With our Wild Edibles Plant Walk coming up this Saturday, we thought we’d do a little digging into the ins and outs of foraging. First, we took a look at instructor Caroline Colesworthy’s book recommendation, Steve Brill’s Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places and, second, we scoured the ‘net for foraging examples across the States. While one might expect pickings to be slim in certain areas, it turns out there is a bounty to be had in all sorts of landscape.

Near the sea, foragers look for seabeans, or glasswort. Typically available in the summer, seabeans look like spruce or cedar fronds and have a salty and crunchy taste. Other seaside wild edibles include seaweed, salt and clams, yes, clams, but take note, you must have a license to clam.

Woody areas host wild garlic, mushrooms (only experts should sample wild mushrooms), clover and blueberries. If a shallow stream or spring meanders through the woods, your chances of happening upon watercress also improve. Look for watercress – a member of the mustard green family – in cold, shaded water. It can be used fresh in salads and sandwiches or cooked.

In big cities, berries, nettles, dandelions are on the menu and, depending what city you live in, may be accompanied by cherries, apples, oranges and avocados. Check out this piece on Urban Foraging by Eve Solomon of The Huffington Post for an urban feast slideshow.

Ready to sign up for the Wild Edibles Plant Walk this Saturday at 11:30am? Great! Click here and you’ll be on your way.

It’s no secret that The Ecology Center emphasizes food education as a means to healthy, sustainable living. Lately, we’ve been inspired by Chef Jamie Oliver’s American Food Revolution. If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to see the TED Talk during which he details the depth and breadth of food issues in the United States and declares his wish to educate every child about food, now’s your chance.

Chef Oliver’s TED Talk first aired in February of 2010, but a campaign update was released on his website just a few weeks ago. In it, Jamie identifies the three most common and unsurprising reasons people give for a poor diet – lack of money, lack of time and lack of cooking skills – but also highlights one very pleasant surprise:

“One thing that always surprises me is the kids; you often hear about kids being fussy eaters and that getting them to eat anything that isn’t pulverized and covered in breadcrumbs is impossible, but I generally find that they’re the first ones to get on board.”

A child’s willingness to learn about and try new foods is good news for everyone, their willingness to embrace home cooking skills is even better! The Ecology Center offers kids a chance to roll up their sleeves in the kitchen at 10am on the first Saturday of every month in our Farm to Fork program where local chefs take students on a tour of our edible garden and then guide them in the preparation of small plate meals. To learn more about Farm to Fork and to sign your child up for our next class on October 2nd, call 949.443.4223.

We’re still not sure why home bread baker Chris Blank doesn’t have his own bakery, but, we’re certainly grateful that he has the time to share his expertise with us. On September 4th, Chris taught his second Sourdough Bread Baking class at The Ecology Center. Once again, wafts of freshly-baked sourdough filled the Congdon House as students took on the art of baking bread from shared starter.

All students went home with freshly-fed starter of their own, Chris’ mixing spoon of choice and an aluminum tin to create the steam-baking effect in their home ovens. Aside from making a house smell fantastic, Chris offers this thought on bread-baking: “It gives us an opportunity to share something homemade with our families, friends and community.”

Backyard Skills is about sharing do-it-yourself projects and practices with members of our community so we can live healthy, sustainable lifestyles. If you missed Sourdough Bread baking, rest assured we’ll do it again next year. In the immediate future, we’re offering a Wild Edibles Plant Walk workshop where you’ll embark on a nature walk and learn to identify the wild edibles that surround the places we work, live and play and how to use them in meal preparation. Join us on October 2nd from 1-3pm! We recommend registering in advance. You can do so now, right here.

On September 4th, six would-be local chefs joined Chef Barbara Hughston in The Ecology Center kitchen for Farm to Fork. The class started off with a show-and-tell session featuring the latest offerings from The Ecology Center’s edibles garden. Students pointed out their favorite fruits and veggies and shared how they best like to eat them with the rest of the group! From artichokes to peppers, they had all sorts of culinary suggestions.

This month, the students made “Friendship Soup”, grilled cheese bites and fruit salad. Chef Barbara started with a lesson in safety, then put the students to work peeling carrots and potatoes, measuring lentils and scooping out watermelon balls. At the end of class, students served their parents a sample of the delicious meals they had just cooked up.

Don’t miss next month’s Farm to Fork on October 2nd. Class starts at 10am and ends at 11:30am and costs $22.50 for members and $25 for non-members. We highly recommend registering in advance. Call 949.443.4223 to reserve your child’s space!

(Chef Mead at left)

The most anticipated event of the year, Green Feast is an unforgettable evening – a community celebration of local food taking place on a September evening on the fields of South Coast Farm. Over the past month, The Ecology Center has highlighted the local food and wine talent that makes this event possible. Today, we come full circle with the chef who oversaw last year’s event.

Spotlight on Green Feast 2010 Participant: Chef Rich Mead

Despite the catering jobs that funded Richard Mead’s classes at Ohio’s Wesleyan College, upon graduation, he became a paper-pusher for the IRS. Understandably, Mead wasn’t very happy with the position and dreamed of a better life, even studying cookbooks at night after work.

A move to Mammoth, CA, proved just the shake-up Mead needed. To fund his skiing hobby, Mead turned to catering and cooking once more, and it wasn’t long until he realized this was what he was meant to do.

Chef Mead opened Santa Monica’s 17th Street Café in 1989. A regular watering hole and hangout for celebrities, the restaurant garnered its own amount of fame thanks to innovative dishes and fresh ingredients. Nearly a decade later, Mead was ready for a larger challenge and sold his portion of the 17th Street Café. With the money, he opened Sage, a smaller restaurant where he focused his energies on further developing his cooking style. Despite its strip mall location, rave reviews soon followed, from the local OC Weekly proclaiming Sage “impeccable fine-dining” to the ubiquitous Zagat Guide’s declaration of “culinary paradise.”

A second location, the more upscale Sage on the Coast, opened in 2004. When researching locations for both restaurants, access to farmers’ markets and local ingredients was an important consideration in Mead’s decision-making process. Most recently, Chef Mead opened Canyon Restaurant in Anaheim Hills where planter boxes sit behind the free-standing restaurant. Talk about local ingredients!

(Bio courtesy of Delish.com)

The Ecology Center is so grateful to Chef Rich Mead (Chef from Green Feast 2009) for his continuing support of Green Feast and The Ecology Center!

The most anticipated event of the year, Green Feast is an unforgettable evening – a community celebration of local food taking place on a September evening on the fields of South Coast Farm. Over the next month, The Ecology Center is pleased to highlight the local food and wine talent that makes this event possible.

Spotlight on Green Feast 2010 Participant: Chef Azmin Ghahreman

Over the last 20 years, Chef Azmin has immersed himself in the cooking styles and cuisines of: classic and nouvelle French; Mediterranean, Hawaiian Pacific Rim, Asian, Middle Eastern, Modern Australian, American Southwest and American Pacific Coast/California.

Born in Iran, educated in Switzerland, having lived and worked all over the world, he now calls Southern California his home and base for his various culinary projects which have been lauded by guests, customers and media from far and near. In fact, OCMETRO BUSINESS listed Ghahreman as one of the “2007 Hottest 25 People in Orange County” and dubbed him ‘rock star chef’.

In 2007, Ghahreman opened his first restaurant and lounge, Sapphire Laguna, with its adjunct gourmet specialty shop, Sapphire Pantry. From the very beginning, the restaurant and shop were embraced by the Laguna Beach community and beyond. His globally-oriented cooking style and avid interest in the best food products and wines from California, other parts of the U.S. and internationally have solidly placed him on the region’s culinary map. His motto has always been, “When you travel through the world’s markets with your palate, you don’t need a passport.”

A glowing two-star review in the Los Angeles Times describes Ghahreman’s cooking as “polished and precise without being too formal”, which is exactly what Ghahreman is striving for at Sapphire Laguna. Other kudos for Ghahreman’s food that “sends one on a trip around the culinary world without leaving home” have appeared in: Sunset, Coast, Orange Coast, Westways, The Laguna Beach Independent, The Orange County Register and other publications.

The Ecology Center would like to extend its deepest gratitude to Chef Azmin for his creativity and generous contribution to Green Feast 2010!

Back by popular demand, The Ecology Center is once again offering Sourdough Bread Baking with Chris Blank. Yes, sourdough bread will be baked (and enjoyed) during class and all students will take home prepped started to apply their new backyard skill at home. Tuition is $30 for non-members and $27 for members of The Ecology Center.

Did you miss the sourdough class this Spring? Here’s what past sourdough bread students have said:

“I have baked bread with the starter and several times have made pancakes, too. I love to cook and as a kid my dad made sourdough pancakes every Sunday morning for us so I was excited to get a new starter again.”

“Yesterday I made some really great bread. I took fresh basil, english thyme, and lemon thyme. I chopped them up pretty fine. The bread was the best bread i have ever tasted.”

“My neighbors are in love my bread and think that I am the best cook ever. I don’t know about, that but I am so happy to have learn my new skills of bread making.”

Please register in advance as space is limited. You may register online (click here) or call 949.443.4223 to sign up!

The most anticipated event of the year, Green Feast is an unforgettable evening – a community celebration of local food taking place on a September evening on the fields of South Coast Farm. Over the next month, The Ecology Center is pleased to highlight the local food and wine talent that makes this event possible.

Spotlight on Green Feast 2010 Participant: Chef Justin Monson

Chef and proprietor Justin Monson brings his passion for California’s food and wine culture to the beach town of San Clemente. Called “The Vine” by regulars, the restaurant features a casual yet sophisticated wine bar, open kitchen, lounge and semi-private dining table in the wine room. The menu, which changes seasonally, offers a selection of wine country favorites such as seared scallops wrapped in smoked bacon and served in a potato leek soup; a duck confit salad; and the signature pumpkin ravioli with hazelnuts, sage-brown butter and truffle oil.

Acquiring his chef training in New York at the Culinary Institute of America, then serving as an apprentice chef at the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel; Saucier (lead cook) at Auberge du Soliel in Napa Valley; and head chef at French 75 in Laguna Beach; Monson always dreamed of opening a signature place of his own. To that end he has played a major role in all aspects of creating the Vine, most especially in the sole designing of the restaurant itself. “My desire is to create recipes and cook foods the way grandmother would,” said Monson. “Like many restaurants in Europe, my menu is seasonal, changing four times yearly, expressing the fresh foods and wines of each new season.”

Psst, for those of you interested in bringing your children to Farm to Fork, Chef Monson has been known to teach a class or two.

The Vine Wine Country Cuisine is located at 211 N. El Camino Real in San Clemente. For more about Vine, visit the restaurant website.

The Ecology Center is so grateful to Chef Monson for his continuing support of  The Ecology Center!