusts this year. It makes sense—when life gives you locusts, make locust pizza!

There is no reason foodies all over can’t adopt this pest-foraging to include the snails, worms, and other urban snacks they come across in the urban jungle. No need for chickens in the backyard when you’ve got ants in the kitchen, right? Or you could use locusts to expand your knowledge of world cuisine. The Desert Locust Information Service, part of the Migratory Pests Group, has several recipes, including ones from Cambodia and Swaziland.

Here’s one:

[T]ake several dozen locust adults, preferably females, slit the abdomen lengthwise and stuff a peanut inside. Then lightly grill the locusts in a wok or hot frying pan, adding a little oil and salt to taste. Be careful not to overcook or burn them.

I applaud Mayor Greg Milne for working to elevate the lowly locust, and I think he has a good chance of making them into a hot commodity. Nothing attracts foodies like scarcity, and locusts only come every seven years. That’s less often than ramps!

On a Clear Day You Can See Forage

OK, not my best title. But this kills me. Forage is a new restaurant in LA that had a nifty conceit: They asked their patrons to bring in home-grown or locally-sourced produce, and the chef would cook it for them! You know, like the ancients. Or like Stone Soup.

Unfortunately the health department did not like this plan, so Forage is now asking customers to bring in fruits and vegetables to be donated to community food pantries, while the restaurant serves food from certified sources.

The Foragers are sad. “This event puts us at a crossroads, and we’ve spent the past week or so thinking about what is important to us,” they write. “All of this changes everything and it changes nothing at the same time.” Well, there you go.

Certainly this is nothing that the restaurateurs could have foreseen. Who would ever think to look at the health department rules and regulations when launching an establishment that deals with food? Who would think to look at the regulations governing the central idea your enterprise is based on, i.e. foraging?

That said, my new store called “Scavenge!” will be opening soon. Please bring things by for me to sell.

—Snacktime

I’ll Be Your Huckleberry: Luxury Foraging

Link: I’ll Be Your Huckleberry: Luxury Foraging

Val KilmerIs there anything better than playing hooky on a Thursday to forage wild huckleberries in the mountains?

Why yes there is! Foraging with “great wines, dill-grilled prawns, pumpkin spice bread, Tom Douglas’ Tuscan bread salad, line-caught home-smoked coho salmon spread, lemon orzo, and vanilla bean crème anglaise (with two ice cream machines whirling away).”

—Snacktime