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Ground Score

Stay Wild

Foraging in the Mud and Dirt Outside Seattle

By Kiliii Fish

Seduction has a scent.
It wafts, languorous and alluring,
until the breeze blows it my way, and I am smitten.
It’s the fiery scent of desert, mixed with salty rivulets
running off a mermaid emerging from the sea.
The smell is also oilier than that, and it’s sizzling dangerously from a wok filled with manila clams several inches from the lens of my camera.

“I think we might have added a few too many Thai bird chilies," notes Langdon Cook, my new favorite chef and wild food forager of the Pacific Northwest. He tastes some and adds, “It’s the perfect amount of heat for someone who actually loves spice.”

He’s right. My body is a bit overwhelmed with the intense flavor and contrast to the cold torrential rain on the mud flats we just walked triumphantly through with clams and oysters in hand. I’ve never tasted anything so good in my life, especially flavored with hunger sauce after the long afternoon. Forget girlfriends and kids and other things that are supposedly worth the effort. I’m in it for the wild edibles.

Langdon Cook is the anti-celebrity celebrity. While wild edible foods are nothing new (ask our ancestors), Langdon is the humble spearhead of an authentic adventure-into-gourmet-cuisine movement in the United States. His book, Fat of the Land, is an adventure diary of someone who loves fresh real food so much he even learned to freedive and spearfish to pursue lingcod for the table!

Cook doesn’t eschew the gourmet favorites though. His new book, The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America, is his story of venturing “into the woods with the iconoclasts and outlaws who seek the world’s most coveted ingredient … and one of nature’s last truly wild foods: the uncultivated, uncontrollable mushroom.”

The perfect moment for stinging nettles has passed. My feet remember this because I unfortunately chose to go picking with Langdon in my sandals when the little guys were just a foot tall and easy to miss when walking about in the forest understory. But what I remember much more than the momentary stinging sensation is the creamy and earthy taste of nettle pesto. Langdon’s recipe for this magic can be found, along with lots of others, on his blog, fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com.

Sometimes you can thwart the inevitability of the seasons by going up in elevation, such as with fern fiddleheads. We chased them up from the riverlands into the evergreens. In the west, our prize is the Lady Fern, a classic light green fern. In the east, it’s the gigantic Ostrich Fern. We passed a multitude of ferns that looked about right, but for discerning tastebuds, you’ll want the fiddleheads that haven’t unfurled and remain covered in a bit of brown fuzz.  

Langdon was a real stickler for the quality and choice of oysters in the raw. Since we marched out there in muck boots during a good tide, we took our time to look for picturesque oysters that resembled little fists rather than long scoops or ones that grew in odd shapes. Thanks to the help of Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreation, we had our pick of the prime oysters near Dosewallips State Park. The little ones were delicious when shucked and eaten raw mixed with a mignonette of champagne vinegar. We barbecued the bigger ones and added butter or bacon when they opened.

For manila clams, you need only your hands or a three-pronged garden tool. Remember to check local regulations for harvest openings and closures.

See more of Kiliii Fish's work HERE>>>

Venturan Pier Rats

Stay Wild

"Having grown up in Ventura and being a sucker for coming of age anything, I was compelled to at least open Pier Rats by Bruce Greif. The book's young characters are decades before my time, but the beach culture vibes were still relevant. Written in a truthful like-you-where-there style, the story combines the struggles of youth with the allure of beach life. Often a fine line between finding success and sleeping in the bushes, or most likely a bit of both. Definitely a read to pass on to my fellow Venturans still livin' the life." -Amy Morrison

More book info HERE>>>

William Onyeabor Musical Genius

Stay Wild

Hopefully you've already heard this genius William Onyeabor, but if not you need to bring more joy into you life and get this music into your skull and hips!

If you have a spare 30 minutes you should watch this video about Onyeabor. It gets really good once they go to Nigeria.

Night Surfing Waikiki with John Hook

Stay Wild

Waikiki, Hawaii is probably the best place on earth to get pictures of night surfing.  The water is warm, the ocean is lit by the moon and hundreds of hotels on the beach, and there are little logger waves year round. I originally swam out to try to get a cool shot of my buddy surfing, using a slow shutter speed so I could get light trails.

These photos actually took two cameras to make: my camera and my buddy’s camera with a flash. I used his flash for the off-camera lighting, so we had to time our exposures together. We surfed and took photos for about three hours, til about 2am. Then the tide went out, the waves went a little flat, and it started to rain. I was stoked because I love shooting photos in the rain, especially in the dark. I had my buddy paddle out to the lineup and sit on his board toward the horizon. Then I had my other buddy with his waterproof flash swim out behind him. I held down my exposure for a few seconds, and when I yelled “NOW!” he popped the flash from the back.  When the photo showed up on my LCD screen, I was surprised. I had no idea the camera would pick up all the water color and rain from the flash and the ambient red from the light pollution of Waikiki in the sky. We shot a few versions while it was still raining, then paddled in and ate at Zippy’s.

See more of John Hook's funphotography in our summer issue , on his instagram, and his tumblr