WILD LARDER
Skilled forager Peter Langlands sources wild ingredients for restaurants, runs workshops and publishes guides on local species.
When it comes to picking out his ingredients, Peter Langlands favours the rugged outdoors to the supermarket aisles. As a forager for wild foods, Langlands says it’s the sense of discovery that excites him most about foraging. “You’re always surprised with what you find,” he says. “It’s the spontaneity; I’m always exploring new things and new ways of using new ingredients.”
Watercress, wild radish, edible flowers and kawakawa are just some of the species he finds in the wild. Every trip, he discovers something new. “There are 250 main foragable species, but potentially there are more than 6000 species that are out there that have some culinary value.”
His foraging takes him all around the country. Right now, he’s based in South Canterbury and has been exploring the Mackenzie Country.
“It’s really good for wild mushrooms in South Canterbury,” he explains. “You get a lot of flavour from the conifer trees and we’ve still got some types of pine mushrooms coming out late in the season.”
Although you may think winter would be a hard time to forage, Langlands says there’s an abundance of wild ingredients to be found. “Banks Peninsula is really good because it has a year-round diversity of wild plants and a lot of good edible greens,” he says. “They tend to come into their own in the cooler winter months. We start getting a lot of fragrant, flavourful wild greens and herbs.”
His foraging also takes him to the coast where he harvests seaweed. “Around Matariki, that’s a really good time for seaweed foraging around the coastline.”
Having done this all his life, Langlands has become a bit of a foraging guru, but he’s happy to see others picking it up. “People are using a lot more local ingredients and starting to do more with preparation, such as fermentation, drying and smoking. It’s exciting to see.” facebook.com/forageNZ