ENTERTAINMENT
Pop-up gourmet to-go featuring B.C.’s wild bounty also on tap
B.C.’S WILD BOUNTY CHEF SHARES PASSION WITH ONLINE FORAGING COURSES
Walking in the woods is one thing we can do today that doesn’t seem to be fraught with COVID-19 risks. Heck, you could even make a meal of it. That’s what Vancouver chef Robin Kort is doing.
Of course, Kort is an expert at knowing what is — and, most certainly, is not — OK to dine out on in the great outdoors and oceans.
Through her Swallow Tail Canada company, she has conducted everything from wild mushroom trips and serving up salads found on the forest path, to harvesting the seashore. A member of the Vancouver Mycological Society, Kort operates her business at a number of locations, including UBC Farm.
(That is where this reporter first had the chance to enjoy one of her introductory classes and get signed up to be in the loop about other delectable Swallow Tail pop-up themed gourmet dining events. More on that later.)
Unable to conduct courses as usual, Kort is offering a number of virtual foraging trips to teach you “safe and sustainable methods for harvesting” wild foods in B.C.
“When this all went down, I was out on Galiano (Island) where we have a little place, and I started making videos and making the Swallow Tail Culinary Adventures YouTube channel work for me to set up virtual classes,” Kort said. “It’s been really fun, widening my knowledge base and everyone else’s by reaching out to contacts to contacting experts like Dakini Tidal Wilds’ Amanda Swinimer, who runs tours out of Sooke focusing on edible seaweeds. I have my basics — sea lettuce and bull kelp — and now I’m finding out about the weird and wonderful things under rocks that people don’t use as much.”
Over the multi-video Foraging for Beginners course, Kort leads you through five hours of online training with stepby-step guided examples across terrains ranging from forest, ocean, meadow and even urban areas. Each video segment has a comments section where students can ask the expert questions. Naturally, there are recipe videos where the chef demonstrates winning ways to turn wild edibles into yummy delectables.
Feeling challenged with making fellow self-isolationers memorable meals? Just wait until they taste the fiddlehead tempura or the rosepetal custard. There is also a two-hour survival trip where you can discover how to keep fed if you find yourself marooned on an island or lost in the woods in B.C. or Washington state.
“Survival is kind of on everyone’s mind right now and people have time to do something educational and fun,” Kort said. “It’s fun and a way to get a window into nature when you are stuck at home. Once regulations are lifted more and you can go outside, it gives you something really neat and rewarding to do, too.”
One of the benefits of the virtual-foraging course is that, unlike her other separate classes held in different locations, she can move you through multiple ecosystems in one syllabus. Her sea-foraging trips only run four times a season, and the introductory and mushroom classes also have limited availability. Now she can bring all three together along with a funny new feature titled “Would You Eat This?”, which presents such questionable foods as banana slugs and witches butter mushrooms.
The chef’s main enterprise is putting on delicious popup-themed meals at the Swallow Tail Supper Club.
Obviously, this business has taken a fierce hit with the present reality. However, Swallow Tail to Go is launching May 9 with Carnivoria. This annual celebration of meat features Kort and Swallow Tail team chef Sarah Robinson laying out a meal including such delights as alder-smoked barbecue pork back ribs with fir tips, stinging nettle, cheddar and chive cornbread; potato salad furikake (roasted bull kelp) with smoked bacon and roasted corn; and a wild-flowering currant panna cotta dessert.
Meals can be ordered in different serving sizes to be picked-up at Container Brewing (1216 Franklin St.), where you can add some of the brewery’s suds to the selection.