>> "Modern Pioneering" is funded by Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food, offering degrees in culinary arts, artisanal food, baking, beverages, and more... Sullivan Catskills, a destination for long walks, casting a line, paddling a stream, and farm-to-table cuisine, located 90 minutes from Manhattan -- SullivanCatskills.com... Also in part by contributions from the following... And by the support of generous individuals.

A complete list is available at APTonline.org.

♪ ♪ >> In today's show, I hope to empower you to embrace the wild that's around us all as we go on an urban foraging expedition with a wilderness and survival expert, Eric Knight, in search of edible and medicinal plants.

Later, we'll step into the kitchen and I'll show you how to make a thirst-quenching honeysuckle tea.

Then it's bombs away as we do a little guerilla gardening.

"Modern Pioneering" starts right now.

♪ >> I'm Georgia Pellegrini, a food explorer and author.

Oh, yeah.

I'm on a quest to discover today's masters -- the unsung heroes who are making the best that their own two hands can produce.

>> It is a family secret.

>> So many skills of our past are not being practiced today.

>> There you go!

>> And modern conveniences are driving a wedge between ourselves and the most rewarding things we can do as humans.

Getting your hands dirty.

Come along with me as I discover and celebrate the people who are showing us how to slow down and get back to our roots, because, to me, self-sufficiency is the greatest adventure on Earth.

♪ ♪ There is tremendous value in understanding our intimate relationship to the natural world.

And in our hectic, fast-paced lives, so many of us forget to stop and smell the rosemary.

Being connected with the rhythms of nature makes us better human beings on this Earth, better stewards of the land around us, and better friends to one another.

Humans have more potential in places, cultures, and behaviors closer to our evolutionary beginnings.

Modern life may conceal our need for diverse, wild, natural communities, but it does not alter that need.

The act of practice of what I call manual literacy -- that is, using your hands -- taps into an important natural human instinct.

There are ways, both large and small, to get back to the land, even if the land is only a fire escape or a patio planter, a parking strip where you are picking wild dandelion greens for a salad.

As I've continued my own journey and taught others, it has never been more clear to me that being self-sufficient allows us to try all of these things that make us feel truly full.

They are our road map for a more empowered and fulfilling life.

There are so many edible and medicinal plants right outside your doorstep.

It's useful to know about these things for emergency purposes, of course, but also just to be a little bit more self-sufficient.

These are incredible resources right at your fingertips.

I'm on a local trail system just steps from my home, and I'm about to meet up with Eric Knight, an edible and medicinal plant expert.

We're about to take a stroll and see what kind of wild foods we can find.

Eric, thanks for taking the time to take me on a little foraging expedition in our neighborhood.

I love that we're actually neighbors.

>> I know.

Actually neighbors.

>> And who knew that we both happen to love foraging on this trail?

It's such a gem in our neighborhood.

>> Yeah, it's really a great trail.

I mean, right here you can see we've got the evening primrose.

That's got edible flowers.

And then this is one of my favorites in this park, elderberry.

>> Oh, I love elderberry.

>> Super cool.

>> I love making elderberry syrup, actually, with the flowers.

>> You can make a syrup.

A lot of times I'll make a tincture with it.

>> Really?

>> Yeah, you can just soak it basically in vodka and you can make a tincture.

You can make a tea with it, and, then, of course, when the fruits set, you could also make, like, a syrup.

>> Interesting.

And these are called -- >> Evening primrose, and so you can just eat these raw.

The flavor is not, like, anything spectacular, but they're really cool to add to a salad.

>> Yeah.

I always say it's about presentation too.

It's not just about taste, right?

>> Yep.

But that's one that's really common in the spring and summer.

>> Refreshing.

>> Yeah.

>> Alright, already we've got some gems.

>> We've got two down, yeah.

♪ Yeah, so we've got dayflowers over here.

>> They're beautiful.

>> Yeah, those bright blue ones.

They're kind of -- It's -- They're kind of slimy if you, like, take a leaf off... >> Uh-huh.

>> ...and crush it up.

They're really weird-feeling.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> But the flower is pretty easy to identify.

It's got these two blue petals, and then it's actually got a white petal down here.

But to me it looks kind of like a face looking at you.

>> [ Laughs ] It does.

You're right.

>> Yeah.

But you can eat these flowers.

>> I might try it.

This would be beautiful in, like, a cocktail.

This little garnish or any kind of salad.

>> Yep.

>> Just delicate little crunch.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

Hydration.

>> Yeah.

>> If you're thirsty in the wild... >> Yeah.

>> ...and you need something to drink, that would be the thing.

>> It is hydrating.

>> Yeah.

>> I've never thought about it.

>> Good water source.

Probably captures the rainwater, you know?

>> Yep.

And so right here we've got our most common wild grape in Austin.

This is mustang grape, and you can see a bunch of grapes.

These aren't ripe yet.

They're still green.

But when they're ripe, they're really nice.

They turn like a dark purple.

>> Okay.

>> And it's super easy to identify this plant because if you look at the bottom, it's super wooly.

It's got a bunch of white kind of hairs on it.

But these are really good.

They're pretty sour, but, like, I've had friends making wine out of it.

>> Really?

>> Jam.

>> They get a dark purple, you said?

>> Yeah, yeah.

And I usually just eat them straight off the vine, but they're really nice.

>> That's neat.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get their toe in the water for the very first time?

Like, when they go outside in their neighborhood, what's the low-hanging fruit, no pun intended?

>> Yeah, I think two things.

I think it's really important to do some type of class with someone who's, you know, been foraging for a long time and knows the area really well, but also, at the same time, like, I learned primarily through field guides and just finding local field guides and reading them as much as I could, and there's tons of really cool field guides in Texas, so we're pretty lucky.

I wanted to point out one other one.

>> Okay.

>> This back here is yaupon.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> Yeah, so, yaupon is actually the only native plant to North America that has caffeine in its leaves.

You can kind of strip the leaves like this and then make a tea straight with that.

You can dry it.

You can roast it.

Do watch out for -- It has these -- >> Oh, yeah.

>> They're green berries right now.

They turn, like, bright red.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> You don't want to use the berries.

You only want to use the leaves.

You can use old leaves, new leaves, any of the leaves.

>> The more you chew, the more it's got that tea flavor.

>> Yeah.

And, you know, you'd have to chew a lot to get the caffeine effect, but if you brew it up, it's actually really nice.

>> If you need a little pick-me-up on your walk, though, you know, you could just put a handful in your mouth.

Yeah, I'm, like, really getting -- almost getting like a coffee undertone now.

It's, like, changing in your mouth as you chew.

>> Yeah, you can definitely chew it.

I wouldn't eat, like, swallow it, but you can chew it and then spit it out.

>> Okay.

Neat, yaupon.

Love it.

>> So, foraging is a lot more than just edible plants.

It's also medicinal, and so I picked a few of these prickly pear pads here.

We've got passionflower vine.

We've got cenizo, and we've got Turk's cap over here.

So I just kind of wanted to show a few things medicinally with these plants.

One of the coolest and kind of easiest to learn about is the prickly pear.

You know, this grows all over Texas.

It's almost like aloe vera in a way.

You can use it for cuts and scrapes and burns.

This is a spineless variety.

Obviously if you [Chuckles] encounter one with spines, you want to be a lot more careful than I am right now.

The easiest way to kind of prepare this to use as, like, a survival band-aid is just to cut it in half kind of length-wise, so you can cut it down the middle.

So we can just cut out a piece of this one.

So, say you got a cut on your hand here.

This is really slimy and kind of mucilaginous, and so one thing you can do is kind of break it up with your fingers so it's a little more juicy.

And then you can just place that right on top of wherever you got a cut, and actually if you hold it like this for maybe a minute or two, it'll actually stick pretty well, but if you're not that patient, you can also wrap it with, like, cheesecloth or some kind of T-shirt or something like that.

If you're stuck out in the woods, you don't have anything, this is great, and it's really good for burns as well.

Passion flower -- a little bit different.

You're not using this topically on your skin.

A lot of the times I just make a tea out of this, so you can take a handful like this, boil it in a couple cups of water, and drink that.

Passion flower is really good to help you go to sleep or just kind of calm down.

I use this a lot of the times before bed.

If you don't want to, you know, spend time to make a tea, you can also make a tincture.

So, essentially, you want to get a clean glass jar.

I like these amber jars just because when sunlight hits it, it kind of degrades it faster, so it's best to have an amber jar, and you basically take a wad of passion flower, and you can kind of crush it up a little bit, and you'd stuff it in the jar.

You'd fill it up all the way and just kind of keep cramming passion flower in, and then you'd take 100% pure grain alcohol and just pour this in to cover.

That's about right.

And then cap it and let that sit for about two weeks.

You can do less.

You can do more.

But around two weeks is when it's pretty good.

And you don't want it in direct sunlight.

You don't want it outside in heat.

And then you can take droppers full of that right before bed.

So, one last thing I wanted to talk about is this root.

This is actually an agarita root.

When you're harvesting roots, you want to be really careful to do it sustainably 'cause obviously if you dig up the whole root, you're killing the plant, so one method to do that is to just take the side shoots, or my favorite method is if you know an area is gonna get cleared like for a new fence or something, you can go and dig up this plant 'cause it's gonna be destroyed anyways.

Agarita has this yellow root like under the bark, and that means it has berberine in it, and berberine is the same thing that's in goldenseal and a few other medicinals.

Any kind of stomach ailment this is great for, so usually I kind of shave off some of the root bark, some of the actual wood in the root and do, like, a cold-brew tea with it, and it's very bitter, but it is really good for your stomach if you're having issues.

All these things I've shown today and on the walk were, you know, just kind of edible, medicinal things that are growing around Austin.

They're free for the taking, but, you know, you want to make sure you do it sustainably and responsibly and also safely.

You want to make sure that you're harvesting the plant that you think it is and not something else, like a look-alike that's poisonous, so make sure to, you know, consult your experts in your area, consult field guides, and really do your homework to make sure you're doing this sustainably and safe.

>> I had so much fun on the trail this morning with Eric.

And I was thinking of ways that I could preserve some of the things that we foraged that would be useful for later, and I thought of these ice cubes.

They're beautiful and they're practical.

So what I'd like to do is I like to take some distilled water, and the reason I use distilled water is that it's got all the impurities taken out of it and it gives us a clearer ice cube.

Mixology has become such a big thing these days that it's really easy to find all kinds of ice molds out there.

I'm using some large cubes because it'll really feature what I put in here well.

So, I'm gonna start by taking some flowers and herbs and some rosemary and anything else that I think is edible and just lay them in the bottom of these.

And just sort of distribute it evenly.

You could also use berries.

I've done it with mulberries before.

You could use honeysuckle.

I'm gonna take some of this red honeysuckle -- it's also known as Mexican honeysuckle -- and put that in here.

This is the tip of an asparagus plant.

Pop that right in.

And then I have a few nasturtium.

That'll add some color.

You kind of want to make them all a little bit different.

This is your chance to use your ice as your canvas.

I also love doing little petals that are green.

I use, often times, oregano or thyme.

Here's a little frond from some dill weed.

I'm gonna sprinkle that throughout.

A few more purple flowers.

Alright.

The idea behind large ice cubes is that they melt slowly, so you get to enjoy them for a long period of time before they fully incorporate into your beverage.

The trick is to only fill these halfway.

And that is going to make sure that these all set in the center when they freeze.

That way you get a good vantage point any side of the ice cube.

Now I'm gonna pop them in the freezer.

In about an hour, we're gonna fill them all the way to the top.

After about an hour, when they're fully frozen halfway up the side, I'm gonna top them all off with water and put them back in the freezer.

Here they are, fully frozen.

I'm gonna pop these guys in a glass and show you how beautiful they are.

I've got some with berries, some with flowers, some with herbs.

Look how beautiful that is.

And that distilled water, once you add liquid, is going to allow those ice cubes to be really clear.

Put that guy right on the top.

♪ I'm a huge fan of tea, both hot and cold, and there's something so satisfying about harvesting your own ingredients, like this honeysuckle I got to make this brew.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm amazed at what I was able to find on the trail today.

You know, flower arrangements can be expensive when you buy them at the store, but there's so much out there in nature that you can use and bring back home and decorate with.

So I want to just show you how to do it quite simply.

Now, here are some things I was able to get this morning.

I've got lantana here.

I've got some Engelmann daisy.

I've got some Texas sage.

So what I like to do is I like to strip the leaves off and trim the bottoms to give them a fresh start.

And then I just build my arrangement little by little.

This is called Indian blanket, this beautiful bright orange and yellow flower.

Some of these wild flowers are more delicate, but that's sort of the special part about them.

You don't need to go to the store or even the nursery or buy expensive bouquets of roses.

I sometimes think that it means more when you've gone out there, you've foraged, and you found something beautiful with your own two hands.

Let's see, what do we got here?

This is another beautiful Indian blanket.

Strip those leaves off.

Give them a trim.

One of the other things I like to do is think about the shape of the bouquet.

So, I've got some vines here from honeysuckle, and they're gonna just sort of branch out.

Add some wild, add some arms, add some tendrils in different directions.

Strip those bottoms.

Hopefully with time... Mmm, they still have that honeysuckle smell.

Hopefully with time some of these flowers might even open a little bit.

I've got some Texas sage here, which I always love as a filler.

It's got a beautiful almost silvery green color.

It's got a nice purple flower to it.

I'm gonna stick some of that in there just to give it a little depth and texture.

I loved the way this looked.

There was only one of them on the trail, and it's so unique, so I'm gonna feature this one prominently in this bouquet here.

Have it stick out.

Face the audience.

Gonna do some more Engelmann daisy here.

I love those big, bright yellow faces.

I'm gonna stick these guys in the back.

They're sort of tall, so I'm gonna play with height 'cause I think you want to have different heights as well in your bouquet.

I pulled a little bit of rosemary off my rosemary bush.

And I want to add that in just for a little scent.

I love the feeling of walking through a room and just capturing a little of the scent from a bouquet just lingering in the air.

How are we looking here?

It's looking a little wild.

Okay, I'm gonna start filling in the center now with some more color.

I really want to make it feel full.

Stick some more sage in here.

I love these cone-shaped guys here.

Give them a trim.

Have them peeking up to say hello at the top.

How about over here?

This is a really fun, creative outlet.

It's something anyone can do, and it's absolutely free.

I hope you'll try this.

I think you'll be really inspired.

♪ There are always ways to beautify the world around you, from abandoned lots to neglected parking strips.

These seed bombs allow you to be a guerilla gardener and prove that you don't need to own a big yard to get your hands in the dirt.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Dandelion greens pack a bunch, and they're full of nutrients, and whether you like it or not, they're probably right in your backyard, so I'm going to teach you how to cook up a great recipe with them so you can make the most of what you've got right outside your door.

To start, I have a skillet that's getting really hot.

And I've diced up some pancetta.

You could also guanciale, which is a pork jowl, or bacon.

Whatever you can get to give it a little grease, a little salty mouth feel.

I'm gonna drop that in there.

Now, I'm gonna let this render for about 10 minutes until it gets crispy and all that fat comes out.

Okay, the pancetta has rendered.

It's golden brown and crispy.

I'm going to add about 4 tablespoons of pistachios.

These are unsalted because the pancetta already has plenty of salt.

Plus we can add some.

I'm going to cook these until you can start to get the aroma coming off of those pistachios.

And while they slowly cook, I'm gonna slice up some red onion.

Just some thin slices.

It's gonna add a little sweetness and some color to our salad.

Alright.

I'm gonna add these guys in, and kind of break them apart with your hands as you do.

You just want some delicate pieces.

And the fat from the pancetta is gonna mix really beautifully with the onions, and it's gonna start to smell really good.

I might add just a touch of salt to help release those onions and their juices.

Adding a little bit of salt to onions helps all of that natural moisture come out of the onion and it breaks down a lot more quickly.

Now I've got my dandelion greens here.

I'm gonna give them about two rough chops.

They're gonna wilt naturally in the pan, so they're gonna shrink quite a bit.

Now I'm just gonna add these guys right in.

They have a bitterness to them, and so the idea here is to balance that bitterness with other flavors.

For example, acid and salt both help the flavor of bitterness.

They counterbalance each other.

So I'm adding the salt in.

I'm also gonna ultimately add some lemon juice in to help balance out that bitterness.

Okay, I'm adding a little bit more salt here to help break down these greens.

Mix them up a bit.

It's gonna cook down quite a bit, so you may feel like you have an overflowing pan, but just give it a few minutes.

Put the rest of these in.

I'm gonna turn my heat up just a little bit.

I'm just taking my tongs here and I'm folding all these ingredients.

I'm grabbing what I can from the bottom and folding it over just to cook it evenly, let the greens wilt, break down.

I think we're just about there.

I'm gonna turn off the heat.

I'm gonna get my lemon ready.

I'm gonna roll it here just to loosen up the pulp inside.

Give it a cut.

And just squeeze it in here as a finishing touch.

Like I said, acid balances salt and bitterness, and salt balances too much acid.

So if you ever over-salt something, just get out a lemon.

It's not gonna always be a perfect trick, but it certainly is a good hack for your kitchen.

Alright.

I'm gonna toss these one last time.

This is my favorite dish.

Since my grandmother taught me about dandelions and wild edibles, I figured I'd put them in the dish that was hers.

She used to cook in this heart dish all the time, and I think of her every time I pull it out.

Get all that goodness from the bottom of the pan.

Fill that dish up nicely, and then, for a finishing touch, we're going to add my favorite, of course, which is just some edible flowers.

You could, of course, put dandelion flowers in there.

I also love daylily flowers.

These are nasturtiums.

I have a few zucchini blossoms that I thought I would toss in 'cause I had them.

Just use what you have.

You don't have to put anything at all, but it's always fun to add a little color.

Then I'm going to add some coarse sea salt.

I like to do this at the end for a finishing salt.

It's got more surface area, a little bit of extra crunch but not too much.

And that's it.

This is a healthful dish full of flavor and texture.

And I guarantee you you can make it out of what's in your own backyard or even in a sidewalk crack.

Give this a try.

I think it's gonna be your new favorite.

♪ We all need to feel that connection with nature, rather than keep it arm's length.

You don't need to go too far.

It might be just a few steps outside your front door.

There's nothing more cathartic than tapping into those wild traits that make us human.

It makes us come alive.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> To learn more about the topics featured on this episode, log on to GeorgiaPellegrini.com or follow along on Georgia's Facebook and Instagram pages for weekly "Modern Pioneering" adventures, tips, and recipes.

"Modern Pioneering" is funded by... Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food, offering degrees in culinary arts, artisanal food, baking, beverages, and more... ♪ ...Sullivan Catskills, a destination for long walks, casting a line, paddling a stream, and farm-to-table cuisine, located 90 minutes from Manhattan -- SullivanCatskills.com... also in part by contributions from the following... and by the support of generous individuals.

A complete list is available at APTonline.org.