• Recipes
  • Urban Homesteading
  • Organic Gardening
  • Faith and Family
  • Homeschool
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

My Humble Kitchen

food • faith • family

  • New? Start Here!
  • About
  • Recipes
    • Beverages
    • Breads
    • Breakfast
    • Salads
    • Egg Dishes
    • Meat and Fish
    • Pasta
    • Rice and Legumes
    • Soups and Stews
    • Vegetables
    • Sandwiches
    • Casserole Meals
    • Crockpot Recipes
    • Odd Bits Recipes
    • Spanish Food
    • Naturally Sweetened Sweets and Treats
    • Condiments
    • Homemade Jams and Preserves
    • Whole Grains
    • Ferments
  • Shopping Guide
  • eBooks
You are here: Home / Topics / Urban Homesteading / Foraging / Foraging Outdoors with Children and a Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and Morel Mushrooms

Foraging Raising Good Eaters Recipes Spring Urban Homesteading Vegetables Whole Grains

Foraging Outdoors with Children and a Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and Morel Mushrooms

A Foraged Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and Morel Mushrooms

Each year when the snow melts and the winter slowly starts to turn to spring I begin to feel rejuvenated.  Hearing birds chirping in the morning and buds taking shape on bushes and trees bring me joy.

When various shades of bright green begin to fill once barren trees and bushes, it brings me feelings of overwhelming happiness. I know it sounds kind of funny, but if you live in an area with a winter in snow and freezing temperatures for a good 5-6 months of the year, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

It never fails that when I begin to see the transformation from nothing to life, right before my eyes, it automatically brings songs of praise. It’s truly a miracle.

For my children and I, our joy is made brighter when we’re able to spend our time outdoors once again. 

Foraging Outdoors With Children

Each spring when the soil warms, the sun shines, and after a good rain, we head out to forage for morel mushrooms. I used to be able to spend an entire day in the woods searching for morels; however, since I’ve had children I’ve learned that we’re only able to forage for a good hour and a half before their spirits start to fly.

That’s okay. My intentions for foraging have changed from what they used to be. We head out and forage with hopes of gathering enough ingredients for the days meal.  Nothing more, and most certainly, nothing less.

My intent for taking my boys foraging with me each year in the woods is also about teaching them to enjoy the wonders of God’s land. We begin each trip by going over our three rules of foraging.

  1. NEVER leave my sight.  We stick close to each other since the woods can be a very big place where little boys can get lost.
  2. NEVER touch or eat anything that we cannot identify.  It can be poisonous and make us very sick.
  3. NEVER take more of anything we’re foraging than our family can eat.  We are to respect God’s land and that means not wasting or disturbing his eco-system which little bugs and animals depend on.  It’s their home.
  4. Oops… I forgot rule 4 – Have fun 😀

Below is a video of my nephew that would like to share the rules with any kids that would like to forage too.

For this foraging trip, we went out specifically to look for garlic mustard leaves, violets, morel mushrooms, ramps, and fiddleheads.

Garlic Mustard Leaves

We were very excited to find garlic mustard leaves immediately.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Garlic mustard leaves are an invasive weed so they grow like wildflowers in the woods. Their leaves are easily distinguishable making them a simple weed to identify for young children.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

The leaves are mild and have more than a hint of garlic flavor.  My nephew enjoyed them raw.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Violets

I had my heart set at finding enough violets to make my own preserves of violet jelly. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough violets to forage for that but my children and I still had a good time identifying them by color and number of petals; then, we even tasted for sweetness.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Morel Mushrooms

I have to admit, I thought we were going to leave empty handed of morel mushrooms. These boys know all about morel mushroom hunting 101; however, I kept having to remind them that the mushrooms would be growing below the trees, not in them (Oh my, do boys like to climb).

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Right when I thought to head out for the day, my son made me proud – he found the first morel mushrooms of the season!

Foraging Outdoors with Children

It didn’t take long before my nephew found the next three!

Foraging Outdoors with Children

They were super psyched that by themselves they found all of the morel mushrooms we took home for the day. They found a total of 9.

Fiddleheads

To forage for our fiddleheads, all we had to do was take a quick trip to Abuela’s house where she has these ferns growing in her garden.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Fiddleheads are the furled fronds of a fern as it first starts to re-grow in the spring. Each root shoots out about 5-7 fronds which pop up rolled up tight.  Before it un-curls, the fiddleheads are cut which can then be consumed.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

In order to keep the plant alive, I can only cut about 3 fiddleheads per root. That way the rest have a chance to un-curl and continue its regular growth.

This process of growth happens quickly in the spring. There’s only about a two week window to find the fiddleheads as they pop up before they uncurl.

The flavor of a fiddlehead is very similar to asparagus.

Cooking after Foraging

As I’ve written about many times before, getting children actively involved in growing and foraging for food gives them a sense of pride and makes them excited to cook and eat what they worked hard for.

The boys were thrilled to mix up their foraged garlic mustard leaves, raw hazelnuts, feta cheese from the market, and fresh mint from the garden.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

With enough extra virgin olive oil that we brought home from Sonoma county, we whirled it into a beautiful shiny green pesto.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

We then boiled some pasta and sauteed our fiddlehead’s with morel mushrooms in enough garlic to make it taste just right. 

After tossing the pasta in our pesto, we each took turns serving ourselves and topping our bowls with the sauteed veg and even more feta cheese.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Although little brother didn’t want to head out into the woods with us, he did enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Foraging Outdoors with Children

Print
Foraging Outdoors with Children and a Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and Morel Mushrooms

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 4-5

Foraging Outdoors with Children and a Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and Morel Mushrooms

Foraging outdoors with children. A foraged pesto pasta made with garlic mustard leaves, and topped with fiddleheads, and morel mushrooms.

Ingredients:

    Pesto
  • 2 packed cups garlic mustard leaves (sub 2 packed cups spinach or other mild leafy green)
  • 1/2 cup raw hazelnuts (sub walnuts or pecans)
  • 3 tbls fresh mint
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Pasta
  • 1 large handful of pasta, such as fusilli, per person.
  • enough foraged fiddleheads (sub 1 lb aspargaus, woody ends trimmed and cut into 2” pieces)
  • enough morel mushrooms (sub 1 cup mushrooms (baby bella’s), sliced)
  • 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
  • 1 cup pesto
  • 2 tbls fresh chives, chopped
  • feta cheese

Method:

    Pesto
  1. In a food processor, pulse the spinach, garlic, hazelnuts, mint, lemon juice, and salt until finely ground.
  2. Once ground, with the food processor still on, slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream through the top feeding tube.
  3. Pasta
  4. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts water with 1 tbls salt to a rolling boil.
  5. Add 1 large handful of pasta per person and boil to al dente according to package directions.
  6. Once al dente, reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid then drain the pasta through a colander.
  7. Place the pasta and the 1 cup cooking liquid back into the pot.
  8. Add the pesto and chives; mix through.
  9. In a separate skillet or cast iron pan, gently bring 2 tbls of extra virgin olive oil to heat.
  10. Add the garlic, asparagus, and mushrooms; saute for 5 minutes or until the asparagus is tender and the mushrooms are softened.
3.1
https://www.myhumblekitchen.com/2013/05/foraging-outdoors-with-children-and-a-recipe-garlic-mustard-pesto-pasta-topped-with-fiddleheads-and-morel-mushrooms/
©Copyright, A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa

Have you been out foraging with your children this year?  Please share any tips or advice with us in the comments below.


10 Comments

About Diana Bauman

Diana is a mother of three, proud wife, and humbled daughter of God. She finds the most joy meeting with Jesus in her organic gardens. She is completely blessed to be able to call herself a stay at home mom where she home educates her children, joyfully serves her husband, and cooks nourishing, real food, for her family. She loves connecting with people on facebook, google+, pinterest, and instagram.

« Simple Lives Thursday, #147
Simple Lives Thursday, #148 »

Comments

  1. Grandma Moi says

    May 17, 2013 at 9:22 am

    Thank you for the wonderful photos, and video, so helpful in identifing mushrooms!!!

    Reply
  2. paula says

    May 17, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    Oh how I miss morel mushrooms! I grew up in eastern Iowa and I remember going out mushroom hunting and black raspberry picking at grandma’s timber. My parents own the timber now and if my dad has a good year, he will mail me some mushrooms!

    Reply
  3. Joan says

    May 22, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    Hi Diana! Every picture was so pretty, the boys are beautiful wild growing creatures of nature too, and the final dinner was a thing of beauty. What a wonderful gift from nature just waiting for those who care and appreciate it. I am inspired, as always. Thank you for sharing your feast with us!

    Oh, and I have a ton of mustard garlic out back in my little city yard which I must try, and I just positively identified Jerusalem Artichokes in my yard too!

    Joan

    Reply
    • Diana Bauman says

      May 23, 2013 at 7:30 am

      Joan, that’s awesome! I wish I could find some Jerusalem Artichokes. Let us know how that tastes 😀

      Reply
  4. Dorothy Ann says

    May 30, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    Oh…I am so jealous! what a wonderful day! thanks for sharing Diana.

    Reply
  5. kimberly says

    June 1, 2013 at 1:03 pm

    Perfect timing! My husband and our boys foraged three baskets of morels yesterday!

    Reply
  6. Judith Scoville says

    May 12, 2015 at 3:56 pm

    Garlic mustard may be tasty, but it is a very invasive plant that destroys the understories of woodlands. Woodland protection groups organize garlic mustard pulling campaigns. Please do not let garlic mustard bloom and go to seed. Its thousands of seeds are spread by birds, feet, car tires, etc. Please be kind to woodlands.

    Reply
    • Diana Bauman says

      June 28, 2015 at 6:02 pm

      That’s interesting, Judith. It’s found so abundantly all over Iowa.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Weekend Links - Keeper of the Home says:
    June 1, 2013 at 5:00 am

    […] Foraging Outdoors with Children and a Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta Topped with Fiddleheads and… @ My Humble Kitchen […]

    Reply
  2. Foraging DOs and DON’Ts says:
    May 18, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    […] Foraging With Children  […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

 

My family of 7

I’m Diana – mother of five, proud wife, and daughter to an amazing God. Here you’ll find an encouraging community seeking to nourish our families both physically and spiritually. You’ll find us in our kitchens, gardens, and homeschool rooms pursuing a simple life in food, faith, and family.

Read More…

Real Food, Faith, and Family Straight to Your Inbox!

PLUS, receive my eBook a Month of Meals from My Humble Kitchen to Yours and a Real Food Menu Plan Printable FREE!

Living Foods

Fermented Buckwheat Crunch - Gluten-Free

Fermented Buckwheat Crunch

How To Make Milk Kefir - A Probiotic Yogurt-Type Drink | myhumblekitchen.com

How To Make Milk Kefir – A Probiotic Yogurt-Type Drink

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Planner

Winter Recipes

Honey Sweetened, Christmas Granola - Candy Canes and Chocolate Chips | myhumblekitchen.com

Honey Sweetened Christmas Granola with Candy Canes and Chocolate Chips

A Simple Beef and Barley Stew | myhumblekitchen.com

A Simple Beef and Barley Stew

Gluten-Free Almond Flour Fudge Brownies | myhumblekitchen.com

Almond Flour Fudge Brownies

A Vegetable Curry

Quick Bake Einkorn Biscuits | myhumblekitchen.com

Quick Bake Einkorn Biscuits

View More Winter Recipes

#probioticseveryday

A Simple Recipe for Homemade Natural Fermented Pickles

Homemade Yogurt | myhumblekitchen.com

Homemade Yogurt

How To Make Milk Kefir - A Probiotic Yogurt-Type Drink | myhumblekitchen.com

How To Make Milk Kefir – A Probiotic Yogurt-Type Drink

Naturally Pickled Leafy Greens and Stems with Onions

Fermented Buckwheat Crunch - Gluten-Free

Fermented Buckwheat Crunch

View More Gut Healthy Recipes

Copyright © 2023 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...