Idaho’s other Gem
FReSH FROM THe forest Matt Furber sits down to a feast from Idaho’s forests, streams and mountains, all foraged by his dinner companions. Photos by Stacie Brew
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n an era when food can be express-shipped anywhere, it’s refreshing to bring friends and families together to enjoy a mid-winter feast resplendent with sustenance gathered and hunted by those sitting around the dinner table. The history of Idaho is steeped in the tradition of hunting and gathering. Not so long ago on the Camas Prairie, just west of Bellevue, the Shoshone and Bannock Indians gathered and feasted on the nutritious camas bulb. An annual festival still celebrates the tradition. Today, Wood River families are rediscovering the benefits of gathering their food directly from the land, be it growing vegetables in the backyard, rummaging for mushrooms on the forest floor or stalking big game in the mountains surrounding their home. Sarah Kolash, 31, has been preserving wild berries and canning vegetables from her mother’s Broadford Road garden since she was a young girl. “My mom loves to can. It’s very traditional—salsa, pickled green beans, asparagus, fruits, apricot jam, peaches. That’s how I learned how to do it,” Kolash said, when she dropped in on an assembly of fellow hunter-gatherers in Hailey’s Fox Acres subdivision, the home of her friend and boss, Sally Boettger. Sally, executive director of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, is an upland game bird hunter. Her husband, Scott Boettger, is a staunch conservationist descended from a long line of hunters from the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, area. The gathered cooks had decided on a meal of chukar, quail, squash, parsnips, cabbage and morel risotto all sourced by the hands around the table that night. The pièce de résistance was a taste of hatchery salmon—some of the first in 28 years to be caught near Stanley after making the round trip to the Pacific Ocean. As Kolash sliced up some of her dill pickles, she explained that the red currant syrup she brought came from berries picked in August near her home in Gimlet by Boxcar Bend on the Big Wood River.
Idaho’s grasses, forbs and shrubs aren’t terribly appetizing for most palates, but the state’s wild botanical bounty does supply nutritious forage for the animal kingdom. hunters are grateful for the diversity of game sustained by the high desert and forest ecology of the south-central Idaho mountains. human foragers, however, are not entirely relegated to the multitude of berries for a wild treat, as there is one succulent morsel in the woods and along the rivers in particular that holds great cachet with those who like to hunt for wild food. It is the morel mushroom. Just the thought of looking for them in post forest-fire understory, where greedy hoards of morel fanatics often flock in search of their bounty, is enough to make one salivate. the fungus is intensely delicious when sautéed and can grow as big as a brain, which the morel distinctly resembles at that size. Finding morels is more art than science. Connoisseurs prefer smaller, harder-to-find specimens for the ultimate taste. these can be covered in leaves, soil and ash, and nearly impossible to see in their camouflage. But once the forager spots a pattern in the duff, like a multi-dimensional puzzle, the morel’s continued growth is certain to be curtailed. there is a limit to the take for the casual hunter, however. the quantity is five gallons. morels grow in a few varieties (Blaine County mushroom hunters know them locally as blonde morels), and can be confused with verpa mushrooms that cause severe dysentery. But that species is not common to the area. What is needed to collect morels? a stick, a bag and a keen eye open to seeing the ground in a different light should do the trick. a little insider information about where to search also helps. so be kind to your neighbor; she might point you in the direction to learn about more edible wild plants like the plethora described in books by John Kallas (www.wildfoodadventures.com), who travels the country teaching how to forage successfully.
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