EDIBLE WILD IN NORTH EASTERN ONTARIO
On June 25, 2006, a dozen people eagerly gathered equipped with shovels, knives, a curious mind and an adventurous attitude, at our home on Simmons Lake to learn how to identify, gather and cook edible wild plants of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. We invited Nina Nomenko, ecologist and instructor at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, to facilitate the workshop and after a couple of hours of foraging within a surprisingly small radius, we had enough food gathered to complement a gourmet feast! Cleavers, lambs quarters, daisy, wood sorrel, dandelion, sarsaparilla, cattail, burdock, wild rose, wood violet, fiddleheads...who would have known! Many of the plants gathered were greens, so salad was definitely on the menu. We also stir-fried burdock and sarsaparilla root with wild ginger and garlic, enjoyed pickled fiddleheads of the ostrich fern previously preserved by Nina, pita pizzas with fine wild toppings, traditional bannock with wild strawberries, topped off with a glass of dandelion wine, also contributed by Nina. There is something truly rewarding and satisfying about having the knowledge to identify and prepare wild nutritious food that grows, without any help, right outside my back door. Thanks to Nina, our teacher, for sharing her knowledge with us.