BLOGS

Blackberries are coming out in Vancouver now, but I really love finding berries that you can’t buy in the grocery store.  Recently, I went up to the alpine in Manning Park (which is just gorgeous) and tasted my first grouseberries (Vaccinium scoparium).  Mild, sweet-tart and really lovely, they would be a great addition to any…

A really wild, yellow flower with an ancient, but dark history. Easy recognized by it’s small circular, clustering flowers ‘buttons’ and it’s feathery leaves, it grows abundantly in abandonned green spaces in urban and disturbed environments. Tansy (Tanacetum vulgarum) is an insect repellent and, as such, was used on corpses to prevent rot. Used as…

We’re super excited about our new Foraging for Beginners Course.  To learn the basics of how to find and cook wild edible weeds, trees, mushrooms and berries like oregon grape with Chef Robin – click here. Oregon Grape Jelly with ginger The basic ratio of sugar to Oregon grape juice is about 1:1 unless you…

I wasn’t always big on morels.  As a chef, they are really expensive ($30/lb) and really hard to clean with all those bloody holes in the caps.  But I found a cluster of small black morels when I was hiking, totally clean! Free luxury culinary ingredients always makes me excited.  So, I added those to…

Hi everyone, We’ve been running a lot of Dungeness crab fishing tours this year in Vancouver and everyone wants my recipe for the crab we serve on the beach.  So here it is.  I DO NOT (sorry to yell) boil my crab, you lose all that great crab flavour to the water which is also…

Shaggy mane mushroom foraging happens from May to October in Vancouver, BC. I found these little suckers in my Vancouver backyard yesterday. Couldn’t resist filming a little “how to” for people that are curious. These mushrooms come up absolutely everywhere and are easy to identify so their a good beginner mushroom for new foragers. Also,…

Ever wondered what you make out of those annoying yellow flowers that sprout up everywhere?  Find out how to prepare these wild edibles into amazing little canapes.  Here’s our dandelion recipe.

I have a lovely birch tree in my Vancouver backyard. In the spring, I love to pick 3 new bright green leaves for my tea in the morning. The taste is very fresh and spicy, similar to a green tea and really good for you. A little lemon and honey balances the flavour nicely.  Foraging…

It’s Spring in Vancouver and time to start yanking those weeds. I can tell you which annoying weeds in your garden are edible in this video series on foraging in BC. I’ll start with bittercress. It’s peppery and really tasty, I use it in salads or as a spice. Foraging in Vancouver with Chef Robin…

Tips from Chef Robin on how to find one of the most expensive culinary mushrooms in the world… You have to be careful, because there are poisonous look alikes out there that can cause some serious liver damage (Amanita smithiana). You may be wondering why anyone would feel comfortable picking and eating matsutakes (Tricholoma murrillanum)?…

We serve these on our rainforest wild edibles tour with our wild mushroom pate.  Guests keep requesting the recipe… so here you go.  I’ve used this with ramps (wild leeks), cauliflower, carrots, fennel and smoked sweet red peppers.   My favourite is the smoked red peppers or ramps. Ingredients: 3/4 cup sugar 2/3 cup Sushi Vinegar…

Lobster mushrooms in BC are one of my favourite edibles.  They do taste mildly like seafood and have a great, firm texture.  They also colour your dishes red; remember you eat with your eyes first! Image by Paul Noll The cool thing about Lobsters (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are that they parasitize russula family mushrooms (with gills)…