Part of my payment for being the guest presenter for the John C. Campbell Folk School’s Appalachian Heritage Week in 2025 was a free class. Last week I redeemed my instructor resource for a Nature Studies class with Ila Hatter. It was wonderful!
I’ve known Ila for many years and even got to enjoy her company last August when she taught the same class during Appalachian Heritage week. She is a master gardener, master forager, and loves the history and culture of Western North Carolina.
One day of the class was spent preparing a feast showcasing some of the things we had foraged. The meal was delicious!
The day before we ate we went to a trout farm over in Stecoah. Several students caught trout for us to eat for our special meal. Two had never fished before so it was exciting for them and a lot of fun for the rest of us to see how pleased they were with their catch.
Here’s the full menu.
- Trout seasoned with sumac powder and pickled sorrel wrapped in chestnut leaves and smoked
- A mixture of greens: lamb’s quarters, violet leaves, dandelion greens, and beet leaves cooked with bacon
- Persimmon spoon bread
- Sautéed Chanterelle mushrooms
- Sautéed fennel root with beet stems
- Sautéed broccoli with sumac seasoning
- A sweet tea made from spice bush, birch twigs, and wild ginger
- Elderberry flower fritters with rose syrup
I enjoyed it all, but I believe my favorite taste was the tea. The first sip immediately took me back to Mamaw’s kitchen. I’m not sure if she used spice bush for her tea or if maybe commercial tea in those days was different than what it is now.
I’ll share more from my class in the coming days.
Last night’s video: It Took Two Days & A Wreck, But We Got Blackberries Planted.
Tipper
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That class must have been amazing. I grew up in WV with a grandmother who picked wild greens in her apron every spring and I wish I could go back and live at that time again. I have sumac in my spice cabinet and sprinkle on my eggs at breakfast.
Hi Tipper and Acorns. What a blessing you all have in the School. I’d love to be able to go. Your meal sounds delicious. I bet your grandmother used Spicebush in her tea. I have one across the creek in my back yard on the big hill. I keep some of the Russian”Tang” Tea. Prayers for you Norman. I think there is no greater aggravation than bad teeth. I keep you, everyone here and the folks up Wilson Holler in my prayers. I ask that y’all keep me in your prayers as I go to the Periodontist next week to see if I have a mouth cancer. I hope y’all keep my son in your prayers too he has been doing better most days since I first asked for y’all to pray for us. I TY all for prayers asked and given. I love y’all.
Thank you Barbara! I will keep you and Ed in my prayers too!
Good afternoon Tipper – A nature studies class sounds like fun. I would love it too…but not as much as taking your classes would have been.
The menu sounds amazing! I will harvest some sumac berries this season, I forgot how tart & lemony they are.
I wish I had know about this class. No chanterelles yet by me but I bet after these rains they will start popping. The gardens sure love this soaking!
Have always wondered about sumac seasoning. I have never tried it.
Praying for Papaw Tony!
That sounds wonderful! What a cool experience!
Praying for you Norman ! Praying also for Papaw Tony & all !
thank you Lori, thank you for praying for me thank you for praying for Tony
For many years I enjoyed going and trout fishing in the creeks around the Walhalla’s Fish Hatchery of SC. It has now been many years since I did this, the trout you might catch were all hatchery trout, very few native trout. I have never been to a trout farm but know some people that have been. All said the same thing, you are guaranteed to catch fish and be sure to take a wad of money with you, fishing at these farms is very expensive.
Hey Tipper
Hope this finds you well. I want to thank you for introducing me to wild lettuce. it grows prolifically in my yard, so today I’m going foraging to see if I can find some small leaves. A part of my dinner today will be turnip greens sauteed with onions, mushrooms, purslane, and spinach, served over rice. Now if only I could find a good use for that darn creeping Charlie that wants to cover my yard!
Sounds like an interesting time meal Tipper – I have eaten some of the items you listed but have never actually done much foraging myself – but I do come from a family heritage of foragers on my mother’s side and have had/have many forager friends.
Morning everyone. I don’t know what part I would have enjoyed the most. Probably the foraging. You did teach me something, I didn’t know you can make tea out of Spice Bush, or maybe I forgot. My 2 bushes are only 3 or 4 yrs old, I never saw any berries yet. Maybe they are still too young or both males. Or the birds got them. Something to look forward to. Thank you for being a bright spot in my day. Anna from Arkansas.
That sounds like a fun day and a great meal. Tipper, you bring joy to everyone with the simplest things.
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I can do an è with the grave slanted backward but how did you do it the other way? I can’t make the Ă© without cheating.
🙂 spell check did it for me
Seems you figured it out, but you didn’t say how.
I use the Windows feature called Character Map to choose and insert special characters. I keep it pinned to my task menu but it can be invoked using the SEARCH box at the bottom of my screen.
We have lots of wild things growing in our yard (used to be woods and a pasture) that are edible, but I am afraid to try most of it since I have misidentified so many plants since we’ve lived here. So many have a “look alike” that is toxic. And with food allergies, I’m especially concerned. But all that y’all had sounds adventurous and interesting. I’d love to try that tea too!
Hey Tipper, sounds soo good!! I am intrigued about the tea and pickled sorrel. did they use the spice bush buds? and was sorrel salt pickles or with vinegar?? I have some wild ginger, ramps and a spice bush growing in my yard. years ago I brought from Mom’s (Murphy) to our home in NW ohio. I have never used any of either. trying to encourage them to multiply. I planted the ginger and ramps on the north side of the house and I keep the soil as close to what they came from mulching with leaves in the fall. I would love to learn more about the ways our families used to eat. Thanks for sharing!! God bless y’all!
No we used twigs from the spice bush. The sorrel was pickled with vinegar but we didn’t make it 🙂
Thanks!
The title of master forager is arguably one of the most rewarding a person can hold. If I had to choose from the menu of items to try, it would be difficult, but I think I would go for the elderberry flower fritters served in rose syrup. Looking forward to hearing more about your class.
The entire class and natural food offerings sounds absolutely wonderful and the taste must have really “woke up “ or “twanged” your taste buds as Barney used to say on Andy Griffith! I’d have loved to have been there myself to get involved in the forage and maybe I could’ve fished with success being as it was at the farm where there was plenty of fish to be had! I bet it was a flavorful and social experience to say the least. I dyed my hair a few days ago, had an anaphylactic reaction where I couldn’t breathe and my eyes watered all night like somebody had shoved sand in them. I ended up ok after a trip to the ER and a shot to help me breathe and stop a histamine total reaction. I can never dye my hair again or could die from hair dye. If you’ve dyed for 40 years the next time could be your last dye before you die. Please listen yall and don’t suffer my fate for vanity. I’m fine now… Blessings to all and a day of getting your feet in the dirt to ground…
What a scary experience, Sadie! I am so thankful you are ok!
God bless you
I thought you didn’t like tea and thought it tasted like a barn stall! Glad you found one you like.
I have never liked hot tea for that very reason 🙂 This was cold sweet tea. I did discover the reason I’ve never liked hot tea in the class though. It was never the tea it was the honey we sweetened with that gave the aftertaste I didn’t like. I’ll share more about that soon.
For blue blooded southerners there is only one type of tea…sweet iced tea! Please Lord don’t ever let me be forced to drink cold or iced coffee, only hot Folgers or Maxwell House original roast!
Well, if that doesn’t just sound devine!! That was definitely a “payment” worth receiving. As I was reading through the menu, I had picked out the tea as what I’d most like to sample. I can’t remember how old I was, but definitely younger than 5(not in school yet) when we were visiting my grandparents and extended family in Columbia, KY, on our yearly trip. My grandma and great aunt offered me up some sassafras tea from these brown roots they’d dug up and washed off. What a treat!!! I remember asking for a glass of that very interesting flavor a few more times before heading home to IL. I’ve always been a fan of rootbeer so I guess it wasn’t too far off that I’d enjoy the tea. The novelty of the preparation really sparked my interest. Nature’s bounty♡
What an interesting menu! I love to learn about foraging and look forward to all you will share about your time at JCCFK in upcoming days. We would all be much better off if we ate from the land and knew how to forage in order to incorporate more deeply nourishing foods. I really enjoyed your YouTube short with footage from your recent time there!
Such a neat experience, I know. We visited the JCCFAC many years ago and I have always wanted to take a class there but the expense has kept me away. I can only guess it’s a wonderful time. They offer such a variety of classes, too. I’m excited to hear more about it. I always thought sumac was poisonous, happily, I was wrong on that. Much love from SC
I’m not a very adventurous eater but I think I’d love the trout. I eat beets too, but I’ve not tried the stems. I would try it all tho. It sounds like you had a great time. Your garden looks so pretty. Blessings
Tipper–You mention rose syrup. Was it actually rose hip syrup or is there another way to use roses?
Ila is an interesting and knowledgable lady. Did you actually gather any of the foodstuffs (elderberries are past their prime bloom period here but should be just right up your way.
Ila had made the rose syrup before she came so I’m not sure if she used the hips or the actual petals. It had a lovely deep pink color. We did gather much of what we ate including the elderberry blooms 🙂
I have purslane in my yard, and, of course, dandelions too. I tried the dandelion leaves in a salad. A little bitter, the dandelion leaves work better when paired with other lettuce greens. Your foraged meal sounds delicious!
That sounds like a wonderful class and a delicious meal. I’m glad you had the opportunity to attend it and you shared your experience with us all.
That sounds like an interesting class to take. We have the same plants around here that you found and I’ve thought about foraging for some of our food since most of them are really plentiful, but I always have in the back of my mind, what if I picked a poisonous look alike and prepared for us, yikes! Maybe one of these days I’ll take a class so that I can be really sure of what I’m picking.
very interesting!!! the trout fishing I would have enjoyed the most, this makes me think of the tea that my mother used to make, it was made from Tang, astronauts used to drink it, it made great Russian tea, memories of my mother, hopefully today is some arrangements will be made for me to get some teeth pulled, we shall see, I got a message Friday that the referral has been processed, please continue to pray thank you and God bless you very much