Foraging Lunch Feast BC Tofino

Foraging Lunch Chef Zambri Chef Moore

Part of what makes Feast BC in Tofino and Ucluelet so amazing are the many events that include food, but also have a learning component to them.  Surf lessons and sea kayaking are options, as was the foraging trip I took on Friday May 13 with J & C Salt, a local outdoors training company.

We met at the Pacific Sands Beach Resort Gazebo and enjoyed some Root Brew, a hot drink made with roasted dandelion root, yellow dock root, licorice root and rhizome, and some Forest Tea, a lung wort, usnea, Labrador, wild petals, licorice fer and thizome blend and waited for the group to come together.  I felt healthier already.

Leader Jae Lazar then took the group on a stunning hike through Cox Bay, while we gathered wild greens, seaweed and flowers for our lunch. What followed was a BBQ lunch with Chef Peter Zambri from Zambri’s Restaurant in Victoria, B.C. and Shelter Chef Rick Moore.

Beach Foraging

Sea Plantain

Jae Lazar explains foraging

Fiddleheads

Foragers

Returning hungry for lunch

Stinging Nettles

Sea Barnacles

Sea Barnacles

Lunch Prep

Nettles

Menu

Dog days

Peter's Pizza Mussels, Nettles, Cream Sauce, Mozzarella

Miso Soup with Salmon kelp broth, mussels, gooseneck barnacles, fiddleheads, sea asparagus

Dandelion, Plaintain, Candied Salmon, Raw Honey Vinaigrette

Crab Boil

Seaweed Salad

Finale - Crab and Seaweed Salad

Amazing morning with food as fresh as it gets.  Stuffed to the gills I headed out for another walk and then checked into The Long Beach Lodge for a rest before more Feast BC that evening.  I’ll never pass up the opportunity to learn to forage for outdoor eats, and upon returning to Vancouver I have began to look for other opportunities.  Sooke Harbour House and Deerholme Farms are next on my list.  I’ll never look at seaweed the same way again.