Monday, May 3, 2010

Putney Wild Food Festival


Our small town of about 2000 souls is quite progressive, and this year, in perfect timing with our adventure, our local co-op put on a wild food festival. When we heard about it through a friend, we knew we had to attend.

We arrived not really knowing what to expect. We set up our puny little table among big booths with lovely tents for shade. We laid out our homemade poster, my jams and dandelion muffins for display, a few bowls of edible plants we’ve been using, and some business cards with our blog information. We spent the next four hours talking non-stop. At times, we were each speaking to six people or more. Thag led a seminar on keying out plants and foraging ethics; over 15 people attended. We ran out of business cards, and so many people asked to buy my jam, I decided to sell it!

Our friend, Rebecca Golden, had a booth beside us. She is an herbalist and has long been a partner in our wild adventures. She gave out samples of her wild nettle pesto which was such a hit that she had to buy more crackers to serve it with. We made her pesto for dinner and have printed her recipe below. Rebecca’s website is http://www.earthangelherbals.com/ .

We left the feeling great. We’d love to share our adventures with more people and hopefully the festival will expand our blog audience.

Nettle Pesto:
Makes 1 cup

1 cup packed fresh nettles
1 cup other wild greens (lamb’s quarters, violet greens, dandelion greens, etc.)
2-4 cloves garlic
½ tsp salt
¼ cup nuts (walnuts, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds) Local black walnuts or chestnuts would be great, too.
¼ cup parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast
¼ to ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Place nettle leaves in boiling water. Cook slightly until sting is gone.
Place nettles and other greens in food processor or blender and blend until well chopped. Add garlic, salt, nuts/seeds, and cheese/nutritional yeast. Blend well. Add olive oil. Blend again. Enjoy on bread, pasta, carrots…

1 comment:

  1. I'm so happy to be able to read about your experiences-- You guys were awesome and we loved having you there! Come back next year!

    ReplyDelete