Food Foraging: From Forest to Plate
Magical, Mystical and Memorable Mushrooms -- and some Wild Garlic
The weird events in the news these days might have you thinking: could I survive by foraging for my food? Just one of the tasty travel topics in this month’s free newsletter:
Magical Mystery Tour with a Mushroom Hunter
More Foodie Fun: Wild Garlic and Tasty Truffles
In the News:
No More Passport Stamps?
New Fee for Americans to Enter Europe
Dry January Update
Sharing (on Substack) is Caring
Mushroom Hunting with Dr. Fungi
My idea of foraging is trying to pick out the freshest bag of pre-washed lettuce in the supermarket’s refrigerated produce case. I didn’t inherit the plant-whisperer gene from my Polish/Lithuanian Aunt Marcella, who knew the Latin name of everything green and its use in food or medicine.
Fortunately, I met Lado Rot, a Slovenian who offers mushroom hunting tours on the website Lifetime Experience. I have no idea how to spot the edible mushrooms and avoid the poisonous ones, but I figured a guy nicknamed “Dr. Fungi” wouldn’t steer me wrong. Sign up for a mushroom hunting tour at this link.
Watch the video of our magical day in the forest outside Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital city. We found, cooked and ate all kinds of mushrooms! I highly recommend this foraging tour as a must-do for foodies.
More Foodie Fun in the Forest
It’s also a way get on board the trend toward “slow travel.” Your European vacation doesn’t have to be a mad dash from one famous landmark to the ticket line for another. A day in the forest is a welcome change of pace.
Read this blog post for more details. Autumn is the best time to go mushroom hunting, but foraging tours for food and medicinal herbs are available all year round.
My Slovenian and Polish ancestors foraged for food because it was a necessity. But these days forest-to-plate food is trendy at fine restaurants run by some of Slovenia’s famous TV chefs.
Garlic Gone Wild!
I discovered the joy of hunting for wild produce on an early spring day when my neighbor knocked on the door. She announced that we were going to the nearby swamp — the barje in Slovenian — to hunt for wild garlic or čemaž.
Watch the video to see what happened.
Truffle hunting is another great way to experience forest-to-plate food in Slovenian Istria, or neighboring regions of Croatia and Italy. And you don’t have to go all the way to Europe! Check out this Lonely Planet guide to foraging trips in the USA. Yes, America also has truffles.
In the News: No More EU Passport Stamps
Now that most countries no longer have Covid restrictions, you might be looking forward to filling up those blank pages in your passport with stamps from exotic locations.
Better get busy, because a new electronic system in the Schengen area of the EU will make passport stamps obsolete. As explained in this article, the automated system is scheduled to take effect in November of 2023. It’s already been delayed twice, but the idea is not going away.
Not requiring travelers to get a stamp from a live border agent could speed up immigration lines for people, including most Americans and Canadians, who don’t require a visa for trips of less than 90 days in a six-month period.
New Fee to Enter Europe’s Schengen Zone
Something else new for 2023: a seven-euro fee for non-Europeans to enter most countries in Europe. The mandatory registration for ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) has been delayed a couple of times and is currently scheduled to start in “late 2023.”
You must apply and be approved online, and you won’t be able to board a flight without it. More information on the ETIAS website. Don’t feel singled out. The US already has a similar requirement for Europeans called ESTA.
News Update on Dry January
Thanks to everyone who responded to my Dry January post, especially the sober travelers who can sometimes feel left out when a travel writer overemphasizes the joys of booze and wine tasting.
I’m delighted to report that mocktails have become the hot new thing in some places. Here’s an article about alternative drinks at some trendy bars in Baltimore, Maryland USA.
My Dry January has stretched into February, in support of someone who is just beginning the long journey to sobriety one day at a time. I’m also loving the weight loss and other health benefits. How did Dry January work out for you? Let me know in the comments.
And more FREE stuff!
We all have friends who, for whatever reason, don’t do Facebook or other social media. So they send mass emails with lots of attachments, as in, “Hi, here are 64 pictures of my vacation with the grandkids.” No, I won’t be rescuing those precious photos from my spam folder and downloading them. There’s a better way to do this: start your own newsletter on Substack.
Since starting this newsletter last year, I’ve become a big fan of the FREE Substack platform. It’s easy to get started and to add your email list. Super simple to add links and photos. Yes, Substack allows writers to charge money for subscriptions, but you can choose to set up a free newsletter, like this one. You choose whether you write once a week, monthly, yearly or when you feel like it.
You can make it private, only for your family and friends who can’t wait to see your latest adventure arrive in their inbox. Those who are interested can opt in and join the discussion about how cute the grandchildren are — without Mark Zuckerberg harvesting their data. Who knows? As a newsletter author, you could become an expert on traveling with grandkids — something I don’t write about because I don’t have any. At least, not yet.