Forage and Feast with Anna

The delicious foragers soup pictured is one of the dishes we made at Anna’s Forage and Feast workshop in Muriwai a couple of weeks ago. We had such a fantastic day foraging seaweed in Maori Bay and foraging for edible weeds and flowers around Muriwai – who knew there were so many different weeds that you can eat, and that taste great!

The broth had several different types of seaweed along with various weeds. Anna has incredible knowledge and made the day thoroughly enjoyable. We also made a divine Green Goddess Dip that I’m obsessed with, I’ve found so many edible weeds in my area and I’m sure there are a plethora where you live too.

If you’re interested to learn more about foraging Anna’s workshops are the best!

Right now flowers are blooming and weeds at their lushest, it really is a foragers paradise once you learn to love the weeds you can eat and realise you can make flowers in to delicious magical morsels, let me show you how.

Edible Flowers and Weeds Workshop

It’s no secret I absolutely love edible flowers and all the plant kingdom actually. As well as being totally beautiful and full of health benefits, edible flowers play a really important role in the home garden for attracting bees and other beneficial insects. Companion planting with edible flowers and herbs also helps to deter pests and you can make delicious kai with them to boot! In this workshop we will learn about edible flowers, weeds; wild and planted, what they taste like and benefits they have for health and garden and what to do with them. We head out into the garden and pick what we need to make Edible flower biscuits sweet and savoury, Green Goddess Dip, Tempura Onion Weed Flowers and Pickled Magnolia Petals.

Seaweeds and Edible Weeds

I do a lot of my foraging around my property as we have taken a no mow approach, just letting the plants grow where they like. In theses classes we will forage for edible weeds here at The Veggie Tree HQ, but we will also venture out to my local beach to gather some seaweed treats. In these workshops we will learn about edible weeds, flowers and seaweeds, what they taste like and benefits they have for health. How to pick, dry, store and use seaweeds. Together we will make Green Goddess Dip, Kelp Chips, Foragers Broth and Weedy Fry Scones.

Workshops are $85.00 per person which includes food and drink, recipes and an information file plus hints and tips. Held at The Veggie Tree HQ, Kaeo. Click here for more information and to book

Edible weeds foraged in Muriwai

Foraged seaweed from Maori Bay

The Veggie Tree is made up of cook schools, recipe sharing, blogging and seasonal cookbooks. The cook/forage schools are held twice a month in our century old Kauri villa in Kaeo. I cater to all different cookery levels, ages and tastes – vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free – there is something for everyone.

Wanting to reach further afield than Kaeo, I’ve created, photographed and self-published ‘The Veggie Tree Autumn & Winter Cookbook’ and the ‘The Veggie Tree Spring & Summer Cookbook’ to share my recipes with a larger audience. It is a compilation of recipes that I cook for my family; they have also been tried and tested at the cook schools. They are easy everyday recipes that will inspire you to eat more plant based meals with ingredients that are readily available – I hope you enjoy them.

I’m excited to be learning and creating my own herbal remedies to support my families health and extending my foraging forays into educating and sharing what can be harvested from your lawns and local surrounds, we literally have nutritious and delicious food growing right under our feet.

I will often use multiple different wild weed herbs in a dish, as diversity is the spice of life! I love to marry good flavour combinations and weeds tend themselves beautifully to this with their bitter, sour, sweet, spicy attributes along with all their nutritional benefits.

We could rename these fabulous plants wild herbs or wild greens as this is how I, for one use them. I literally go out my back door and forage these marvellous, free, nutritious, tasty, abundant edible weeds every day and what you can see here I have welcomed in to our barked back yard over the last couple of years with glee. Some are self seeded plants from other parts of the garden and pretty much everything else has just arrived. The diversity is astounding and ways to use them endless!!! Anna X