Subscribe to Growing Greener on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon
When Ellen Zachos wants to take a break from growing plants, writing, and teaching – Ellen was an instructor for many years at the New York Botanical Garden – she goes wild … with her foraging. Ellen knows that nutritious, and tasty plants are there for the harvesting everywhere from city parks to vacant suburban lots and country lanes. Currently a resident of New Mexico, Ellen was formerly based in the Northeast, so she knows plants, edible and otherwise, all across the United States
A Harvard graduate, Ellen has written a total of seven books about gardening, including two books about harvesting wild plants: Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, and my favorite, The Wildcrafted Cocktail. In The Wildcrafted Cocktail, Ellen combines twin passions – for wild-gathered flavors and mixology – to develop a book of recipes that take readers from gathering and processing wild ingredients to the creation of cordials, syrups, and extracts, and finally to relaxing over the delicious cocktails.
Ellen polished her knowledge of mixology as a representative of RemyUSA; as such, she teaches foraging mixology workshops across the US, and lectures at botanic gardens, flower shows, and for garden clubs around the world.
For Ellen, wild foods must be not only edible, they must be delicious. Otherwise, she says “I wouldn’t be interested in them.” She describes them on her website (https://www.backyardforager.com/) as “un-buyable flavors,”
Part of the attraction for Ellen is the fun of the hunt, the time spent out of doors in nature, and the excitement of finding and identifying the edible plants. What you get, she points out, is greens, roots, and fruits that you harvest at the peak of ripeness, when their flavors are freshest and most intense. Then comes the fun in the kitchen, using her recipes to bring out the best in the plants and fill your pantry and your table with the delicious, seasonal flavors local to your region. It’s slow food at its best.
Join me and Ellen today for an introduction to wild mixology, as she shares her recipes for stinging nettle cordial, acorn orgeat, wild sangria and lavender-infused gin. Cocktail hour will never be the same.
