A lifelong passion for foraging is developing into a Christchurch man's new profession. Peter Langlands tells Rebecca Fox about his search for wild foods.
A native spinach salad, freshly cooked fish and a refreshing drink of kawakawa tea.
For Peter Langlands it is an everyday meal he wished more people would eat and, more importantly, go to the trouble of sourcing themselves.
Langlands has become something of a "professional'' forager in recent years as he uses his expertise as a marine ecologist specialising in species identification and his interest in preserving the environment to meet the demand for information about wild foods.
"It's exciting times promoting wild foods.''
Foraging is not a new concept to Langlands who grew up on trips to the high country where his father fished and gathered wild herbs to cook the fish in.
"I've been foraging since I was 10 years old. It's a lifelong passion.''
He could now identify edible food so easily he had become a 'nervous wreck'' when he travelled anywhere.
"I want to stop everywhere and pick that. I've got to start filtering what I see.''
In the past three years, the growth of the Danish Food Movement, led by Noma and Rene Redzipe, has inspired chefs locally such as Guilio Sturla, from Roots in Lyttelton, and Kane Banberry, at Amisfield, at Lake Hayes, to seek high-quality foraged produce. Langlands' skills are in demand.
Not for foraging purposes but to help restaurants figure out what can be found close to their businesses.
It is not all about business, though. Langlands is keen to inspire people to get out into the outdoors and enjoy the environment around them. For those who already do so he wants to add to their experience by showing them another way they can enjoy that hike or walk along the beach.
"I'm deeply involved in environmental issues, so for me this is a good way to get enjoyment out of the environment and connect people back to nature.''
People were becoming increasingly concerned about mass food production and where their food was coming from so this was a way to know exactly where it came from and what was in it, he said.
He does not just talk about it. He lives it. While working at the Catlins Estuary monitoring godwit migration each March for four years he became familiar with the local bounty.
He would gather food such as flounder and seaweed, something different from the environment, each day to try.
He drinks kawakawa tea he makes himself. He takes plastic containers and paper bags when he goes for a walk just in case he comes across a wild herb or vegetable that could grace his dinner table that night.
There was an incredible diversity of wild foods and plants in New Zealand and a lot grew in disturbed or introduced environments such as roadsides.
"Once you start looking you see more things. It's the spontaneity and the unexpected finds. There is a real feeling of childhood curiosity.''
On those disturbed areas foragers did not have to worry about their environmental impact but in other places they did.
Cooks scurvy grass was a very rare edible plant that people should not forage if they came across it, he said.
There was a global network of "foragers'' and he had linked in with seaweed experts in Denmark and fermenting guys in California.
Locally, as well as the restaurants interested in using wild foods growing on their doorstep, there were events such as the North Canterbury Foraging Event which brought together vineyards, chefs and foragers.
The teams of foragers went out and brought back their goodies for the chefs to transform and then they were matched with Waipara wines and served at Pegasus Bay.
A Facebook page on foraging had about 4000 members and a continual stream of questions came in from people interested or querying species, he said.
"It's a good gauge of popularity. We're building up a big digital community. The more that go out the more we find.''
Insects were the latest aspect to wild foods becoming increasingly popular and New Zealand had about 20 species of edible insects, such as the huhu grub, green beetles and ants. There is even a locust.
Some wild foods were considered noxious plants, such as the banana passionfruit which was a popular find for foragers.
"It's one of the best wild foods but it is being eradicated from a lot of areas.''
Seaweed was another wild food with undeveloped potential in New Zealand, potential hampered commercially by it being classified under fisheries legislations.
"It's a major stumbling block.''
He hoped to try to change this and was planning to speak with fisheries officials to see if it could be changed. At the moment seaweed could only be taken commercially if it was processed.
Recreationally, people could gather what they wanted and there were more than 900 species of seaweed in New Zealand.
"It's a prolific resource. There is a lot of interest in seaweed foraging.
"You can take as much as you want as long as you don't sell it. The problem comes if the restaurant wants a couple of kilos, you can't sell it to them.''
It was popular because of its "umami'' flavour profile combining the distinct sweet and savoury taste and was high in trace elements, prebiotics and probiotics.
New Zealand's karengo seaweed was one of the best in the world for its outstanding flavour and nice texture.
"It can be dried and stored and then added in small amounts to give that depth.''
Wakame was a mild flavoured seaweed introduced by Japanese ships and the South Island's bladder and bull kelps could be used in a variety of ways.
The bull kelp can double as an oven bag to cook a whole fish, infusing it with its flavour, while the bladder kelp can become a salty snack dried and crisped in the oven with some olive oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
"It becomes a healthy seaweed snack.''
Sea lettuce could also be used to wrap seafood or cut up and sauteed with mirin but foragers need to be careful that they harvested it from estuarine areas not affected by pollution.
"Some do uptake environmental toxins. So make sure the area has good water flow and currents.''
Oother types of seaweed required snorkelling or diving, such as the branched velvet seaweed, which had a soft, silky texture and, when dried, had an intense oyster-type flavour.
It was important foragers were careful not to decimate seaweed beds and take only small amounts from each plant, thinking of the sustainability of the plant they were taking. That went for other plants, too.
"Don't kill it. Spread your foraging out over a large area.''
Mushrooms were another popular foraged food, despite the dangers of picking the wrong species.
People needed to be careful about identifying the species they were picking, as often the good and bad grew close together. He recommended taking along paper bags and putting each type of mushroom picked in a different bag so if any were poisonous the others were not contaminated.
"Go one species at a time then learn to identify another. Go slowly.''
On the good side was the porcini which grew wild in parts of Canterbury and were very sought after.
"It's the best edible mushroom in New Zealand. There is a lot of interest in them and how widespread they are.
"You don't talk about location, although I can tell you they are found in 65 places in Canterbury. I've even had a call from Government House after an order.''
There were also 14 other species that could be easily identified but alongside that were 20 others that could be easily confused with poisonous species.
A group of mushrooms called the boletes were edible and identified by their distinctive gills that were more sponge-like than the traditional gills of a brown field mushroom.
With mushrooms and other wild foods it was also important to only eat a small amount of that foraged to start with, to ensure a person did not react to it in any way, he said.
It was also advisable to go foraging with another person or at least leave details about where you are going with another person.
"It's a fun thing to do in groups.''
Foragers could also gather up small seedlings of plants and take them home to plant in their own garden creating a "foraged garden''.
"It takes pressure off the wild resource. Native celery is scarce because rabbits graze on it but it can be readily grown in the garden.''
Wild fennel and flat leaf parsley, as well as nasturtium flowers and leaves which had turned feral after being dumped from a garden, were other finds.
In season there was samphire, a salty asparagus, wild parsnips - another feral vegetable - miners' lettuce, chickweed and watercress.
"These can spread along roadsides and creek beds.''
Foragers also needed to be mindful of food hygiene, taking paper bags for mushrooms and small plastic containers and chiller pads for other foods.
It was also advisable to talk to landowners if going on to private land.
Most were more than happy to let foragers on to their land as long as they were asked, he said.
"You can give a bottle of wine in return, if taking a large amount. It's just common sense.''
His girlfriend had talked to the landowner of a vineyard with a lot of riesling grapes left on the vines and asked if she could harvest them. She dried them to make sultanas and made verjuice.
All of these options gave people the chance to become more connected to their environment and their community, he said.
"There are big mental health benefits - it's like gardening. We live in an increasingly stressful and disconnected world.''
Wild foods also had a huge range of flavours and textures.
"Every week I like to try some new wild food. This week I tried the orange berry off coastal spinach.''
Wild native spinach which grew near the beach was in season and was popular on the dinner table.
"There is this holistic experience. It allows you to go outdoors with a sense of purpose.''
Langlands was putting this knowledge to good use developing foraging species guides and is looking at taking groups out on foraging expeditions and cooking what they discover.
He also saw the increasing number of people going out foraging as being good for the environment as it meant there were more "eyes and ears'' in the community to pick up any environmental issues that needed to be reported to regional and city councils.
In Canterbury there were many spring creeks where watercress grew and those areas needed protected, as did the area under oak trees, where porcini grew.
"Be very careful if there is any discoloured grass where you are picking and stay away. Know the history of the area, the soil types.''
He believed $20 to $50 a week could be taken off a family's food bill if more food was foraged.
New Zealand had an amazing shellfish and fish resource which many did not appreciate.
Having been a fisheries observer on fishing boats for five years, Langlands knew his seafood and believed New Zealanders did not realise how great the diversity of fish was.
Amisfield recently had scarlet wrasse on its menu - a beautiful eating fish most people would not have heard of or considered edible, he said.
While people might be sceptical about foraging, he believed he could survive for a year on foraged foods.
"No problem with foraging salads and fish. I'm drinking kawakawa tea I made myself. It's incredible refreshing and a healthy drink.''
The main issue with foraging was that no-one was going to promote a food resource people could get for free.
In the future he could see developing a network for people to barter foraged goods.
He was also helping businesses and chefs work out what could be foraged with a 5km radius of their business, mapping out their foraging resources using the GPS skills he had from his ecology training.
Langlands also hoped to do more research on possible species that could be foraged.
"The more knowledge, the smaller area you forage in. It's about slowing down. It's like flycasting. You forget the world and live in the moment.''
