Les Stroud's Wild Harvest

- It's vital, I believe, to your health to get out into the wilderness, spend time in nature as much as possible.

But it's also just as vital to do it safely.

You can learn a lot about local foraging right here on this series, and you can learn a lot about it by going online, reading books.

But there's no substitute for learning from an expert.

That is the way to stay safe when it comes to your own wild harvesting.

Head out there with a local forager, who knows what they're doing, and can teach you the responsible and safe ways to enjoy your own wild harvest.

(gentle classical music) (water softly thudding) (water splashing) You know, every single morning I jump in head first into icy water, even into the winter.

foraging doesn't have to be like that.

That's definitely a time when you can dip your toe in the water, be patient, learn one mushroom, one plant, maybe one tree per year, and enjoy all of the nuances of gathering from the wilds.

Then eventually you will wanna do your own deep dive into the wild harvest.

(vibrant upbeat music) (gentle piano music) (leaves crunching) Oh yeah, this is a beauty.

Ha ha.

Look at this guy.

Laetiporus, Chicken Of The Woods.

And what I love about Chicken Of The Woods is that it's great for new mushroom hunters, beginners, even intermediates.

Now this one is super easy to spot from a distance.

That's what makes it so fun to hunt for because it's so easy to recognize.

I spotted this jogging along this trail, and that's the beauty of it.

You see that orange cluster way out there, so, oh, hey, and you can go right over to it.

Sure enough, there's Laetiporus.

This is probably Laetiporus Sulfureus given the orange shoe.

I'll know when I flip it over.

There's variations on the color.

It could be pinky, it can be white, but this is a beautiful specimen.

So let's pull this baby off.

You don't need any special equipment to harvest Chicken In The Woods.

Don't even need a knife, just kind of get in here and break it off.

Ho, ho, ho, wow look at that.

(Les whistling) What a beauty.

Oh, this is gonna be great to look at.

Okay, first let's deal with the fungus fruit itself.

Look at that.

That is a beauty, yeah.

So this is going to be Laetiporus Sulfureus, so you can see how it's got this sulfureus hue.

Now, what you also notice here, no gills, okay?

This is what's known as a poly pore.

Just a whole bunch of tiny, tiny little pores there.

So we're gonna have some fun with this one.

Now, what I'm leaning up against here is a fallen down oak tree.

These things tend to grow on hardwoods, usually oak trees.

It's a decomposing fungi, so when you see it usually at the base of a tree, even if the tree looks healthy, it's not, not if you see Chicken Of The Woods growing on it, there is part of the genus that will grow on conifers.

And it's possible that that particular version of Laetiporus can also cause a lot of gastronal upset.

But this is definitely an old oak tree.

And the beauty of this thing is that it's a perennial.

So I know that I can come back here every single year and it's going to be here.

Remember, this is actually the fruit, like an apple on an apple tree.

This is the fruit from the mycelium, from the fungi that's growing.

So this here is the mycelium, this is the baby.

This guy will be here every year.

I'll come back and check him every year, and I'll bet you I'll be able to harvest this Chicken In The Woods for many, many years to come.

(gentle classical music) Alright, let's get this guy home to Paul.

Beautiful.

Chicken Of The Woods is widely distributed across both Europe and North America.

(gentle guitar music) - I've been in this forest before, but never this time of year, and it's amazing.

The aromas are different this time.

As you know, winter is coming and the leaves are dropping.

It doesn't change the fact that there's things growing in here.

I'm looking around, I'm seeing moss, I'm seeing evidence of the summer that's passed and there's something really special about that.

And then I start thinking about, you know, the mushrooms that are here and the opportunity to cook with them.

Maybe it's a matter of bringing the dining experience to the forest rather than bring the forest to the dining experience.

I don't know yet.

Somehow I'll figure it out though.

(leaves crunching) - All right, here we go, Paul, how did you like your time in the forest, sitting near where I found this beauty?

- [Paul] It was a magical spot.

- Yeah.

- [Paul] Sincerely, I sat there and just looking around, it didn't matter where I looked actually there was something that was interesting, really diverse and really, really enjoyable.

- Well, this is going to be a journey for you and I, because I can recognize this, I can identify it.

I've seen it all over the place and I've never eaten it before.

- [Paul] No kidding.

- So this is my first taste.

The word on the streets, how about, here's a better phrase.

The word in the forest is that there are some people that are prone to gastrointestinal issues with this.

As you know, the best way to do this with wild edible plants is to start slow with a little bit, try a little bit, sleep on it, make sure that your system's okay with it.

People are allergic and have problems with everyday basic foods.

And everybody understands the problem with peanut butter.

Well, it's no different with wild edible plants and fungi, mushrooms.

You just have to find out is this something that you can handle or not?

And that's what you and I are doing today.

The key here, Paul, also, along with finding out whether or not you have an issue with this, or I have an issue with this, is you want to cook it well.

- Okay.

- Right, this is not a mushroom or a fungi that you want to under cook or just eat raw.

This is one it apparently needs to be cooked well.

Alright, I'll leave you to it.

- Okay.

(gentle guitar music) Alright, well this is kind of fun.

Oh wow, that's incredible.

And you know, my first thought is to actually eat it raw.

So I'm really, really glad that I know not to.

So I'm gonna try cooking a little bit just to see how it goes.

(gentle guitar music) You know, when I look at this, it's really interesting to me, 'cause I love the color and I love the texture.

This bottom layer looks like it's gonna absorb flavor, it's spongy.

And I'd like to try and keep this color.

I don't know if cooking it is gonna change it.

It might.

I'm gonna find out soon.

But first off, I gotta see if I can even eat this thing.

In goes mushroom, a little bit of salt.

So cook 'em well done.

That is the key.

Now that is sponging up the butter in a huge way, which is kind of what I was expecting.

Alright, I think we're ready.

All right, I'm not sure- - Are you sure it's well cooked.

- It's cooked, there's no doubt about it temperature wise, but it's really meaty.

- Here let's see what you're looking at.

- Look at that.

- Okay.

- [Paul] It's almost like a french fry texture.

- [Les] Exactly, you're right!

That is like a french fry.

We're gonna do this?

- [Paul We're gonna do it.

- I'm going in.

- Hmm, that's meaty.

That's the meatiest mushroom, well, meatiest fungi I've ever had.

- Isn't that crazy?

- Yeah.

- You've now had a taste of this first time ever in your life, assuming we're good with this and we're not, we don't feel upset or sick in any way.

What's your knee-jerk reaction to what you think you're gonna do with this whole beauty right here?

- I wanna boil it.

I wanna see what happens when I actually boil it.

So I want to play with it a little bit before I decide.

- Eat your last piece, man.

- I thought that was yours.

- No that's yours.

- It's delicious.

- Wild foods are new foods to your system.

You can't know if you're allergic or sensitive, so try some nibbles and tastes before you dive into a big meal.

I still find mushrooms or fungi more intimidating than plants when it comes to identifying the ones you can eat or not eat.

Chicken Of The Woods serves as a good introduction to the world of mushrooms.

And earlier in Haines, Alaska, I found some older ones with local forager, Mario Benassi.

- This looks like shelf mushroom.

It's a Chicken Of The Woods.

- Yeah.

- [Mario] It's kind of a sulfur tasting mushroom, but this one's done.

- Yeah, clearly.

- And so once the fruit has done its job and spored out, then it, you know, it rots.

(gentle classical music) - You know, one of the issues that I do get asked about a lot, and I sense a lot I don't wanna ask you about this, is well, if you show everybody how to locally forage, they're gonna wipe out all the plants.

And you know, on one hand, for the most part, I always disagree with that because now this is about connecting people to nature and also you learn how to harvest properly.

That's the last thing you want to do is wipe out.

- [Mario] Yeah.

- Your favorite patch- - Oh, yeah.

- Of Boletus or some other kind of plant.

On the other hand, when they become too popular and someone figures, "Oh, I can make a business out of this."

- There's certain species that would be impacted by that kind of harvest right.

With Boletus, it's just like berries, this is just the fruiting body of a much larger organism underground.

And so there's no way you could actually get 'em all because you're not gonna affect the source of them.

- The mycelium, no.

I mean, they say the largest living organism in the planet is a mycelium in Oregan.

- Right.

- And it's something like 600 baseball fields put together.

Or maybe it's 600 tons, I can't remember what the stats are.

- Right.

- But it's impressive stats on how big this thing is.

- Yeah.

- And what I like about it, beyond the stats, I was thinking about that.

So that means that however far away, a quarter mile away, if I like dig into the ground and hit that mycelium, it knows I'm doing it a quarter mile away, you know, that's a massive beast.

I just love the thought of that.

The image of that in my mind.

- Yeah, there's even talk now of how the mycelium is the internet of the forest.

- [Les] Absolutely.

- And the trees speak to each other through that web of mycelium.

- Well, I know, you know, Mario, I don't think it's talk at all.

I mean, it's becoming proven science.

- Right.

- And in actual fact, you know, and I'm happy to even go on record with this, but you wanna sit down and have the chat about plants and their intelligence.

As far as I'm concerned, they are sentient beings.

All of the plants, all of the trees, these are sentient beings.

They've already carried out scientific experiments proving that they have memory.

- Yeah.

- Memory!

(Mario chuckling) They react to certain things going on in their environment.

- Yeah.

- And they pass that information down half a mile away, a tree reacts because something's done to a tree over here.

What is that?

You know, if that's not sentience and a whole system that we don't understand.

I don't know what is.

- Well, they're controlling us.

I mean, they've been making us do things for thousands of years.

- [Les] Absolute.

- I mean, we're not passing up the berries.

- No, exactly right, they make it tasty to us.

We go, fine, I'll eat you.

And then later on I will defecate somewhere else.

And after I've done that, that seed's gonna sprout up over there.

- And they utilized us, we were just a vehicle for them.

(both chuckling) - Well, we could have a glass of wine and really get into a conversation on this stuff, couldn't we?

(soft upbeat guitar music) - So I have an idea, which is to actually use the Chicken Of The Woods as a protein.

A play on a classic chicken dish, chicken and dumplings.

First I need to make a sauce, make a soup almost type base.

And in this case, instead of adding chicken to it, I'm gonna be adding the Chicken Of The Woods mushrooms.

A bit of vegetable broth.

Now all I have to do is bring this to a simmer and let the flour cook out.

I need some grounding flavors, some earth tones for this stew.

And the one thing that I know for a fact, mushrooms like onions and garlic, so I'm gonna start with those.

The sweetness from onions and the pungency from garlic work together harmoniously to elevate the umami that naturally occurs in mushrooms.

A good stew is loaded with quality ingredients, has lots of balanced flavor, and takes some low and slow cooking for the flavors to melt.

While all of this is cooking, it gives me a great chance to make the dumpling batter.

And I want these dumplings to be tender.

So I will just mix the batter.

Kinda like when you're making muffins, I don't want to over mix the batter, otherwise they'll be tough.

I need salt.

The key to salt is to use a little at a time.

You can always add more salt, but you can never take it away.

(bag rustling) Wow, those things are insane.

It's really important how I clean these.

The best way to do this is using a brush and just kind of brush the debris off of the mushroom.

And that applies to all mushrooms, not just this Chicken Of The Woods.

I'm using a food safe paintbrush to do this.

The bristles are fairly soft because I don't want anything too firm to actually take away the flesh of the mushroom.

I just wanna clean off the debris.

So right now, this is all about the experiment of simmering it in the sauce.

All right, I've got the Chicken Of The Woods in the sauce.

It's looking great actually.

It's looking like I just put chicken in here.

I'm excited to see if it tenderizes as it cooks.

One way to find out.

(uplifting music) (birds twittering) - [Les] Our connection to the planet is most of the time broken by our own creations.

Concrete and asphalt, even the rubber on our shoes, break our connection to the ground.

Walls of glass and steel, stop us from feeling the wind.

Hermetically sealed homes, stop us from smelling the air and receiving the pheromones of life.

Clothing and rooftops stop us from feeling the rain.

And ironically, all of these creations of humankind are derived from components of nature itself.

But through technology, we've altered them beyond recognition, ensuring our survival, but at what cost.

We miss out on the nourishing energy of nature.

So a walk in the forest, a jump in the lake should be considered something more than novel.

Something more than forest bathing.

They are moments of connection to life itself.

When you go looking for a mushroom or a plant, you're receiving far more than you could ever know.

You want aromatherapy?

Out here, you're being gently covered by a million different combinations of scent and pheromones of sounds and healing energy.

If as studies have shown a patient in a hospital who can simply see a tree out the window, or has a picture of nature on the wall heals faster and requires less painkillers, how much more do we receive from the natural world simply by being in it?

(Les smooching) (dog panting) (forest floor crunching) (upbeat music) - All right, this has been cooking for a little while.

I want to check out to see what's happened with these mushrooms.

Alright.

Taste.

Wow.

Unreal.

It's meaty.

It's firm.

It's held up to all that heat and all that stirring and all that agitation.

Really does come across like meat.

Gotta get the other ingredients going now.

(vegetables sizzling) That looks like a stew now.

Exactly what I want.

Look at how the color is just maintaining itself through all that cooking, all that heat.

And that is the Chicken Of The Woods right there.

Amazing.

Some kale.

Now one trick that I use to keep the dumplings from sticking to my spoon is I oil the spoon, falls in nice and easy.

There we go.

Just have to let that cook now.

(pot clanging) Alright, time to check.

Oh, it smells incredible.

These dumplings just want to do a quick touch test to make sure they're cooked all the way, just making sure they're nice and firm.

And that's it.

It's time to plate.

I'm really excited about this.

(vibrant music) (gentle peaceful music) All right.

- This is a first for us, stew.

- It is.

- Loving this idea.

- All right, that's yours.

- Tell me about, it sounded like you were having fun.

I could hear you while you were working in the kitchen, but I wanted to wait to see and hear about what your reaction to working with this texture was and how it played out for you.

- This is a play on a chicken dumpling stew, and it's fall, so I've got some fall flavors.

The mushroom itself, I found the texture to be a little dry.

Like you're talking about it being crumbly a little bit, or in the kitchen we call that mealy.

It just has almost like a sawdust quality to it, but not every bite, that did not change in the cooking process, which was fascinating to me.

However, when I tasted that sauce, I have to be honest, it tastes like I made it out of chicken stock and I didn't, it's a vegetable stock.

- Okay, so this is entirely vegan, I think you were planning?

- Vegan, yeah.

- Okay.

(spoon clanging) Wow, I'm trying to relate to this.

And the first two bites, I see what they're saying.

It's like, it's chicken, it's just chicken.

- Yeah.

- You know, then it got a little crumbly.

- [Paul] Sure.

- It went crumbly on me, instead of moist and tender, it went crumbly, which is why I took an extra little sip of the sauce, which just answered the issue right there.

That's fascinating, wow.

What did you think when you first did it?

- I thought that the mushroom was essentially gonna disappear.

I thought it was gonna turn to mush.

- Ah.

- And it didn't, it didn't change texture the entire time that I cooked it.

And that was cooking for a good 45 minutes.

- Hm mm?

- Yeah.

- It's kind of like when you put applesauce on a pork chop, right?

You just accept that certain sections of the meat, you give that little extra moisture to help it go down.

It's not that the meat is dry and unpalatable, it's just that a little extra sauce helps.

And that's what I found with that.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah, me too.

- Okay, oh, and the dumpling, by the way.

The dumpling's awesome.

- I'm glad you like it.

- Oh, I love, I mean, I haven't had dumplings in a long time.

It's light, it's fluffy, it's tender.

Now, if I add that to some of that Chicken Of The Woods right there, this is one of your combination meals where it's about everything that's going on all at the same time, I think.

- Different textures, different flavors.

The vegetables themselves don't add anything to the dish.

Really, every bite I have what stands out partly because of the texture, but also the flavor is the Chicken Of The Woods.

- [Les] Mm.

What was it like working with this new wild ingredient item for you in the kitchen?

You know, was it easy?

Was it hard?

Was it frustrating?

- Well, the fact that we tested it to begin with, and we made sure that we didn't have any sensitivities to it, that was a really good idea.

But it had me a little apprehensive.

I'm working with something that, you know, it got into my mind a little bit.

But as this dish came together, all I could think of was, I'm making chicken and dumplings, or in this case, Chicken In The Woods.

- Chicken in the woods, and dumplings.

- And dumplings, yeah.

- How apropos.

Well, it's a win for me.

I'm loving it.

Right time of year, right meal, you know, I could see where you were thinking on that.

I mean, why not make a fall meal on a fall day?

The beauty of this situation (gentle classical music) is that Paul and I rarely get a chance to work with a wild, edible, foraged ingredient that neither he nor I has tasted before.

Years ago when I got into survival and edible wild plants, I jumped in fully.

So you'd think that all these years later, I've eaten every mushroom, every wild plant that there is to enjoy in foraging.

And yet here I am many years later, trying something relatively common for the very first time.

So, whether you're someone who just likes to dip their toe in the water first or jump in fully, I say get your journey started now for your own wild harvest.

(vibrant music) If you'd like to continue the Wild Harvest with me and Chef Paul Rogalski, (leaves rustling) 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 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.

(gentle uplifting music) (crickets chirping) (birds twittering) (graphics humming) (upbeat jingle)