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Take the results of a recent rabbit hole of research: isirgan salatasi, a traditional Turkish salad made with raw stinging nettles (yes, those ubiquitous culprits of red, burning ankles). Though Bergo had long foraged the wild greens, he wasn’t convinced they were edible without cooking to neutralize the sting—until he found footage of Turkish grandmas harvesting them, simply bashing them with a rolling pin, and indeed, turning them into salad.

Or consider pansotti, a tortellini-like northern Italian stuffed pasta, made with a blend of wild greens and herbs known as preboggion. “Depending on which reference you look at—and this is where it gets so exciting—the mixture of wild plants could be anywhere from 4 to 18 different species,” Bergo said. It gets better: References he found for la minestrella, a Tuscan stew of beans, wild greens, and corn cakes, called for the inclusion of 20, 30, or more than 50 different species.

“We don’t even think these sorts of things are possible,” he said, “but it’s real. It’s a tradition. And you can go outside, and if you don’t harvest 60 plants you can harvest 4, and it’s still going to taste really good.”

Location: St. Paul, Minn.

Business Name: Forager Chef

Favorite Spring Edibles: Stinging and wood nettles. “I could eat nettle soup every day for the rest of my life—and the awesome part is, now I have a whole list of different nettle soups from around the world, because they’re enjoyed around the world.”