- [Announcer] 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.

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To learn more, visit ForestRiver.tv.

- Oh, look at that.

See if I hadn't have sat down here I never would've noticed that a bird had walked by and lost bits of its down feather on a cut branch on this stump.

Well that's definitely not anything risky, but the truth of the matter is that when you gather wild edible plants, there are risks associated with that.

There are poisonous plants, there are plants that you shouldn't touch.

You don't know if you may have allergies.

Well, the reality is that you will not learn everything you need to know from this show.

The safe way to partake of the wild harvest is to learn from the books, go online and learn, but most importantly, connect with a local expert.

They will be passionate about teaching you everything from mushrooms, to plants, to trees and all the safe ways to enjoy the wild harvest.

(piano music) You know, there's so many ways that I enjoy gathering from the wild.

I mean, I love to come out just on my own, gather one or two plants, bring 'em home, have 'em for dinner that night.

Other times I might have to gather two or three plants and process them.

That could take hours, days, even weeks.

But probably the more fun way to enjoy this wild harvesting is with family and friends, and a little community.

See sometimes the plants are incredibly abundant but they might be tiny.

That means gathering them is going to take some time.

So, many hands make the toil light.

And so this is when your friends and your family, like you, can enjoy the wild harvest.

(piano music) (bright upbeat music) - Whew.

Well, thank you for joining us.

- Yeah.

- By the way.

- Yeah, this is gonna help.

So gentlemen, you're gonna be getting your hands dirty, down on your knees a little bit.

What I wanna show you here is this beautiful spring green right here.

This is called trout lily, and it is perfectly in season.

So let's just start with a taste.

- That's really sweet.

I love the color.

- I know one thing.

I'm gonna need a lot of it to get full.

- [Paul] Mmm hmm.

- That's why you're here.

The beauty of having you guys along with me this time, it's not a solo gathering for me.

What I can do instead is say, okay I've got some friends to help me out here.

This is actually not the main part of this wonderful little trout lily that we're going after.

Let me show you.

So I'm just gonna go like this, right?

Come in, see if I got this guy - [Ron] What are you going for the root, are you?

- I'm going for the root, we call 'em a corm, which is basically a botanical word for potato.

- [Ron] No kidding.

- [Les] Yeah, potato.

- So, they're rich and starch, like potatoes are?

- They are, and tasty.

There's the beauty I want, right?

- [Ron] Oh yeah.

- [Les] See that beauty?

- [Paul] Yeah.

That's small.

- [Les] That is trout Lily.

So you see the size of these little corms.

You saw how delicate it was.

Like if I were to try to pull this guy out by the root it's just going to pop off, right?

It's just gonna break.

Now, here's what we wanna do here.

We're gonna want all of it.

The stem, the leaf and the bulb.

You want to come in, not beside it, but in behind it and kind of bring it up.

And I just think sometimes it's best to just go in with your fingers.

You can be much more gentle and look at that.

There's another beauty right there.

So we can see there's a sea of this trout lily.

And this whole acreage, everywhere, as far as I can walk you today, we would be walking on a carpet of these trout lily.

It's a wonderful bounty, but instead of us all, say, digging right here, what I want to do is responsible harvesting.

So we're gonna spread you guys out by about, you know, 20, 30 feet between us.

- Sure.

- And we're gonna start gathering that way.

So we are off to the wild harvest.

Remember we're gathering wild edible plants.

Just be kind to your body, man.

If you need to gather these like this, then do so.

- I will after a minute, 'cause I'm 63.

- There you go.

You better start stretching now.

- [Ron] (laughs) Often abundant, and native to the eastern half of North America, mostly in its woodlands, trout lily is thusly named as its thought that the mottled leaves resemble the skin of brook trout.

I think this is probably my favorite way to harvest is to get down low to the ground like this and ah just dig in with my fingers, come up with a bounty.

Between the three of us we may end up with a nice little haul.

(rhythmic music) - When I was harvesting these trout lily and corms, I kind of had a chance to really absorb the vibe of this forest.

And it's amazing 'cause you can see little green patches everywhere you look and day by day, there's more green showing up.

At first it was just moss that was attached to the base of trees.

And, and now it's new life.

It's gonna be fun to cook with these.

I'm interested to see how they handle a little bit of heat, how some of the color comes out of them, either with a blanch and a refresh, maybe a saute.

It's gonna be playful.

It's gonna be a challenge.

The trout lily is everywhere.

To be here, to see this, is, is pretty special.

- All right, boys.

- Right on.

- I still have another ingredient for you.

- [Ron] Oh that's maple syrup.

- No, it's not, but it is a syrup and it is pretty amazing.

Here you go, Ronnie.

Have a taste.

- Be greedy - Be greedy.

Paul?

- [Les] So?

What do you think?

- Oh, that's really good.

- [Les] Isn't that something?

- It's wild honey, it's gotta be!

- That's one of the ingredients.

It's a second ingredient to this.

- Is it giving a tang?

A bit of a ... - Yes, it is exactly what, it's interesting you say that 'cause that's exactly what it's supposed to give it, is the tang.

- Okay.

- This is honey and sumac.

Staghorn sumac.

I gathered the staghorn sumac berries last August put them in the freezer for almost a year, and then last week I pulled them out of the freezer.

I made a very dark broth out of them, strained them out, added the honey, and that's what we have.

So you now are gonna going to be working with staghorn sumac and honey simple syrup.

- What's the sumac like not being cut with honey.

- Well actually, when the sumac is not cut with honey and it's just the simmering in the water and you strain it out, you're left with my third ingredient for you which is going to be our tea this time.

Sumac tea.

Very lemony, tart, but clean.

- Yeah, that's good.

Isn't that good?

- Yeah.

- So yeah.

- Nice.

- There you go.

So now you've got the trout lily and the simple syrup that's honey strong with a tang.

What do you think you're gonna do now?

- I'll be eating it, regardless.

It's nothing generic.

- No, it's just in its own world.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- It's own flavor.

- It's an authentic taste.

Well, it's wild!

This connects you to something deeper than just a grocery store aisle.

- Thank you.

- That's what I'm digging.

- Absolutely.

In North America, staghorn sumac is one of our own, not a traveler from overseas.

Native to the mid west and eastern half of the continent, it's abundant, beautiful, and delicious.

(peaceful music) - Mmm, these young shoots are so sweet, delicious, delicate.

I love of the look of it.

The surprise to me is the corm.

I think once you get that outer husk removed the purity of that is just fascinating.

And when I eat it, mmm, there's actually a potato flavor there.

Huh.

I didn't taste that when I was in the field, but I'm definitely getting it right now.

That outer crust comes off really easily, so easy to clean.

So now I just wanna make sure that the blanch and refresh is gonna work.

Just a quick shake in that water.

Mmm, that's really good.

It just became bright.

The flavor came to life.

That's delicious.

Wow.

Now I want to try this corm.

That's really good.

It's pleasant.

It's sweet.

It's delicate.

Especially compared to the, the leaf.

The texture is what I, I think is a win.

Initially when I tried them they were a little bit granular, kind of like a raw potato.

Now it's almost juicy.

Kevin?

For you.

- [Kevin] What!?

You know what it reminds me of is like a tapioca ball in bubble tea.

- Yeah.

But more flavor.

- [Kevin] Got a gummy texture.

- I now think that my mission for dealing with the trout lily isn't necessarily to make a, a salad out of it like I, I first thought.

I'm now thinking that if I could bring this experiment to the table by having something boiling to dip the trout lily into it's gonna be a more dynamic experience.

I'm using ginger, mushrooms, onions and the beautiful sumac syrup to make a dipping sauce for these trout lilies.

This sauce is gonna be perfect.

The last thing I think this dip needs is a bit of heat, a bit of spice.

In this case, I've added some chili sauce.

There we go, that's gonna be spot on.

So I want to accentuate the the beautiful brightness and citrus flavor of the sumac.

I don't want it to be too hard though, I want it to just be amplified.

So for that reason, I'm using lemon.

Little bit of salt, black pepper, and now I've made a beautiful glaze for my entree, which is sweet and savory.

It's really gonna be the star of the show even though it's something that's so simple.

(peaceful piano music) Gentlemen.

- Oh, here we go.

- Ronnie.

This is for you.

Be right back.

- Look at the presentation.

- [Les] Cheers.

- [Ron] Cheers, man.

(laughs) - Okay.

Gentlemen, this is a little interactive but what I want you to do, try the trout lily on its own, but then I want you to pick it up in the chopsticks, dunk it in the water, and then dunk it in that dip that I have there.

- Leaf and corm as well?

- [Paul] Yeah, whatever.

- Okay.

- I've got other stuff to do; I'll be back.

- Thank you sir.

- They look much cleaner than when we pulled them out of the soil.

[Paul] Ha ha.

- That's still good.

There's always some kind of flavor that has to do with wild edibles that you will never find on a grocery store shelf.

That's something.

Hey Paul.

- [Paul] Yep!

- How long do we hold them in the water?

- Give it a 15 second count.

- [Les] Okay.

- [Paul] Yeah.

That, that should be enough.

- [Les] Like that, probably.

- [Paul] Yeah, that looks good.

- [Les] So a five second count then.

- And if you have a corm, a little bit longer.

- Here we go, - Oh, there it is.

What a difference - [Ron] Is it really?

Okay.

So it's probably... - [Les] There's a difference.

- Probably got a bok choy feeling now.

- Good analogy.

Bok choy, interesting.

- [Ron] Oh!

Oh yeah.

- [Les] See what I mean?

- [Ron] Yeah, kicks it up a notch, doesn't it?

It's so cool.

Now, after these, in the water with the dip I could eat the whole forest floor.

It's good.

- This is delicious.

It's nice.

What a way to prepare it.

Oh, I love these little guys here for plant identification.

Just a wonderful example of a wildflower, with basal leaves only.

The lily family, dogtooth violet, or trout lily.

It's just a beautiful, beautiful and succulent little spring wild edible.

So let's take a look at it and figure out some of the identifying markings and features here.

Well, for starters, I'm lucky because this time around there's actually a flower top that I can take a look at for positive identification as well.

But let's go to the leaves first.

These are absolutely what you would call basal leaves.

You can see they come from the base of the plant, the purple mottled pattern on the top, smooth, greenish silvery green on the bottom.

No teeth to these leaves, they are entire.

And this little flower is what you would call nodding.

It's nodding over.

Gorgeous, little yellow, or sometimes yellowish-white.

You've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 petals.

So you look at counting petals.

It's good to count several examples of the plant when you're counting petals to make sure that there's a uniformity to the plant that you're going after.

Maybe there's a lookalike plant, really close to it, and it always has eight petals, and maybe that one's toxic.

So you really need to try to get as much of the evidence of identifying factors of these wild plants before you can say, yes, this is trout lily, and I can eat it.

This is wonderful.

- I have another playful idea using yogurt as a base for a sauce.

Yogurt, sumac syrup.

Oh, that's fun.

I like how it has that marble effect to it.

Undeniably sumac.

Oh, what beautiful color.

A little salt.

Duck is one of my favorite things to cook.

A lot of people think it's a complicated process but really it's not.

The one thing that's very, very important when you're cooking duck.

Don't overcook it.

To me, a perfect done-ness is a nice medium, pink evenly all the way through it.

The ultimate goal here is to get a nice crispy skin on the outside.

As with any protein, always good to let it rest in a warm place until you're ready to serve it.

(sizzling) Bit more salt.

Oh, look at that color.

That's really interesting.

The corms are so white.

Now the greens are such a, a deep color of green.

Just like wilted spinach.

Just a little bit of that champagne to deglaze.

Sumac syrup.

Ah, that's great.

(peaceful music) - [Ron] Oh, how great is that?

- We are ready to eat.

Oh have a seat here.

- All right, here it comes.

Put a spot in front of you, this plate's hot.

- Oh, that's what I'm talking about.

- This is so much fun.

- [Les] Tell us please, Paul, what have we got going on here?

- This is the story of sumac.

Remember the syrup from Les yesterday that syrup became a glaze.

It became a sauce and it became a foundation for all the different things on the plate.

This is sumac-glazed duck, sumac-glazed sweet potato, sumac-glazed trout lily, and on the bottom is a sumac yogurt sauce.

- Oh!

- That's what that is!

- It's rich.

It's melt-in-your mouth perfect.

- The sauce that you have there.

I can taste the sumac in a wonder-, there it is; it's just right there.

And where it's hitting me is just behind the middle of the tongue right across the tongue.

- Kevin?

And?

- [Kevin] Wow!

- Yeah!

- [Kevin] Wow!

- That's what I'm talking about.

- Wow.

The sauces in there are amazing.

- Yeah.

- Your sauce, it just elevates it.

Yesterday I had no idea what was coming my way today.

I had no idea what your imagination would do with what we were digging up in the woods.

Here's what I'm fascinated by.

Where do you go in your mind to be creative, to take this to the level you have?

How do you know what to call on and what to use and what to bring to the game to bring this just culinary repast my way?

- The truth?

I have no idea.

Ha ha.

- Wow... - I like to spend time connecting with where the, the ingredients are harvested and that's really it.

That's my point of influence.

And then it's everything else.

The, the course of the day that influences the final plate - [Ron] This blending of ingredients with what he brought in the jar yesterday.

- [Paul] He made my job easy.

- It's alchemy!

- Yeah.

Thank you.

- You pulled gold from straw, man.

- What happened in the kitchen, Paul?

What'd you end up doing?

- You know, I shared that with you with the first course.

I'm thrilled that you guys had a chance really to be playful with the trout lily.

Initially I was trying to preserve that beautiful trout skin look to the leaf.

I mean it's fascinating, it's not often you see so much dimension on something growing.

And I, I thought, okay if I blanched it in hot water, put it in cold water, that might amplify that, that feature.

It did not.

- [Les] Oh, it didn't?

- What it did is it amplified the flavor.

And I wanted you guys to have that adventure the same adventure that I had in the kitchen earlier I wanted you guys to have that experience here the experimentation of the blanching and the the tasting of the trout lily.

- [Les] How did you keep the corms, the little potatoes?

How'd you keep them so crisp?

- This time I sauteed them in the same pan that I cooked the duck in.

And I, I knew if I'd, just careful I could pull some flavor out of the pan, that I cooked the duck in, the flavor of the duck, and get that to penetrate the trout lily.

- Do you know what else, gentlemen?

Can we try the tea?

- Oh!

Yeah.

- This is sumac tea.

So what I did was, while I was making the syrup, I thought let me try another boil, tried a second boil of the sumac berries, the bunches there, and ah made sumac tea.

Have a taste, Ron.

- Oh - Oh boy!

- [Les] Doesn't that cleans the palate?

- That's good!

- [Les] Yeah.

- That is so good, Les.

And if you ever were in doubt what sumac tastes like - There it is.

- And where it was in this dish, there it is, on its own.

- And it, yeah, it does, it ties in really well.

- Cheers.

Thanks, man.

- Thanks.

- Oh!

- And isn't that the absolute perfect fruition to the wild harvest?

Sure, it's one thing for me to go out solo and spend some time on a mountain side, picking something.

It's another thing to gather a plant and spend days or even weeks processing it.

But, certainly, as you can see, and hear, I'm sure, I think one of the most fun ways, if you will, to enjoy the wild harvest is to engage a community, engage family, engage neighbors, or engage a friend.

When you have a friend with you or two or three, well that's called community, and community is, absolutely, the essence of the wild harvest.

(bright upbeat music) 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 forager 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.

- [Announcer] 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.