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Where some see weeds, Cincinnati area chefs and farmers see fresh, local food

Urban foraging trend taking root
Where some see weeds, Cincinnati area chefs and farmers see fresh, local food
Posted at 12:00 PM, Aug 31, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-31 12:00:50-04

CINCINNATI -- Like other artists, creative people in food production and procurement are always looking for ways to push the envelope. A new frontier for ecology-minded farmers and chefs -- as well as those looking to history for inspiration -- is actually one of the oldest practices around: foraging.

Where even sophisticated diners may see annoying weeds, these chefs and farmers see fresh, local food and, in some cases, a return to Appalachian or Native American traditional cuisine. Think nettles, pawpaws, lambs quarters and wood sorrel.

Wood sorrel, which looks like clover, is one of many plants urban foragers harvest. Jenny Burman | WCPO contributor

I have pulled out and tossed away more wood sorrel than I care to admit, but I also know it to be delicious. The problem? My sorrel grows in soil that could be contaminated, unlike the earth in most wooded areas or on a chemical-free farm. I’ll take a nibble of the clover-like plant here and there, but as for serving my family a lot of it? That would have to wait for soil testing.

Increasingly, however, there are commercial sources for foraged foods (beyond mushrooms), and the ways they are used seem to be endless.

According to Richard Stewart, manager of Carriage House Farm in North Bend, MadTree Brewing, for one, has collaborated with local chefs to create signature beers made with foraged ingredients, like elderberries and spicebush berries, which Carriage House provided.

Raised in a culture of conventional farming, Stewart has made extensive use of foods foraged from the wooded and wild areas on the 300-acre farm his family owns. He started Carriage House’s on-farm dinner series with a forage-themed meal prepared by chef Mark Bodenstein of Nuvo at Greenup. Goldenrod, persimmons, pawpaws, spicebush berries, black walnuts, not to mention purslane -- Stewart sells these to local chefs and/or at farmers markets. Chefs that Stewart named who buy foraged foods include Jose Salazar of Mita’s, Jackson Rouse of The Rookwood, Julie Francis of Nectar, Stephen Williams of Bouquet and Mike Florea of Maribelle’s.

According to Stewart, right now chefs are asking for a lot of purslane -- that succulent-like plant that grows in the cracks in sidewalks, also known as pigweed. It has a lemony flavor and nice crunch and, according to Mother Earth News, is a “great source of omega-3 fatty acids.”

“Purslane is something that even in this (recent) heat still produces well and doesn’t become mediocre because of too much heat,” he said.

Laughing, he added, “admittedly we’re wild foraging that almost right out of our garden. It’s a weed that grows up in our garden and we weed and harvest (it as) a culinary crop at the same time.”

Stewart makes goldenrod available to chefs if they want it, he said, but he doesn’t sell it at farmers markets. Spicebush berries, however, are sold at the markets and are available to chefs, brewers and distillers.

“We’ve made a vinegar with the spice bush berries that is absolutely to die for,” he said. “I’ve got 4 gallons of it aging in a toasted oak barrel right now.”

A tray of sumac berries harvested from the wild. Jenny Burman | WCPO Contributor

Another local farmer-gatherer is Jeffrey Complo, who sells a combined harvest of food he has foraged and grown on the Loveland farm where he lives with his wife. Recently Complo, who works part-time at Whole Foods, was selling sumac berries, lambs quarters, and milkweed pods, along with wild collards at the Madeira Farmers Market. Foods he grows include potatoes and basil.

“The big wild find this week was sumac berries,” Complo said, explaining that he’d come across them in a private wooded area in Loveland. “I found a bunch of those that were in their prime ripeness.”

They’re good for teas and a lemonade-like drink or as a marinade for meats, he said.

Safety, of course, is an issue in foraging.

“You don’t want to eat a plant that you don’t know what it is,” Complo said. “So you’re really focused on identification and being absolutely certain that it’s the plant (you’re looking for) ... and being honest about it with yourself, not trying to convince yourself that it’s this other thing or that it is the thing that you want it to be. And it takes a lot of patience, and it takes one plant at a time too, looking up if there’s any other common plants that are misidentified that you don’t want.”

Complo grew up in Michigan just north of Toledo. He said he was an indoor kid who played a lot of video games, watched a lot of TV and didn’t venture outside too often.

He didn’t start out intending to become a farmer. At the University of Toledo, he studied creative writing and book-binding.

It’s all related, he said.

“The book binding was a 3-D art, and so is farming,” Complo said.

Foraging, too.

“You can learn so much in school about everywhere that’s not where you live,” he said. “But the only way to learn about where you live is to go outside and to understand the river systems and the plants that are around you.”