- Hi, I am Les Stroud.

Welcome to another episode of "Wild Harvest".

To learn about local forging in a way that is sustainable and safe.

It's best to do it by heading out with a local expert.

You can learn from your books, you can go online, but nothing will replace heading out with someone who really knows what they're doing when it comes to the "Wild Harvest."

(slow piano music) You know, one of the things you have to be careful about when it comes to harvesting from the wild is having it become an obsession.

You'll start to see green everywhere you look.

In fact, one time I was traveling from Turkey to Greece on a cruise ship, every dock, every city street, every countryside, even by the ancient Greek and Roman ruins, I saw wild edible plants.

So some of the excitement of traveling around the world is becoming familiar with plants you've never seen before.

Then you get off your cruise ship in a place like Sitka, Alaska and you immediately begin to sense the possibilities of the "Wild Harvest."

(slow piano music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades) For our foraging and cooking expeditions.

This time around Paul and I thought we'd try something completely different.

Utilizing the comfort of staying on a cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth, as our base of operations.

We could arrive at Sitka, Juno and Haines, Alaska easily.

We'll forge on one day and cook on the next.

Our first stop and Paul's first time visiting Alaska will be the beautiful port of Sitka.

(soft music) Calling Sitka, Alaska her home, Mary Goddard is a Tlingit native, a filmmaker, and an expert forger with intimate knowledge of the edible plants of this region of Alaska.

This makes her, like me, a plant nerd.

And we instantly bonded over discussions about wild edibles: roots, berries, leaves, and flowers.

So, Mary, that's something that I've noticed.

I don't know if you have this in your mind, because you, you teach so many plants and that.

We are into a whole new era of experimenting in a culinary way with wild edibles.

And I think that's just terrific.

But you're gonna show me about, what do we got?

- Yeah, so this plant right here is called Lovage or a common name is Beach Parsley.

And so I'm just gonna break off a little piece and then if you smell it, you can tell right away.

(Les inhaling deeply) - Oh, - Right?

(Les inhaling deeply) - Like it's- - What is that?

- That's the parsley smell.

- Parsley.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And you can tell by the three leafs like this, those three little prongs, that it's lovage.

But if you taste it, you can taste the leaf or the stem.

- Mm.

Oh, that's parsley.

- Mm-hm.

To the freshest.

- Wow!

- Instead of having to go to the store, I have access to it and we get it in this little wet areas.

Or even on the beach, you can find it.

- [Les] So, is it pretty abundant?

- [Mary] It is, yeah.

- Okay, so what's the best way to harvest this?

- So when it's too purple, I don't really like to go after it.

Like it's- - Too purple.

The stems when they get too woody like this.

- Ah, so it's getting a little older.

- You can look and it just gets like that woody stem.

It's like any herb.

Right?

- Okay.

Okay.

- You don't want it when it's too old.

You want it when it's still fresh and young.

So any of the smaller stuff that you see close to the ground.

That's what I would go after.

So you have a nice little patch right in front of you here.

- I see this, yeah.

Oh, okay I see.

- Yeah, and so, even though it's purple, I'd go after those little ones, just not the bigger stalks.

- [Les] Now are we killing these when we're doing this?

Or what are we doing?

We're just the leaves, breaking stems.

- No.

So you can see how big each plant is.

I just get a little bit from each one and then I move on.

- Okay.

- So, you know, instead of taking the whole thing, I just take a little bit and then I move on.

It's just like an herb.

Those plants are gonna keep growing.

- Excellent.

Alright, well why don't you harvest some?

I'll harvest some.

- Okay.

- [Les] Let's get busy.

(upbeat country music) Lovage also called by common name beach parsley or in Latin, ligusticum scoticum, is primarily an Arctic plant, with a range extending from Norway to the more northerly shores of the British Isles.

And from Western Greenland all the way to New England.

(upbeat country music) I think we're doing pretty good.

That's a good amount.

I think Paul should be able to do something with that.

What I'd like to do is find another plant, but we're gonna show him, you called it... - Sour dock.

- Sour dock and same family probably as curly dock?

- [Mary] Yeah.

- Alright, so let's go find that.

Let's go find Paul first and we'll pick it up there.

- [Mary] Okay.

Sounds good.

(upbeat country music) - So the first plant that Mary showed me, it's got some nice punch to it and it's got a very familiar flavor.

But the plant we're gonna look at, now, my understanding is this is an obvious relative to what I call curly dock.

And there's a big beautiful example.

But this guy here, - [Mary] Yeah, so this one's sour dock and really what we're gonna go after today is the leaves.

- [Les] Gosh, it's beautiful.

- This one doesn't have a ton of leaves, but you can see even down here some - [Les] We're just doing just a pick like that.

- Just just a pick.

And where it's red, you kinda don't want so much of the red color leaves.

- And when you harvest it from the plant, are you taking all the leaves?

One leaf?

Is there a percentage basis?

How are you doing it?

- You know, because it doesn't affect the seeds.

You can take the leaves.

Once they get past their prime, no one's gonna come harvest 'em anyways.

- [Les] It's right from plant?

- [Mary] Yeah.

- This is great and here we've got so much of it.

So now, should he do a taste?

- I'm thinking so.

- [Les] Or is this a cook-it-first thing?

- Well, I think you're gonna wanna cook it first.

You can taste it raw.

It's gonna be really, see, bitter.

One way that Alaska natives would cook this is they would cook it, boil it for 20 minutes, drain it.

They would add seal oil or some kind of fat.

- Some kinda lard or fat, yup.

- And some kind of berries.

- Wow.

- To sweeten it up and they would eat it like that.

- You know, this actually wasn't bitter at all.

- That's what I thought too.

- This was, I thought it was really good.

- Oh, mine was.

- Mine almost had a little bit of a sour.

- Okay.

Yeah sour dock, yeah.

- I'm totally not, I'm not going with the pun there.

But it actually had a sour taste to it.

- Yeah.

- Oh it was very sour.

- Yeah.

- See that.

- Now I wanna try the younger leaf and see if it has- - But I'll bet once you boil it for 20 minutes, it's a wholly different flavor altogether.

- [Paul] 20 minutes.

My intuition is not to cook it long at all.

- [Mary] Okay.

- [Paul] Like, just to go really quick.

Blanch for fresh.

But I'll play around with it.

- [Mary] All right.

- Well this is great.

Why don't we harvest as much as you think you need, Paul.

Now that you know what you're dealing with, you let us know when you think we've got enough.

We'll, why don't we just start harvesting and we'll go from there.

I'm excited to get, - Bring this into the kitchen.

- Alright.

- Absolutely.

- I'll start here.

♪ Let's take a hike ♪ On a deep forest trail ♪ Rushing past pine bows and fireweed ♪ ♪ We'll know nature prevails ♪ Let's cross a creek ♪ By stepping on stones - Oh, here's a good one.

♪ Carrying day packs, apples and trail mix ♪ ♪ Our forest home ♪ Yes, life is the season ♪ If you'll take a moment to see ♪ ♪ Nature is where we - Okay, I think we're good - (chuckling) I don't think we can even fit those in.

- Ah, that's wonderful.

That's wonderful.

- Sorry about that.

- I know.

That's what I call a bounty.

("Let's Take a Hike" music fading) (birds twittering) - As I'm sitting here, it is just blowing my mind that I'm in Sitka, Alaska.

I'm sitting in a forest that is completely covered with lichen and moss.

The ocean's just over there.

(water trickling) The one thing that's really apparent to me is the smells.

It is probably the best air I think I've ever smelled in my life.

It's so floral, so intensely fragrant.

I really don't know how I'm gonna capture this yet.

How I'm gonna put this onto a plate.

Something will come to me though.

It's here.

The answers are here.

(upbeat country music) - All right, a little plant id time.

And I always wanna make sure I get the Latin names right.

This is rumex arcticus.

There are other varieties such as rumex mexicanus, rumex occidentalis.

In fact, there's 13 varieties.

It's the sorrel family.

Characterized by the sour taste, the lemony taste of the leaves.

And when it comes to the leaves, what I like to point out is that it has abundant basal leaves.

So when you've got leaves at the base of a plant, usually all around it, those are basal leaves.

So sour dock, as they call it up in Alaska, has a good grouping of basal leaves.

It's going to be growing in a moist area.

Always important when you're ID-ing the plant, what is the location?

If you have a toxic lookalike that grows in a dry region and the plant you want grows in a wet region, then look down at your feet.

Where are you standing?

Are you standing up on a dry hill or are you in a swamp?

And so knowing the topography is really vital to knowing the plant and getting the identification right.

These leaves, I would characterize as lance-shaped.

When you say lance-shaped, you know what I'm talking about.

It's like the long end of a spear.

I would also say they're smooth or entire, because there's no spikes.

They're just a nice smooth green leaf like that.

Also, even though the basal leaves are kind of abundant on a plant like this, as you go up the stem, they really spread out and be described as getting few leaves on the stem.

I'd also say these are alternating, as well.

So you see, you start putting all of that together.

Alternating leaves, smooth and entire, lance-shaped, the basal, the location, I'm in a wet area here.

And you start to get to proper identification of rumex arcticus.

It's a great plant.

Foraging in Sitka, Alaska completed.

It's now time for Paul and I to get back on the Queen Elizabeth.

Figuring out what to do with the lovage and sour dock will be the responsibility of Paul and executive chef Roland Sargunan.

I wanna get you guys right into this.

So what we've done is we went on shore in Sitka.

I was joined there by some Tlingit individuals that took me to areas that they know, where they already harvest.

We found some pretty cool raw edible plants and not the kind that you can buy in the store.

That's what we love about this.

Is these ingredients are not things you can buy in the store.

So let me lay it out for you.

It's not a challenge between the two of you.

It's not a competition.

We're working together.

The real challenge is in highlighting the foraged ingredients.

Have you worked much with foraged ingredients ever?

- Some, but not this much.

- Okay, and Paul, hey man without further ado, why don't bring it out.

- Okay, this is fun.

- [Roland] Let's do what we do.

- Alright.

There we go.

- Wow.

- So this is called, well nicknamed beach parsley or lovage.

And this is part of the sorrel family.

Here it's called sour dock.

- Sour dock, yeah.

- And is this is a traditional food of the Tlingit people.

As well as the the beach parsley.

So what I wanna do now is leave these plants with the two of you.

Go ahead.

Paul knows this deal.

Taste them, explore them, go through the textures.

And I want chefs to do what chefs do, okay?

All right, have fun man.

Welcome to the "Wild Harvest."

- See you later.

- Cheers then.

- [Roland] Let's have a look.

- Try the sour dock.

Very nice.

- It's got a citrus-y taste to it.

- But when I had a second piece it was really bitter.

So it's not consistent.

- Yeah, let's figure something out then.

I mean, it looks interesting.

Interesting ingredients.

Got a couple of ideas to do with it.

Since it's got like a nice citrus-y flavor.

I think it should compliment well with the fish.

- Great idea.

- [Roland] How's that view?

- [Paul] Yeah, right?

- [Roland] Perfect location.

- Yeah.

This is crazy.

- It's amazing.

(chuckling) Amazing.

You know what's my most favorite spice in the world?

Cajun spice.

I just love it.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah.

So we'll let that sit and marinate for a while.

Let the flavors infuse into the prawns.

What'd you call this again?

- This is sour dock.

- Sour dock.

(upbeat music) - So I'm gonna try something, Chef.

I am sauteing this in a little bit of butter just to see how it goes.

So this is sauteed.

Here, try that, Chef.

- Hmm.

- Okay.

- Beautiful.

Actually.

I like that.

- There it is.

- You go.

There it go.

Big one.

(air rushing) (crowd cheering) - [Paul] It sounds like thunder.

- [Roland] It does sound like thunder, yeah.

- Interrupted by a calving glacier.

(Paul laughing) - [Les] Chef Roland has been with Canard Cruise Lines for 25 years and the Executive Chef of the Queen Elizabeth for six of those years.

- So I'm gonna add the garlic to the lovage.

(upbeat music) A little heat will be nice, you know.

- Okay.

Yeah, a bit of spice?

- For the spice, yeah.

- [Paul] I love a little bit of spice.

- Have a taste.

So that's got the wild lovage.

It's got a bit of shallots, garlic, pinch of chili, a bit of red wine vinegar, some sunflower oil and some olive oil.

- Give that 10 minutes.

- It'll infuse.

- Yeah.

- It will get even better.

- It's gonna be great.

(upbeat music) (pan sizzling) - And here I've got the lovage.

So I'm gonna finish it off with that.

- I'm going in.

- Go ahead.

(upbeat music) - Honestly, I think you could use a bit more of the lovage, the wild.

- [Roland] I've got more here.

More - Go more.

- Go more?

Okay.

I'd say go to town on it.

(both chuckling) (upbeat music) (pan sizzling) I'm just gonna denude it right into there.

- Just gonna drop it in the heat.

Yep.

- Does that work?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- And we're just gonna- - Great.

(pan sizzling) - So I've got the beautiful Halibut.

Halibut is a very, very delicate fish.

So you do not want to overcook it and it's just nice and tender and it doesn't get too dry.

- Look at our foraged ingredient.

That sour dock, the way it's caramelized.

That's really interesting.

I love that.

- It does.

Yeah.

Okay, I think we're good.

We can start plating.

(upbeat music fading) (slow soft music) (slow soft music continues) And voila!

What do you think?

- I think it looks wonderful.

I see the ingredients, you know, the foraged flavors are right there, front row center.

There's no doubt, what you are serving in this dish.

Looks fantastic.

- And away we go.

- Yes, here you go.

That's my creation for today.

- Now to be fair, Roland.

What happens in these situations is 'cause sometimes I'm running third camera.

I try not to look at what you're doing.

So this is legitimately really the first time my eyes are going, "Okay."

So first off, we're gonna let Roland take this, 'cause this is his dish.

- Alright, so this is my creation for today.

Okay, so I've used an Alaskan halibut.

Okay.

So I've- - Okay, Alaskan halibut, yep.

- Right there in the middle.

- I see prawns do I?

- Yes, two prawns.

Alaskan prawns as well.

But the prawns, I've marinated in a little bit of Cajun spice.

The reason why, because I love Cajun.

I love Cajun.

- Okay, fair enough.

- And I think it's got a good combination to go with the chimichurri as well.

So today I've used the wild- - Lovage - Wild lovage, yeah.

So that actually made it a more distinctive flavor to the chimichurri itself.

Halibut is always nice, delicate fish.

Every, you're talking about Alaska, really.

So I'm just featuring Alaska with local ingredients and adding a little of my Asian influence I would say.

And also just as my skills as a chef really.

(soft music) - Alright, well, first of all, brilliant.

Right outta the starting gate.

It's a complete win.

It's completely delicious.

What I'm enjoying and as Paul has already likely mentioned to you is, is the wild ingredient featured?

Or is it lost in the butter sauce, you know, that sort of thing.

- Very good tip you gave me.

- Well and I feel like it is featured.

With wild foraged ingredients, you end up with flavors in your mouth that you can't pinpoint.

Say, oh, that's pepper, oh, that's this or that's that.

I almost can never do that with a wild foraged ingredient, because it's a new flavor.

Paul, you happy with how this turned out?

- It's delicious.

And everything that you said, working with new flavors, - That's right.

- That you haven't had a chance to really experiment with before.

- Yep.

Something new, yeah.

- Yeah.

And still showcasing Alaska.

- This is, okay, We'll end this by going, this is absolutely delicious, right.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers everyone.

(glasses clinking) - And Paul, over to you, bud.

- Yeah, I know.

- You're up next.

- You're up next.

- [Paul] Here we go.

But now before I finish eating this.

(Roland chuckling) (upbeat music) - You know, one thing that's for certain is when you are at sea, the weather could change awfully fast.

- Very fast.

- So now that we've left the glacier.

We're actually heading out to the open sea and yeah, it's a little bit breezy.

- [Roland] It is getting very windy isn't it?

- Yeah, but you know what, it's part of the fun.

Cooking outdoors and being outdoors, a lot of it is- - Part of the adventure.

- [Paul] It is.

- We go with the flow, Paul.

- That's right.

(upbeat music) - Yeah.

There we go.

Oh, I love this stuff.

It's amazing.

(upbeat country music) One of my favorite tools.

- Spider.

- The spider.

(upbeat country music) I can see the lemon blowing into that bowl.

- [Roland] Yep.

I think that's good.

- Okay, let's try this now.

'cause you know where I'm going with that flavor-wise.

Bing.

- Perfect.

- Perfect.

- Perfect.

- A lot of butter in this one on purpose.

I'm gonna brown it first.

- Brown it first, yeah.

- And then I'm gonna stop the cooking process by adding the dock.

- Cool.

- And then wilting it.

And there you can see, here it comes.

- [Roland] Perfect.

- It's just a nice brown - Very nice.

- And I think I'm good with that.

- Good.

- Here we go.

Oh, there's that sound.

- Look at that.

- That's what we like A little bit of salt.

(upbeat country music) There we go.

I'm gonna do one more thing.

I'm inspired.

Essentially I just want to deep fry these guys in there, 'cause we can.

Now I watched you do this.

I thought that's a really good idea, so I followed your lead.

- Glad you learned something from me.

(both chuckling) Happy to share my knowledge.

- [Paul] Why thank you.

(country music ending) (slow soft music) (slow soft music continues) - [Les] Gentlemen.

- Alright.

- Hello.

- You know they have the saying of what a difference a day makes.

Well in Alaska, it's literally what a difference five minutes makes.

- [Paul] That's true.

- While you guys were working on your new creation, the weather came in.

It's colder, it's windier, but of course we've also moved locations.

We've come away from the glacier.

Do you want me to eat quickly?

'cause it's cooling down?

- No, there's no temperature worries here at all.

- No hurry.

Great.

Your creation, your turn.

I know you had the wind to battle, but what did you come up with Paul?

- What I did is I took the sour dock and I cooked it in browned butter.

Also, I chose Alaskan smoked salmon, because smoked salmon, number one represents the fact that we're in Alaska, but it also, it's fatty.

It has that ability to take on other flavors, like sour dock.

And then on top, I have a blanched lovage salad.

Earlier we were talking about this and we learned that the red leaves were not edible.

I had a taste and I thought they were fine.

- [Les] Okay.

- [Paul] So I thought, well, I'm gonna use at least one leaf in a little touch.

- [Les] Oh.

So that's the color?

- [Paul] That's for the color.

- That is great.

Okay.

- You made into fine shred.

So I think it's easier to palate.

- [Paul] The last touch on the plate is the seed pods.

And they've been deep fried in butter as well, just to help bring the flavors together.

- All right, well let's give this a try in gentlemen.

I'm gonna put a lot of the greens on there and just go for it.

- I've got a little of everything on my fork.

(soft music) (Les chuckling softly) - Mm, I Almost feel like you guys are cheating with this marvelous Alaskan fish.

But I'm being facetious, because in reality you have complimented it beautifully, Paul.

I can taste the beach parsley.

I can taste the sourness of the sour dock and I can feel the texture of it.

And this fish is so beautiful and so fatty, but it's not overtaking the plate.

The salmon is not taking over and winning the day.

It's the combination is winning, which is just amazing.

And that, that is the reality of the "Wild Harvest."

It's the combination of life.

It's the combination of what you do.

You can travel in an RV or you can go hiking.

You can travel by cruise ship or you can go sea kayaking.

But either way, you step onto that land again.

When you're done you're traveling and you look down and there's this wonderful green, beautiful, delicious bounty that you can enjoy.

And so whatever way you like to travel and you get that opportunity to experience a whole new and unfamiliar "Wild Harvest."

♪ Let's take a hike ♪ On a deep forest trail.

♪ Yes life is the season ♪ If you'll the moment to see ♪ Nature's where we should be ("Take a Hike" music fading) If you'd like to continue to Wild Harvest with me and Chef Paul Rogalski then please check out our website at wildharvestfilms.com where we have recipes and foraging tips along with deleted scenes and outtakes from the making of Les Stroud's "Wild Harvest."

- [Announcer] Directly inspired by the series, Chef Paul and expert forger Les Stroud bring you the "Wild Harvest Recipe Book" highlighting all of Paul's dishes and complete with behind the scenes stories.

It is available for 29.99.

In addition, A DVD of this season is also available for 19.99.

To order, please go to Wildharvestfilms.com "Wild Harvest" TV Show on Facebook or "Les Stroud's Wild Harvest" on YouTube.

(crickets chirping) (birds singing) (musical flourish) (upbeat music)