Urban hunter-gatherer Charles Standing’s earliest, fondest memory is being out in nature with his biology teacher dad Robin, testing the sourness of yellow flowers on the veld, tasting berries plucked off a roadside hedge or collecting mussels from a tidal pool. It was the start of his urban foraging adventure, one that has grown into more than a hobby. “I think there’s a forager in all of us. I remember walking home from school… picking wild strawberries or mulberries hanging off roadside trees.”
And so Cape Town and its surrounds are Charles’ garden and pantry and he feeds himself from fruit, plants and seafood that he finds. Often he teams up with Table Bay executive chef, Jocelyn Myers-Adams and together they come up with a menu of indigenous plants found in the abundant Cape, like they will do on October 29.
The lovely thing about foraging is that it connects you directly with nature; you are in tune with nature’s cycle. October is springtime, so we will find the new season’s bounty; Cape sorrel, water blommetjies, loquats, the last of the num num , wild fennel or dune spinach.
Jocelyn, who loves planning food around foraged items, says she always uses chicken, fish and beef as a standard around which she plans the menu, enhanced with the found plants.
Charles says his best foraged meal is crayfish. But he is partial to chicken-of-the-wood mushrooms that grow on oak trees and which taste remarkably like chicken.
Win a Double Ticket to the next Foraging Diner at Table Bay Hotel
The Table Bay has been kind enough to offer us a double ticket to give-away to the next Foraging Dinner. The dinner will start at 19h00 on the 29th of October and tickets are valued at R350 per person. One lucky reader will be able to win two seats to this fantastic dinner event.
These dinners appeal the innate hunter-gatherer instinct that resides in many of us, and provide a platform to learn more about harnessing the fruits of our natural surroundings & to be creative in the kitchen.
To win the tickets all you have to do is comment in the section below and tell us who you will invite to join you at the foraging dinner at The Table Bay.
For an additional entry, you can also tweet the following:
Hey @FoodBlogCT, I would love to win 2 tickets to the Foraging Dinner Event hosted at @TableBayHotelSA. http://www.food-blog.co.za/win-a-dinner-foraging-session-with-the-table-bay-hotel/
T&C.: Please only enter if you live in Cape Town, prize valid only for the 29th of October 2015, winner chosen at random and contacted via e-mail. All entrants will be added to our newsletter list.
