Wild Bites #54: a 5-minute read that makes you smarter about wild food and tells you what's to come on the website, podcast, YouTube, or To The Bone.

 ~ Hank

1. What's Hot Now

Venison fajitas. Yes, please  

2. Summer Berries

Pickled blueberries with venison rocks.

The cavalcade of summer berries is in full swing here in Minnesota. Thanks to a hot tip from a forager friend, I managed to harvest 21 pounds of bluebs in Wisconsin the other day. And blackberries are ripe, too. Black cap raspberries are done, but I got enough to make jam with them, and elderberries, rose hips, wild plums, etc etc are on their way. 

If you're in the West, blue huckleberries are ripe while red ones are on their way out. Gooseberries are hot and heavy in the Sierra now, as well as the Rockies, where there's an awesome gooseberry that's coming ripe as well. Look for golden currants wherever they live, which is a lot of states (my best patch is near Reno), and salmonberries in Alaska and Washington. 

Here are a few of my favorite recipes that use summer berries.

• When life gives you too many blueberries, pickle them. Yes, pickled blueberries are amazing, and work really well with savory foods like the venison steaks above. Not too sweet, tart and they pop when you eat them. 
• Elderberries live all over the country, and they are ripe now in California and the South, and are ripening everywhere else. Here's how to harvest elderberries. 
• Use this sorbet recipe for mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, salmonberries or anything similar. You won't be sad if you do. 
• No matter whether you are gathering blueberries or huckleberries, you'll wan to save some for huckleberry muffins or blueberry cake. 
• Finally, use this recipe for blackberry panna cotta as a model for all sorts of berries. Currants, gooseberries, raspberries, you name it. It's a mildly fancy dessert that will wow anyone.  

3. How Kitchen Thrift Makes Life Better

Actions have consequences, even in the kitchen. And if you're like me, a person loathe to toss perfectly good bits and parts into the trash, the act of bringing a thing into your life, like fish or game or whole vegetables, creates a cascade of challenges, and opportunities, for some seriously delicious kitchen thrift. 

Here are some thoughts, tips, tricks and techniques for upping your thrifty game in the kitchen. It's over on To the Bone. 

4. New Mexico Trip

5. Reckoning

Self-reflection has become one of my valued habits since I moved away from California. It's been good for me, I think. But obviously it's not all navel-gazing here. I am keeping busy with summer gathering and fishing, cooking and some writing, although I will admit I am a little behind on my cookbook... 

As you read this, I will be in Grand Forks chasing big channel catfish. There's a fantastic fishery on the Red River, home to gigantic channel cats, some larger than 35 pounds. I won't be keeping any that size, but I am hoping to come home with a few, so I can post some catfish recipes. Wish me luck! 

Mushrooms are slowing a little as the countryside dries out, although we hit them hard in New Mexico last week. I hear lobster mushrooms are popping in Minnesota, and there are a few early hen of the woods starting. Chanterelles are still going strong, although many are starting to dry out. If you're in California, look for porcini way up high, like above 7000 feet. It rains there in summer, remember... 

On the horizon is a trip to Arizona around September 1. Depending on the rains, it'll either be a mushroom trip up north, or a dove hunt in Yuma. I'll keep ya posted.

~ Hank

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