[Narrator] This program made possible by Forest River we have always been dedicated to helping people experience the joy of the outdoors by building a full range of recreational vehicles.

At Forest River, your needs, interest and lifestyle are at the forefront of everything we do.

Forest River, follow the river.

To learn more, visit forestriver.tv.

That's Kevin there on camera and Paul working on another wonderful, wonderful dish for the Wild Harvest series.

While he's giving a bunch of cooking tips.

I give you lots of plant identification, tips and local forging harvesting tips, but know something, you cannot learn everything you need to know to safely do any wild harvesting from this film.

Read the books, go online and research, and most importantly, learn from a local expert.

Find a local plant consultant, take their courses take all the classes there are learn from those so that you can, with 100% accuracy, positively identify the plant or the tree, even, that you're interested in and enjoy your own wild harvest.

(somber piano music) (waves crashing) Abundance, scarcity, knowing the difference is vital to your local foraging.

Understanding whether or not the species that you are after is widely abundant across the planet, or just in that little pocket where you happen to find yourself.

This is incredibly important so that you can harvest responsibly.

Understanding the difference between abundance and scarcity, that's the ticket to the wild harvest.

(upbeat piano music) (waves crashing) [Fiona] So this is a pretty steep drop off here.

[Les] I see that.

Ah [Fiona] Incredible abundance in here.

On the coast, people often say when the tide is out, the table is set.

[Les] I've said that myself.

[Fiona] So, you, yeah, you wouldn't go hungry.

[Les] Well, this looks fantastic.

I mean, I know we're going after only two little guys today.

[Fiona] Chitons.

[Les] Chitons.

[Fiona] And we're gonna look at gooseneck barnacles.

[Les] Gooseneck barnacles.

Okay.

[Fiona] Which are these ones they're actually a crustacean.

So they're more like a lobster or a crab than a muscle is, a muscle's a bivalve.

[Les] Really?

[Fiona] And with gooseneck barnacles the part that you eat is actually the neck.

Yeah.

So you want to get a barnacle where it's really quite long and they are very slow growing a barnacle that's that big could be 20 years old.

[Les] Wow.

I see that they look really healthy, right?

You're not seeing patches that are dying off or don't look healthy.

[Les] Okay.

[Fiona] These are nice and firm.

And also I come back and I forage here all the time.

So Right, that's a big thing.

So I know that's this is healthy, right?

Right.

And in fact, over the last couple of years there's even been some new colonies starting out here.

See, that's key.

The fact that this is an area location specific, actually that you are very familiar with that you come back to.

So you've, you've set your own baseline of what's possible here.

What's growing.

What's not doing well.

[Fiona] I think these are good ones because you've got some nice long necks.

You've got a good vertical surface that it's easy.

[Les] These ones too?

[Fiona] Yeah.

Those ones too, would be easy for us to cut.

Yeah.

This does look like a good patch.

Yeah.

So these, oh, these are awesome.

Yeah.

So to see nice and big and full, these are?

[Les] Oh yeah.

The necks are incredibly long.

They're colonizer species, right?

So there's a whole bunch of individuals growing together.

These are really hard to harvest because you've got the big ones in the middle that you wanna get but you gotta get at them, and to get at them, you've you've actually gotta cut some of the ones around the edge.

[Paul] That makes sense.

[Les] Okay.

[Fiona] So if I pull that out a bit [Les] Yeah.

Right at the base of the rock almost kind of pry them off.

[Les] Okay.

[Fiona] So do you see Les, how that's a really tight end.

[Kevin] Wow.

That is not what I expected them to look like.

[Paul] That's two of us.

[Fiona] So that's a really nice one.

You know what?

We also need to determine what's a right amount.

Now Paul's going to work on a meal basically for the three of us.

So what's a good amount of these to gather for that kind of meal?

Cause we don't wanna over harvest.

[Fiona] I'd feel this bowl about halfway.

A lot of these species they're so nutrient dense, right?

You don't need a lot to feel full.

[Les] All right, Paul, you ready to do some work?

[Paul] Yeah.

[Les] Let's get busy buddy.

[Les] Pollicipes polymerus are typically found on the exposed coast and intertidal zones from Alaska to Mexico.

(light hearted music) My guys are screaming.

Is that normal?

These look disgusting.

Sorry guys.

But you do look disgusting.

It's really all about the angle where your hands can actually reach [Les] The dense clusters formed by the gooseneck barnacles are as such to withstand the pounding of heavy surf in the environment they prefer to grow.

So it's important not to destabilize the clusters when harvesting.

[Les] All right, let's go on the other little beast we're looking for.

We're going after Chitons now correct?

[Fiona] Yep.

Here we go.

[Les] Perfect.

The trick with these Paul, you have to be a little sneaky because once these decide that they're gonna stick on the rock, you'll never get them off.

[Paul] Okay.

[Fiona] So, what we're gonna do is just very quickly slide your blade under and pop off.

It goes [Paul] Oh, that is easy.

[Fiona] It was easy, but it's not.

If they stick How many should I get?

Again, super dense food.

So two or three each for us would be sufficient.

That's enough?

Okay.

Yep.

Uh oh.

[Paul] There it goes.

Yep.

Little twist to your knife.

Not too bad.

Yep.

Looks good.

Thanks Les.

[Les] All right.

I'm liking this Oh that's a nice one.

[Paul] C'mon buddy.

Perfect.

Nice move.

[Fiona] Okay.

And I got two more here.

[Paul] So that's it.

That's it, that's all you need.

Nice job guys.

So the first course, I want to do sort of a riff on a ceviche and I'm thinking of the Chitons for that just to make a nice light, hot summer appetizer.

[Fiona] So we're gonna blanch all the Chitons.

That's the first step we're gonna plunge them in the boiling sea water.

Okay.

And just like blanching a vegetable is just like a super quick cook.

And then I see you prepared ice water which is excellent.

And that'll stop them like a vegetable from over cooking and we're gonna cook them for about three minutes.

Oh, it smells really good.

It, it kind of smells like a lobster.

Totally.

Okay.

Ice.

Yeah that's good.

Okay.

Beautiful.

Okay.

So I have no idea what to do with these.

You've cooked them the right amount of time.

Cause you can see how the skin is loose here, off the meat.

[Paul] Okay.

So this should just come right off.

If the skin doesn't come off, you haven't cooked them long enough.

- [Paul] And then they've got these little shelly bits.

Yeah.

So these are the plates that protect the animal.

It's like a Jurassic bit of armor.

These are very ancient creatures.

[Paul] Yeah.

They look like it.

[Fiona] So you'll notice the plates go one way.

[Paul] Yep.

[Fiona] Right.

So you wanna peel them off this way.

Sometimes when you walk on the beach, you can see these as little sea shells.

[Paul] Oh, I have seen those and I've never, I actually thought they were just seashells.

[Fiona] Oh, they are, they are seashells.

Yeah, and you just kind of gently pull it apart, scoop this out and you could pop that in your mouth right now.

It's great.

Kind of has a texture of octopus, similar flavor.

It's really mild and sweet.

And, gosh, I could see that being great in a chowder [Fiona] Since we are here at the beach, the way I was brought up is if you harvest seafood and you're still anywhere near the beach, you always put this back in the water because it feeds something else.

Okay.

I'm really excited to work with the Chitons.

I love the flavor.

It's so familiar.

I want to use them in a seafood salad recipe that I've made in the past.

Dishes like ceviche are raw fish but they're actually not raw when you eat them.

The acid in the marinade actually cooks the fish.

But since these are cooked already, I don't want the acid to be there until the very end as a flavoring profile.

Last thing I want to do is cook these more and make them rubbery.

There we go.

Perfect.

Now I just have to flavor it.

I think a little bit of spice is in order for this dish.

Nothing too crazy.

Just a little fresh jalapeno and I'm cutting it up very small.

So it's not a big bomb of heat or pepper flavor, but just a little punctuation.

I think this dish will benefit by having the roundness of some shallot in the marinade with it.

That's good.

A few of those, not too many as well, that will do.

Here we go.

Some olive oil.

Okay.

It's time to add a little bit of acid.

Acid and seafood are best friends.

Some fresh lemon juice, some fresh black pepper.

Just a hint of salt.

Now to taste for balance.

The balances are, and a texture, is almost like a clam.

However, it is delicious.

The salt level is correct.

No sugar needed.

It's time to plate this.

Okay.

Can't believe that I am plating this salad here.

It's absolutely a beautiful day.

So I'm just cutting up some lettuce to add a little bit of color.

And I just wanted to kind of resemble maybe some seaweed that's here along the beach.

I'm not trying to make my cuts pristine.

Just something that's gonna add a nice color and feel to the dish.

Now time for the magic.

Lastly, some nice borage flowers that add a beautiful cucumber note.

(relaxing music) All right.

Wow.

What a work of art!

So these are the Chitons.

The Chitons, okay.

This is a, just kind of a, a marinated seafood salad.

So I, I worked with Fiona.

She taught me how to, how to work with these little guys.

And they're quite simple.

However, they're, there's a, a mouth feel to 'em kind of like a clam, like a big clam when you cook it and it kind of tenses up.

It, there, there, there's a texture there.

Hmm.

Little Calamari-ish?

Mild.

Mild, but it's all there.

There's no question, you must have learned a lot over the last couple of hours working with Fiona.

If I eat it on its own.

Yeah.

There's the taste.

It's not unpleasant.

It's not knock me off my feet.

I like the chew.

I like the, the bite to it.

Ah flavor wise.

Now that's where I think it's more your culinary experience of knowing what to match with it, that is working really well.

Cause I'm not getting a ton of flavor even on a, on its own bite.

It's there.

It's just a hint of flavor though.

Yeah.

You know, what did you find?

I found there's not a lot of flavor at all.

They are.

They're very sweet.

So they're, they're pleasant.

There's nothing fishy.

There's nothing over the top.

So for people who want a light flavored seafood, this is it.

Oh, you're right.

You know, if you had told me this was some kind of, um, I don't know, root vegetable that you, I, I would actually I could, I would believe you.

There's nothing about this that's fishy at all.

So that's another, I guess a bonus point for those people who aren't interested in that, you know, essence of the ocean sort of thing on their plate.

Well, thank you man.

I, I thought this was great.

Would I, would I want it this way again?

You know what the honest answer is?

No.

I wanna see what else you could do with it.

I'm gonna say it's a win, but it's not a home run.

Mmhm, where I agree with you is for the, the first experience of working with these guys, the flavor is so delicate.

Like even these light flavored ingredients.

Yep.

There's, there's no garlic in there.

This is all just fresh ingredients.

And even when you find that a green onion and a pepper are now the predominant flavor profile.

Right.

It means that really I have to take a, a step back and work with very light flavors to pair with it.

All right.

Well, I'm looking forward to what's next.

Thanks.

That's delicious actually.

There absolutely are risks associated for heading out and enjoying the wild harvest doing some local forging and a good example is this guy right here.

This is poison-hemlock.

This is a plant that is a member of the carrot family.

So you have to be really careful because you can eat carrots.

There are wild carrots, such as Queen Anne's lace that are absolutely delicious but this is pretty much the most deadly poisonous plant.

At least in North America.

Let's take a look at it.

First off you take a look here at the stem.

There's two things to notice.

One of the dead giveaways no pun intended are the purple splotches on the stem.

You can see them there.

And that is something that you can tell.

But then again, on the other hand there's some stems here that are absolutely just straight green.

And yet I know that it's also the plant so they don't always have the blotchy purple appearance but it is one of the things they do have.

So it's something to check for.

But again, I'm looking right now at a plant that has none at all side by side with another one that's full of them.

So the other thing is the stems are smooth.

And often if you look at something like queen Anne's lace for example, the stems are rougher.

So you've got a smooth stem, purple splotches and very much a carrot like appearance to the leaves.

And the formation leaves looks a lot like a carrot.

And then look at the top here.

You can see these are you would call them umbrella shaped flowers, trying to get down to the tap root it's in the carrot family.

Well, guess what the root looks like.

Here's your carrot root right there.

The best way to do what I'm doing right now which is positively identifying it with you would be to actually have with me, the members of the carrot family that you can eat that are safe.

So queen Anne's lace, for example or even just some carrots from the grocery store lay them out and then do your comparisons because you can't be guessing at something like this especially when it comes to a plant like Poison-Hemlock or say, mushrooms as well.

So all of this has to be taken into consideration to forage locally or forage further afield safely.

[Fiona] So this is kind of crazy, but this is actually more closely related biologically to a lobster and a crab, than it is to a clam or a muscle.

But that's critical because if you have someone in your restaurant who is allergic to crustaceans like crabs and lobsters Right.

They can't eat this.

Good to know.

Okay.

So this goes in the water.

[Fiona] Yep.

[Paul] And then how long do we cook it?

[Fiona] Minute, two minutes max.

[Paul] All right.

How's it feel?

Does it feel like we're there?

[Fiona] I think Paul, this is perfect.

And we've got our ice water here.

Same thing as the Chitons.

We're gonna put it right in.

Good.

A big chunk there.

[Paul] That's going to help.

[Fiona] Yep.

The way to do these is you slice the head off first.

[Paul] Okay.

[Fiona] Okay.

So you can see there's a little bit of meat in there.

Use your little knife, put the tip through [Paul] Right.

[Fiona] And then you just kind of unzip them if you will.

[Paul] Well that's easy.

This one's peeling, just with my fingers.

[Fiona] Yup.

[Fiona] Just like you're taking off a shrimp skin.

Oh, I'm almost done.

Actually, that's easier than I thought it was gonna be That's cause you've cooked them perfectly.

All right.

Taste test time.

So if you didn't know what this was and I just told you to close your eyes and eat something what do you think?

I would think this is a piece of lobster.

Isn't that funny?

It makes sense biologically.

Right?

Cause this is a crustacean.

But, if I told you you were eating a barnacle you probably wouldn't have gone to lobster [Paul] At all.

[Fiona] No.

[Paul] No.

I'm really pleased to have a chance to work with Fiona and learn how to cook these properly.

And to be honest, they taste much better than I thought they would, ah to have a lobster-y flavor to, to something that looks like this.

I, I didn't see that coming and it's gonna change what I'm thinking of for dinner.

I'm thinking that they actually might work really good in a pasta dish.

I've got some nice shell pasta, which I think is meh, a little playful, works good for a seafood dish like this.

Just a little bit of olive oil.

Time for the sauce.

Melted butter.

Now I'm just gonna add those mushrooms, saute them up.

I want them to get a nice little caramelized flavor to them.

Okay.

That's just perfect.

The mushrooms are slightly browned.

Ah, it smells so good.

Some heavy cream and I'm just gonna let that stand.

Okay.

I've got these beautiful pea tendrils.

Now those are gonna be really fun in this dish.

They're gonna add some flavor, some texture, some color.

So the thing that I'm perplexed with is how to make these guys look more appealing.

They're interesting.

No doubt about it, but I'm considering cutting them lengthwise and we'll see what it's like once it's cooked in garlic butter.

Well, look at that.

That's interesting inside.

I'm gonna try and preserve that beautiful pink color.

That's been revealed.

Now that I have these done, I have to finish the pasta.

There we go.

Almost there.

Just want to flavor the butter with the garlic scape and I want to cook the garlic scape at the same time.

They're gonna be a nice little garnish but they're not the star of the show.

Okay.

Time to put the peas in.

I'm gonna put these aside just to stay warm while I get these gooseneck barnacles going I want to heat them.

I don't want to overcook them.

So I'm going very, very low heat.

I'm gonna put the past on the plate and by the time that's on the plate, they should be cooked just perfectly.

All right, my friend.

Ooh, pasta.

[Paul] For you.

[Les] Look at that.

Okay, I'm gonna admit it looks like there's a bunch of little fingers on my plate here.

I know.

I was trying to fi- Don't let that gross you out I'm sure this is gonna be delicious.

I was trying to figure out a way to present the ah, goose neck barnacle.

Okay.

But it was, I initially thought if I cut it into little pieces, it it'd be perhaps better looking, but I'm pretty sure this is gonna be awesome.

Mmm.

Wow.

Wasn't expecting that.

It tastes a little bit like lobster injected with a bit of garlic butter.

Like, but into it not, I know, I know the sauce is here, but I gotta try this again.

Mmhm.

Mmm Mmm.

I like these better than the Chitons.

They, they've got more flavor.

Yup.

They have more flavor.

I like the texture.

It was still a good dish, but this, yeah that was maybe first base.

This is I think a home run [Paul] Tons of flavor.

[Les] And I absolutely do enjoy the flavor similar to lobster if you will.

I'm sure anybody who's a lobster lover will will say that it's, it's nothing like lobster or it's not as good, but I would argue that.

Well, it is as good.

It's just, it's different.

Yep.

Overall, both ingredients were easy to process.

Both of them had familiar textures, familiar flavor profiles.

And if anything, I think the importance of understanding how to harvest properly and sustainably.

It's the perfect way to introduce me into these new ingredients.

I think, you know, abundance, it is dangerously in the eye of beholder.

You come upon an area because you're traveling let's say then you find a spot where there's a ton of wild edibles that you're familiar with and you wanna harvest them.

Remember that they may actually only be abundant right there and they may be denuded everywhere else.

Or they might be just everywhere and it's fine to harvest them.

So being able to come out to a place like this with someone like Fiona and enjoy wild harvesting ethically, responsibly with someone who knows is, it's a huge advantage.

Discovering new abundant, wonderful wild edibles.

That is just the magic of the wild harvest.

(upbeat music) [Les] If you'd like to continue the Wild Harvest with me and chef Paul Rogalski, then please check out our website at wildharvestfilms.com, where we have recipes and foraging tips along with deleted scenes and outtakes from the making of Les Stroud's Wild Harvest.

[Narrator] Directly inspired by the series.

Chef Paul and expert forger Les Stroud bring you the Wild Harvest season two recipe book, highlighting all of Paul's dishes and complete with behind the scenes stories.

It is available for $29.99.

In addition, a DVD of this season is also available for $19.99.

To order, please go to wildharvestfilms.com, Wild Harvest TV show on Facebook or Les Stroud's Wild Harvest on YouTube.

This program made possible by Forest River.

We have always been dedicated to helping people experience the joy of the outdoors by building a full range of recreational vehicles.

At Forest River, your needs interest and lifestyle are at the forefront of everything we do.

Forest River, follow the river.

To learn more, visit forestriver.tv.