Back in June, I wrote a short article about foraging for morels in Central Oregon, detailing how you can follow the snow line and find these tasty wild treats in areas burned by last year’s wildfires. Morels are a sign of renewal and a gift from the Earth to show her love to her human inhabitants after devastation caused by the natural disaster of fire. At the time, I was deep in the middle of writing a project, the veil of which I wasn’t yet ready to pull off. “Eat off the Land” is a wild foraging cookbook designed to help y’all connect deeper to the land. As is usual with these types of pursuits, the book taught me, not the other way around. It revolutionized how I see the topics of survival cooking and wild food foraging. In this article, I aim to talk a little bit about the shift from the scarcity mindset to abundance through foraging, and finally, share a favorite fall recipe from the new book that I hope you all will enjoy.
When I was researching the market and looking at the other survival type cookbooks, I noticed something. Book after book focused on teaching people how to hoard basic ingredients, making sure they lasted through the winter and that, if the grid went down, someone could survive on beans, rice, flour and salt. The idea, while long-standing, grated at me. As a lifelong forager, I kept asking, how can people actually see the world this way? However, this mindset is more than just being about hoarding food. It is about the mindset of fear and living with the “what if we don’t have enough?” mentality. This is something that no one who eats off the land will ever have to ask again!
Wild food is all around us in our natural world. In the cascades, from about April until December, there is an abundance of wild food at our finger tips. If you eat meat, this is true, but even if you are vegetarian, this proves equally true. Mushrooms like chicken of the woods are surprisingly high in protein, at 14 grams protein per 100 grams of mushroom. In other words, if you consume about 1 cup of chopped chicken of the woods mushrooms (always cook prior to eating) you are getting more protein than you would from drinking a disgusting pea protein smoothie — and it contains no fillers or gritty after taste!
If, on the other hand, you want to consume more vitamins, all you need to do is locate an elderberry bush! Elderberries are very potent and can aid in the recovery of many minor illnesses such as sore throats. The craziest part about exploring foraging opportunities, is that nature already has a built-in option for anything you might need! Be this food, medicine, or even art supplies (think yarn dye from elderberry leftovers), the wild has you covered! It sounds almost too good to be true, and here I am just advertising what the Native American cultures in our region have known for thousands of years before Europeans even showed up. The point? Foraging can take us from survival mode to thrival mode — yeah, I may have created that word.
Now, to finish this, I want to make something clear. I take a balanced approach — I’m not suggesting you try living without any pantry supplies, only that, if we add in wild food to complement basic ingredients, there is no need to hoard what we have. Whether you want to go full prepper mode, or you simply want to eat better and gain connection to the land while doing so, foraging may be an option for you. Finally, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information; always positively identify wild foods with multiple reliable sources before consuming.
Below, you will find a simple fall soup recipe featuring chanterelle mushrooms and wild chives (substitute green onions or garden-grown chives if you didn’t save any last spring). I hope that this short story will inspire you to live closer to your roots and explore all that nature offers.
Makes: 5 cups
Time to Make: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 8 slices bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small white onion, chopped
- 1 ½ cups chanterelle mushrooms, cut into chunks (about 3 large ones)
- ½ head cauliflower
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 1 tsp salt, or more to taste
- 3 cups water
- 1 bunch fresh wild chives or green onions, chopped
- 1 ½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Directions
- In a stock pot, combine minced garlic and bacon.
- Turn to medium heat and cook about 5 minutes, until the bacon sizzles and begins to crisp.
- Add onion and chanterelles.
- Cover and cook another 3 minutes, or until onions begin to caramelize.
- Wash and chop cauliflower into bite-sized chunks.
- Add cauliflower to pan and stir.
- Cover again and let steam for about 2 minutes.
- Add 3 cups water and bring to a boil by increasing the heat.
- Simmer soup for about 15 minutes on medium-low heat.
- Scoop about two-thirds of the soup into a blender or food processor. (Skip this step for a chunkier, off grid version.)
- Add sour cream, salt, and flour to the blender.
- Blend on low until cauliflower is smooth but bacon pieces remain intact.
- Pour the blended mixture back into the remaining soup.
- Stir to combine and return to medium-high heat.
- Simmer for about a minute to allow the flour to thicken the soup.
- Leave on low heat for another 5 minutes.
- Add half the green onions (or wild chives) and 1 cup shredded cheddar.
- Serve hot, garnished with remaining cheese and chives.
You can find more information about the new cookbook “Eat off the Land” at sharontrammell.com/eatofftheland, and be on the lookout for an exclusive book talk on foraging taking place at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in Bend come November!
This article appears in the Source October 9, 2025.
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