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If you are in the Pittsburgh area and interested in raw foods as well as wild edible plants, please join us in Schenely park this Sunday, October 4 at noon (the Steeler game is not until 8:20 pm this Sunday, so you won’t miss a thing!)

This event is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Raw Food Meetup Group, so if you’d like to attend (it’s a free event), please join the meetup group (there is no charge to join) and RSVP on the meetup invitation page. This way you will be contacted if there are any last minute changes (weather!), and given the full information about the whereabouts and who to contact with questions. We hope to see you there!!!

If you are new to raw foods: this is a potluck, so please bring a dish containing only raw (uncooked) fruits and veggies…a simple fruit salad is always welcome (no canned fruit, though, only fresh.) If you are feeling adventurous, check out some of the many raw recipes on sites like www.goneraw.com or the wonderful recipe page of the All Raw Directory. If you are really inspired, you may want to check out some of the raw “cook” books we recommend in the raw food section of our bookstore.

Here is a simple recipe I am preparing tonight:

Garden Fresh Tomato Salad

5 Garden Tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed (or finely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (or you can use fresh thyme or oregano)

Mix all ingredients together well and serve…delicious!

Hope to see you soon!

~ Melissa

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We had a great time going on a wild edibles walk with students of Pittsburgh’s SCA (Student Conservation Association.)
We knew we wouldn’t find any along the south side river trail, so we brought along some beautiful sky-blue chicory, which is in bloom all along the roadsides and all over the city these days.
We sampled herbal tea which had chicory in it, and discussed it’s use as a coffee substitute (drying and roasting the roots.)

(You can read more about chicory in my article in Natural News here.)

We did have some great finds along the south side trail that day, including:

• Dandelion
  
  

  dandelion leaf rosette

• Burdock
• Garlic Mustard
• Purslane - delicious succulent plant, high in omega fatty acids
  
  

  Purslane - High in Omega Fatty Acids

• Lamb’s Quarters - delicious “wild spinach” (please sign up for our newsletter (top right) for lots more info about lambs quarters!)
• Japanese Knotweed
• Mugwort
• Staghorn Sumac (which we all sampled the sumac lemonade we had made for them, see previous post.)
  
  

  Staghorn Sumac - we soaked the red clusters in water for a lemony drink

• Poisonous Crown Vetch - the variety Penngift was made in Pennsylvania, to plant along the highway to prevent soil erosion…with limited results. The soil continues to erode, and while cows and other ruminant can safely eat the plant, which is high in nitroglyceride, it is poisonous to horses and other non-ruminants. It spreads very easily as well.
• Wild Carrot - which, though edible, we do not eat because of it’s similar appearance to the very deadly Water Hemlock and Poison Hemlock
  
  

  Queen Anne's Lace/Wild Carrot

• Mullein - an herb which benefits the lungs, and often smoked by Native Americans for that purpose
  
  

  First Year Mullein basal rosette

• St. John’s Wort - an herb used to treat depression
  
  

  St. John's Wort

Here are some pictures of what the kids and adults of the SCA:

If you’d like more information about scheduling a wild edible walk for your group, please visit our wild event page. Or you can call Melissa at (412) 381-0116, or email to Melissa@FoodUnderFoot.com.

Thanks!
~ Melissa Sokulski, Herbalist
Food Under Foot

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Thanks to everyone who joined us on the Wild Edible Walk today! It was such a beautiful day, and we saw some wonderful wild edibles, such as dandelion, burdock, garlic mustard, onion grass and Japanese knotweed!

I’ll post more on that tomorrow…but for now, here is the recipe for the Raw Apple Dandelion Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups apples (about 4-5 apples)
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
• 1/2 cup dandelion flower petals, plucked off the green collar

1. In a food processor, pulse the first five ingredients until you have small pieces, but not so much that it becomes too wet and mushy.
2. In a large bowl, mix in dandelion flower petals into the batter:
   

   Dandelion Apple Cookie Batter

3. Form into cookies and place on dehydator.
4. Dehydrate at 105 for 8 hours.
5. Refrigerate if you don’t eat them all right away - enjoy!

** If you haven’t received our free eBooks (the 5-Part Wild Edible Series), please sign up today on the box to the right. Part 2 is a 17-page eBook on Dandelions…full of pictures, description, uses and recipes. Please join today.

Thanks again so much!

~ Melissa

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Did you get your Free Burdock e-Book yet?  If not, please make sure you subscribe to our newsletter (right) and it will come right away (plus four more on the way!)

If you missed our Wild Edible Walk in Frick park on Saturday, here is a video footage of me, Melissa, talking about Burdock:

Here  are some other great pictures of what we encountered:

Please join us this Sunday, April 26 at 11 am for our next walk, on Pittsburgh’s south side, down by the river. For more information, check our wild events page or call (412) 381-0116.

See you soon!

~Melissa