The Nanaimo & Area Land Trust held its 3rd annual Wild Foods Festival last Sunday at Bowen Park as a part of Nanaimo’s Earth Day celebrations. The festival drew our attention as it featured local chefs preparing savoury snacks and desserts with wild edible plants. It was an easy sell for us as one can never really go wrong when surrounded by copious amounts of food.
Chef Hamish Thomson from Real Food serves up stinging nettle and blackberry smoothies
As we approached the festivities honking our horn erratically at the minivan attempting to steal our parking spot, our minds conjured up images of endless salad bars, hippies and patchouli. We were instead met with an array of stalls manned by local market vendors, restaurants and community groups. Everyone from students to professionals, hipsters, crunchy granola types, vendors and food enthusiasts alike came out to sample and learn about edible wild plants. We had also come to the realization that they all had a good head start on us in the eating department and that there was some serious catching up to do. We opted out of the guided edible plants walk and headed straight for the food…naturally!
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