Foraging

WORDS ° Lukas Raschilla

While foraging dates back to the start of the human existence, the hospitality industry is currently witnessing a renaissance in the use of native and foraged ingredients in cocktails and food dishes alike. It’s easy to understand the benefits of foraging within the world of mixology, natural and unparalleled freshness is the most obvious, but it also makes ecological sense to use what surrounds us. Using native foraged ingredients within venues also creates an aspect of authenticity and attention to detail, and forms an alignment between a product and it’s origins.

WHAT IS FORAGING?

Foraging at its core is the act of finding and harvesting wild foods and can also be referred to as gathering, I’m sure most have heard of hunting and gathering as the two forms of sourcing goods in the wild. Foraging can include hiking into deep bushlands or mountains, to picking apples or lemons off a neighbour’s tree.

Foraging is also based around nature and the seasons. The ever-changing canvas of nature means what is available and in season is constantly fluctuating and evolving, and threatened by weather, wild animals and development.

Chefs such as the acclaimed René Redzepi from NOMA is perhaps one of the most well known forager, bringing foraged items to his menus at his Copenhagen restaurant and during stints at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo in 2015, and a 10-week pop-up in Sydney earlier this year. The degustation menu at the Sydney pop-up featured items like sea urchin and dried tomatoes with pepperberries, golden and desert oak wattle seed porridge wrapped inside saltbush leaves, and a pie of scallop and lantana flowers that was matched with a quandong liqueur made by Black Gate Distillery in central west NSW, Australia.

Foraged menus in both bars and restaurants communicate a geographic seasonality and aim to highlight a venue’s surroundings.

The amount of people interested in taking part in foraging has grown, so much so that in the UK there is now The Association of Foragers, established in 2015 to promote and support responsible foraging, with all members sharing a common interest in caring for the environment. The members have also developed a code of conduct to ensure sustainable, safe and mindful foraging.

MODERN FORAGERS

Sydneysiders Christopher Thomas and Byron Woolfrey started “Trolley’d” in 2013. Trolley’d use a fleet of old Ansett trolleys and convert them into mobile bars for parties and events. Every cocktail they serve is with a native twist and they too forage for ingredients.

The pair met while working at Three Blue Ducks, a restaurant that practices sustainable and eco-friendly operations. In addition to foraging, the pair prepare the majority of their own ingredients from scratch, including garnishes, syrups, and even kombucha. Trolley’d also have an in-house dehydrator, which they can use for garnishes, preservations, and even to turn ingredients into powders to use for syrups and flavour infusions.

When asked about why they began foraging and using native ingredients in their cocktails and what the inspiration was, Chris points out, “We wanted to get deeper into where the produce is coming from. What grows where and how it can be used. Australia has so many native ingredients out there, and we don’t know what the half of it even is. It’s also of course fresher and natural. It makes sense to use what’s around us, and what we can find”. The cocktail menu offered by Trolley’d constantly changes based on the seasonal ingredients and preferences of clients. Chris says the two enjoy using pretty much any native ingredient, “Things such as Illawarra plum, lemon myrtle, and quandong are great. Finding ways to use them excites us as well”.

Byron believes that foraging is a great thing, but only when done for the right reasons. When asked on his views towards foraging and its recent upswing in popularity, he said, “It depends what people are doing it for. If they are passionate and about the cause and there’s more people doing it for the right reasons it’s a great thing. However, if it’s a fashion or trend thing and not necessarily adding to the drink or simply because people are trying to be “local” by using it then it kind of defeats the purpose”. Chris believes that getting more people involved and working together to gain knowledge and source ingredients is a smarter and more sustainable way of foraging, “How cool would it be to have people foraging on a mass scale when a certain ingredient is in season?”

Another proponent of using native ingredients is bartender and co-owner of PS40 Thor Bergquist. PS40 make their own sodas inhouse with their core range all featuring native ingredients. Wattle seed cola, blackstrap ginger, bush tonic and smoked lemonade are the four currently making up PS Soda’s core range. On speaking about native ingredients they’re using at PS40, Thor says, “We use a lot of lemon myrtle, native lemongrass and things that are unique to Australia. Why import things from overseas, given the produce we have available?” Thor explained his process on developing a cocktail list around foraged ingredients, “With foraging, you find a park that has a lot of native or natural growth to it, you find ingredients that you may not know what they are, do some research to find out what they are and build drinks around those ingredients. If you’re trying to search for something specific with say, a pepper flavour, you’ll be searching all day for that. And that’s why the cocktails are really built on that produce item”.

While Thor would love to find the time to personally forage, work commitments means he can’t, so has enlisted the help of Lyle Dudley, a South Australia based native ingredients forager who has been doing it for over 20 years. Dudley runs Bush Foods Australia, whom Thor came across after making a lot of phone calls, and sending lot of emails, “He’s amazing. I’ll ask him for something completely random and he’ll go find it for me. He was the only person happy to do massive bulk orders for what we needed and really got behind everything, and got excited about what we were doing and that passion for ingredients and produce really resonates with me, so I felt it was right straight away”. Although foraging may have seen an upswing in popularity, or people being more familiar with it, Thor doesn’t believe foraging is a trend, and is quick to point out that Melbourne restaurant Attica has been foraging for over 10 years now.

On Thor’s recommendation, Drinks World got in touch with the man himself, Lyle Dudley to delve deeper into foraging. Residing in Wilmington in mid-north South Australia, Dudley will forage and source a number of native ingredients including wattle seed, pepperberry, bush tomato, lemon myrtle, quandong, and many more. The ingredients Dudley harvests have a number of uses, anything from food to medicinal purposes and research. Dudley supplies commercial quantities, and has built

THE BOTANIST FORAGED COCKTAIL COMP

Consisting of 22 foraged island botanicals that are hand-picked locally and sustainable on Islay, Scotland by their own botanical scientists, its no wonder The Botanist Gin are strong advocates of foraging and have developed a foraged cocktail competition where those entering must forage their own ingredients to use in cocktails. Drinks World caught up with 2016 Australian Finalist Kurtis Bosley, Group Beverage Manager of Public House Managment to get an insight into foraging.

DRINKS WORLD: Prior to taking part in The Botanist Foraged Cocktail Competition, were you a fan of using native ingredients in drinks?

KURTIS BOSLEY: It’s only over the last 12 months that I’ve really taken an interest in using native ingredients in my drinks. Prior to that, I really didn’t know too much about them or how I could go about learning about them. This competition is what really drove me to learn as much as I could about the ingredients in a short amount of time and is definitely the reason I have learnt as much as I know about them now.

DW: Do you forage yourself?

KB: I do. I’m lucky enough to live on Sydney’s northern beaches, which is an absolute gold mine of amazing native Australian ingredients.

DW: After you decided to enter the competition, how did you go about sourcing ingredients and devising the recipe?

KB: For me it wasn’t a hard decision to enter at all as I had already been experimenting heavily with these ingredients but I wanted to search some really bespoke ones that might surprise the judges and definitely would spark some interest around the drinks I created. This process took days and weeks of searching bush land, and understanding possible areas I could get certain ingredients, a lot of reading, and always keeping my eyes out for things I could use.

DW: What is your opinion on foraging and where do you see it in the industry? Do you believe it’s a trend or is progressing towards something more?

KB: With more emphasis on bars to become more sustainable in their selection and use of ingredients, I think foraging will always have a place in our industry as it allows you the ability to get your own ingredients and not put added pressure on our farm lands. It’s definitely progressing to something more I believe. With guys like chef Elijah Holland leading the way, as seen with his involvement in the NOMA pop up in Sydney, it’s definitely building momentum as more industry people learn more about the use of these ingredients.

LE ARTIST

Kurtis Bosley’s recipe at The Botanist Foraged Cocktail Competition

INGREDIENTS:

• 50ml Botanist Gin • 22.5ml House-made Rosella, Wattle and Strawberry gum syrup • 10ml Tio Pepe Fino Sherry • 5 Drops native Lemongrass tincture METHOD: Add all ingredients to a shaker, add ice. Shake and double strain GLASSWARE: Vintage Coupette GARNISH: Edible flowers

up relationships with foragers and consumers Australia wide, networking with people for both sourcing and supplying ingredients. However, foraging can be a tough game, “It’s difficult work, foraging, because the main season for me is January and February and you have to do the picking when it’s hot, usually in the middle of the day”, says Dudley.

Foraging on both private pastoral land and wild bush land, wattle seed is Dudley’s main business, a lot of which is dependent on climate. When foraging on pastoral land, however, he finds that a number of animals and livestock may consume native ingredients such as pepperberry, quandong, and lilly pilly. Foraging on a commercial scale can be tough going, “Fruits are the most challenging to harvest, given the fickle nature of them based on climate, leaves are slightly easier”, says Dudley.

When asked about the demands he is seeing, Dudley comments that he has seen “More demand from mainstream consumers over the last two years”. Clients such as hospitality, medicinal, to major cereal companies are now working with Dudley to supply some of their native ingredient needs. Native lemongrass is one ingredient he has seen a spike in demand for.

For those wanting to get out and forage be aware of not only the hazards associated with nature and foraging, but also the regulations on what you can and where you can forage differ from state to state. Thor is aware that it can be illegal to forage in some lands unless you are part of a native tribe who is a custodian of that land. Dudley tells us that regulations also differ from state to state, but comments, “In S.A. I can forage on crown lands with permits from the government provided that I report what I have harvested and the amounts to whoever is in charge of the land, be it council or whoever is responsible”. National Parks are off-limits, so for those wanting to forage, please contact local councils and governments if unsure.

Foraging and the gathering of ingredients harken back to our existence and the many modern uses for trade and consumers have been made abundant. Along with the ecofriendly and sustainable buzzwords in the industry, foraging and using native produce from what is around us not only makes sense from an ecological perspective but also from that of the palate and to the consumer. One can assume foraging will continue, with places such as Charlie Parker’s helmed by bartenders Sam Egerton and Toby Marshall providing a cocktail concept based on the anatomy of a plant using local and native ingredients. In addition, brands are also evolving with products such as the Botanist Gin using foraged ingredients and holding a foraged cocktail competition, emphasising not only the use of products but the sourcing as well.

We use a lot of lemon myrtle, native lemongrass and things that are unique to Australia. Why import things from overseas, given the produce we have available? THOR BERGQUIST

Co-owner, PS40