Updated 05/20/2011 10:27 PM
Area restaurants dig up dinner for a weekend of spring edibles
It's a chance to check out a taste of the wild. Berkshire County restaurants are dishing up a weekend full of wild spring edibles, foraged from nearby forests. Our Brandon Walker spent the day foraging through the woods to find out exactly what's for dinner.
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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Journey to Chris Amendola's kitchen over at Allium restaurant in Great Barrington for a treat most likely growing right under your nose.
"Tastes like horse radish," he said as he pulled a plant from its root in a Stockbridge forest.
Amendola and restaurant manager Troy Kinser spent an afternoon foraging for wild spring edibles. What might look like plain old forest green to you and me, "has kind of a lemon taste to it almost," for what will become his latest culinary creation.
"I forage at least two to three times a week for the restaurant," Amendola said.
This weekend, what's foraged might wind up on your plate at many restaurants in the Berkshires. It's called Berkshire Farmed and Foraged. Eight restaurants taking part in a weekend full of wild spring edibles.
"We had a long, cold winter and we're showing off the bounty of everything green that's growing around us. All of it being local and sustainable growing in the woods around our region," Kinser said.
Chances are you're familiar with mustard greens. One of the plants is called a garlic mustard, an invasive species to the area, meaning you can harvest all you want because you won't cause any harm to the ecosystem.
"They're like weeds, they just grow and if left untouched, they can take over whole fields and where you had many species in a field, they can cut them down to three or four," Kinser said.
But learning how to do this takes training. In fact, it's a part of a growing industry in the restaurant world, one that doesn't come without its share of controversy.
"Wild leeks, or what they call ramps, are the most controversial because they're so popular. So people are going out there and they're taking them en mass," Kinser said.
Back in the kitchen, it's time to dish up all that was dug up moments ago, bringing the phrase eating local to even greener heights.
For a list of participating restaurants, visit berkshiregrown.org/farmed-foraged-may-20-22-2011.