Some foragers head off into forests, meadows and mountains to pick wild edibles. But if you’re looking for forager Danny Childs, also beverage director for The Farm & Fisherman Tavern, don’t forget to check the nearest parking lot.
“In the parking lot behind the restaurant I can get crabapples,” he says, describing the late-autumn bounty of Southern New Jersey, where F&F is located. “We have staghorn sumac growing there, and serviceberries. We pick juniper from there all winter long.”
Working in a densely populated suburban area just outside Philadelphia, “there’s not many meadows around,” he acknowledges. “But I’m always on the lookout. I can almost always find mulberry, sumac, walnuts, oak trees and acorns and honeysuckle—all these things packed with flavor, just waiting to be used.”
And use them he does, in drinks such as the Staycation, a tropical-style drink sweetened with wild chestnut orgeat. Under the umbrella of his consulting company Slow Drinks—also the name of his book, which came out in October—Childs uses his training as an ethnobotanist to hunt down plants intended for cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks.
He’s one of a growing number of bartenders who view the abundance of the great outdoors as a way to transform drinks.
“People don’t realize how many things are edible,” says Brian Catapang, beverage director and partner, Magnus on Water in Biddeford, Maine. “We’re constantly educating about things locals can get in their backyards, or things they rip out and think are weeds.”
For example, Catapang collects seawater from Maine’s rocky beaches to cook down to sea salt, ideal for adding a whiff of sea-breeze to a margarita riff or scavenges dandelion root to add bitter edge to a white Negroni variation.
You May Also Like: The Wildflower Negroni
Elsewhere, NYC-based Ektoras Binikos works with forager Tama Matsuoka Wong to source ingredients for his Harlem bar Sugar Monk. Most are turned into liqueurs, amari and tinctures to flavor drinks like the Wild Chamomile Highball. “What a lot of bartenders really like about wild stuff, is it’ll have some complexity of flavors you can’t get elsewhere,” Wong explains.
Wong’s company, Meadows and More, is a go-to supplier for bars and restaurants. As such, she’s used to tracking down ingredients for bartenders and pastry chefs, who place similar demands on botanicals, looking for bold aroma and flavor when immersed in liquid or heated. “For a bartender, it needs to be strong enough to hold up in a drink,” she explains. “For pastry chefs it has to be strong enough to hold up to ice cream, or baking—it’s not just something in a salad.”
For late autumn through winter, that means evergreens like spruce or pine; aromatic “seed-like things” like coriander seed or shiso seed; and hardy flowers, whether for garnish or steeping into a sweetened syrup, which “brings out the aroma and flavor more.”
For some pros, foraging is about wild flavor (and capturing those flavors in syrups, shrubs and other vehicles to extend brief harvest seasons). But there’s a soulfulness to the endeavor too—discovering a patch of wild strawberries in a fleeting moment of late-spring ripeness is a very different experience than pulling a carton of berries from a supermarket refrigerator case.
“It’s a great connection with the land, and it shows the passage of time,” Catapang observes. “You have to get down and dirty harvesting these ingredients yourself.”
Foraging Tips
“Happy snacking… Don’t die!” That’s the cheery (and slightly terrifying) catchphrase used by educator Alexis Nikole Nelson, aka BlackForager, to sign off her instructional videos on social media. Luckily, the pros have a few safety tips to share.
1. Know What You’re Picking
“There’s a lot of poisonous plants,” Wong warns. “You don’t want to pick the wrong thing.” Take a class or a walking tour with a local expert or refer to a book (like Wong’s Foraged Flavor). Online resources also abound, like plant identification apps—Catapang recommends the PictureThis app—Facebook foraging groups and educational resources like @BlackForager on Instagram. “Wherever you’re located, you can probably Google ‘What ingredients in my area are forageable?’ and figure it out,” Catapang says.
2. Start In Your Backyard
“Foraging has the bucolic image associated with it,” Childs notes, but you can forage in urban or suburban areas too. “It’s just going out and keeping your eyes open.” For example, he taps maple and picks wild cherries from trees in his back yard. At first, he didn’t even realize the cherries were there, he recalls: “I never looked high enough up.” Bonus: from a safety standpoint, it helps to start with an area where you’re familiar with the plants.
3. Avoid Pollutants and Chemicals
“Know the environment you’re picking from,” Wong advises. “Some plants take up heavy metals from the soil they’re growing in. Just because they look good, doesn’t mean you want to eat it.” Avoid surface pollutants too: For example, instead of pulling up dandelion roots by the side of a busy city road, which may have been sprayed with pesticides and are blasted by car exhaust regularly, consider moving further afield.
4. Leave Some Behind!
Fight the greedy urge to take all the wild strawberries or ramps. “You can’t just uproot everything, or you won’t have it next year,” Catapang says. “You need to leave some so it can repopulate itself.”
Cocktails to Try
Ready to forage your own ingredients? Here are four recipes that highlight the unique flavors of naturally sourced herbs, nuts, botanicals and more.
Brain Swirl (aka Dandelion + Rosehip Negroni)
Courtesy Brian Catapang, beverage director and partner, Magnus on Water
Dandelion root can be foraged either in spring—before they blossom—or in autumn and into winter, when more flavor is stored in the root, Catapang says. Either way, the root adds a “bitter and savory” note that complements a Negroni variation. Rosehips are optional and add a fruitier note.
Ingredients
- ¾ ounce Bols Genever
- 1 ounce Dolin Blanc vermouth
- ½ ounce Ramazzotti Rosato Aperitivo
- ½ ounce Luxardo Bitter Bianco
- 11 drops Dandelion + Rosehip Tincture*
Instructions
Strain into a rocks glass over a big, clear ice cube. No garnish.
*Dandelion + Rosehip Tincture
Make It
Add 1 cup chopped dandelion root, 1 cup dried rosehip and 2 cups high-proof neutral grain alcohol to a 1-quart mason jar and let sit for 2–4 weeks. Taste; when you like the flavor, strain out the solids and store liquid in an airtight bottle or jar.
Buy It
Some amari offer a similar bitter-floral quality. Try Eda Rhyne’s Amaro Flora—the Asheville, North Carolina, “Mountain Bitter” includes rose hips among its wildflower-heavy formula.
Wild Chamomile Botanical Highball
Courtesy Ektoras Binikos, Sugar Monk, New York City
Dandelion root can be foraged either in spring—before they blossom—or in autumn and into winter, when more flavor is stored in the root, Catapang says. Either way, the root adds a “bitter and savory” note that complements a Negroni variation. Rosehips are optional and add a fruitier note.
Ingredients
- ¾ ounce gin; Binikos suggests Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin
- ½ ounce wild chamomile (pineapple weed) essence*
- ¼ ounce elderflower syrup
- Tonic water
- Dried chamomile flowers, for garnish
Instructions
Add first three ingredients to a highball glass. Stir, then add ice. Top with tonic water. Garnish with arranged dried chamomile flowers.
*Wild Chamomile (Pineapple Weed) Essence
Make It
Put 2 cups fresh wild chamomile (pineapple weed) flowers, leaves and tender stems (dried chamomile flowers may be substituted if fresh wild chamomile is unavailable), in a jar and fill with 1 liter high-proof vodka. Close tightly and store in dark place for 4 weeks. Strain and filter a few times through coffee filters until completely clear. Keeps indefinitely.
Buy It
Look for chamomile liqueur, such as Sibona Liquore alla Camomilla, or gin featuring chamomile as a key botanical, such as Hendrick’s Flora Adora.
Spruce Tip Gimlet
Nathaniel Smith, Minneapolis, Minnesota Adapted from Barantined: Recipes, Tips and Stories to Enjoy at Home, by Mike Wolf (Turner Publishing, 2021).
A gimlet is an ideal vehicle for show – casing spruce, Smith says. “It is simple and elegant, refreshing and balanced, and allows the fresh, woodsy flavors of the spruce tips to play uninterupted with the juniper of the gin.”
A related foraging tip from Wong: To safely forage your own spruce or pine over the holidays, purchase a non-sprayed Christmas tree.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces London Dry gin (note: vodka, aquavit or blanco tequila may be substituted)
- ¾ ounce fresh lime juice
- ¾ ounce spruce tip cordial*
- 2 dashes orange bitters
Instructions
Lime wheel and remaining spruce tip for garnish Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass (or serve in a rocks glass over ice, if preferred). Garnish with lime wheel and spruce tip.
*Spruce Tip Cordial
Make It
Add 4 cups water and 4 cups fresh (or frozen) spruce tips into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, simmer for 5 minutes. Once cooled, place into a jar and allow to sit overnight at room temperature. The next day, blend the spruce tip water in a blender for 10 seconds. Combine 4 cups lime juice, 8 cups white sugar, 2 tablespoons coriander, pinch salt, 12 pieces of lime peel, 1 piece of orange peel and 4–5 coins of fresh peeled ginger in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, simmering again for 5 minutes. Cool, strain into a clean vessel and keep refrigerated. Keeps, refrigerated, for one month.
Buy It
Seeking spruce? The botanical flavors a range of gins (try Vikre Boreal Spruce Gin, from Minnesota), or try a pine-y liqueur for similar flavor, like Austria’s Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur or an Alpine amari like Braulio or Amaro Pasubio.
Staycation
Adapted from Slow Drinks (Hardie Grant, 2023), by Danny Childs
Chestnut orgeat adds seasonal interest to this nutty, tropical-style drink.
While American chestnuts are almost impossible to find in the wild thanks to a widespread fungus, blight-resistant Chinese (Castanea mollissima), Japanese (C. crenata) and European (C. sativa) species all grow well in the U.S., as does the closely related chinquapin (C. pumila), also known as “dwarf chestnuts.” When foraging, avoid horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum), which are poisonous, Childs warns. “Edible chestnuts come to a pointed end, or tassel, whereas horse chestnuts are rounded and smooth,” he says.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces rye whiskey
- 1 ounce Chestnut Orgeat*
- ¾ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 8 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
- Mint sprig and grated nutmeg, for garnish
Instructions
Shake whiskey, orgeat and lemon juice with ice. Strain over pebble ice. Dash the bitters around the top of the ice. Garnish with a mint sprig and freshly grated nutmeg.
Make It
Roast 1 lb chestnuts, first cutting an X completely through the shell of the rounded side, over a fire (or for 20 to 30 minutes in an oven at 400°F) until the shells begin to caramelize and split at the cuts. Peel away the outer shell and papery skin. Coarsely chop peeled chestnuts in a food processor. Top with 4 cups boiling water, cover and let sit at room temperature for 3 hours. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a tea towel or cheesecloth (should yield about 2 ½ cups), and discard the solids. This strained liquid is now chestnut milk. Combine in saucepan with 2 ½ cups sugar and heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar completely dissolves. Cool in refrigerator. Once chilled, add ½ teaspoon orange blossom water and 1 ounce rye whiskey. Keeps, refrigerated, up to 1 month. Makes about 3 ½ cups.
Buy It
Since chestnut syrup or liqueur is challenging to find, consider mixing traditional (almond) orgeat (try Fee Brothers or Liber & Co.) with a splash of hazelnut liqueur like Frangelico for a similar, super-nutty flavor profile.
This article originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
Bring the World of Wine to Your Doorstep
Subscribe to Wine Enthusiast Magazine now and get 1 year for $70 $29.99.
Last Updated: October 30, 2023
