Happy March, food & foraging friends!
Anyone who has spent any time with me in the morning knows that I do not talk, think or otherwise do human things before my first dose of coffee. I was therefore delighted to discover wild yaupon — the nation’s only appreciable native source of caffeine — on an early March getaway to Savannah, Georgia. Lord knows we will need it when the zombie apocalypse comes!
Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) is in the holly family, and its leaves are not toxic, though its Latin name might suggest otherwise. (Like other holly species, yaupon’s berries are toxic, however.) It’s found throughout the Southeast, and has been used by various native tribes in the region. I took enough home to stuff a handful of teabags, after roasting and grinding. I’m 100% more team coffee than team tea, but I really love the earthy complex flavor of this brew, which reminds me of a cross between rooibos and matcha.
Savannah’s Forsyth Park Farmers Market had a local yaupon vendor whose products included yaupon chocolate to yaupon incense. I also caught up with local forager and mushroom purveyor Ancil Jacques at the market, who runs Swampy Appleseed Mushrooms. Ancil made me want to move to Savannah, boasting of annual chanterelle harvests in the 600 to 700 pound range, and year-round chicken of the woods! That morning, he’d even found blewits — a fleeting fall treat for those of us further north. I also learned from Ancil of a species of chicken I’d not previously heard of, the salmon-colored Laetiporus persicinus, which grows on both hardwood and softwood trees everywhere from the Caribbean to Australia. It often grows on live oak (of which there are many in Savannah), and is sometimes called the peach chicken of the woods.
Left/top: Yaupon’s caffeine content approaches that of coffee beans, and is most concentrated in its leaves. The twigs also boast a lot of flavor, something like a cross between rooibos and matcha. (And then there’s me, twirling with delight having found said shrub in the woods.)
Right/bottom: Spring wildflowers and herbs can also make a great non-alc bevvy, such as this naturally carbonated and fermented soda. Fermenters like the owners of Stone Silo Brewery and Silver Wheel Cellars are experimenting with wild seasonal flavors and we love to see it. (Their photos are bookended with a few weedy spring treats – garlic pennycress, one of umpteen edible wild brassicas, and dandelion buds, great for pickling (aka poor man’s capers).
Wild plants can give us more than a morning buzz — an increasing number of breweries, cideries and distilleries are using seasonal ingredients to make one-of-a-kind adult beverages. A few such local makers recently got in touch with me about collaborating on a wild brew, including Stone Silo Brewery. Owner Susan and Don Katzenberger had me out to their marvelous grounds in Damascus, Maryland last weekend, which include a 70-acre working farm abutted by relatively untouched forestland sure to hold many wild treasures to experiment with. Stay tuned for more information on a late summer wild brewing workshop.
I also got to attend the private launch of Silver Wheel Cellars, a new mead and cider maker based in Silver Spring, this weekend. Founder Chris Lanning (whose day job is head winemaker at Olney Winery) has focused his craft business on seasonal ingredients, with each release happening in the season they were gathered, from summer hibiscus to fall hawthorn berry. I’m hoping to gather enough black trumpets this year to help him make a fruity summer mead!
It’s not our vicinity, but a fellow MAW member and homebrewer hipped me recently to Scratch Brewery in Southern Illinois, with a focus on foraged beers representing their local terroir. Check out this podcast for a deep dive into their brews, and why basil can stand in for hops.
If you’re looking for something more steady than a stimulant or a depressant — try this wild herbal soda at home. It’s wildly simple to create a natural non-alc bubbly from just herbs, flowers, water and a little honey. I made a soda this month with lavender, purple dead nettle, violet, and fennel fronds, with some juniper berries to kickstart the fermentation, and the result was a beautiful pink drink, funky and floral. (You can also do a natural pink lemonade from violets, water and honey or sugar – the acid in the lemon changes the purple to pink.)
I’ll be sharing this recipe and others in an upcoming class on preserving the spring bounty for Shop Made in DC/Shop Made in Virginia (note that this class is priced a bit higher than I would like, but alas, the store takes a huge cut.) Spread the word and hope to see you there!
Wildly yours,
April
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