From collecting blackberries to wild possum ragu — there are plenty of edible delights to be found all over the country this summer if you know where to look for them.
Photographer, writer and foodie Sophie Merkens, 37, says your next delicious meal could be found — for free — on a morning walk right outside your doorstep, or further afield on a road trip across the country.
"Sometimes the easiest foraging is when you're at home. Once you start to look around your surroundings and observe the seasons, it's amazing what's growing on your back doorstep," she tells 1News from Auckland's Piha.
In her book, Eat Wild, Sophie cautions that foraging can be joyful and nourishing, but consuming the wrong species can have unpleasant and even fatal consequences.
"You don't have to do a roadie, but if you are doing a roadie I think I would start with the easy to ID ones, I wouldn't jump into mushrooms or kind of sumac or pineapple weed. That's very specific, especially if you're just beginning to forage."
Here are a few of her favourite things to be found in the wild over summer.
Blackberries
Sophie says her love-affair with foraging "ramped up" during the Covid lockdowns of 2020, when she would head out with her gardener mum to forage for olives (with permission), wild field mushrooms, and dandelions.
She says for many people, picking wild blackberries can be the perfect foray into foraging, as they were delicious when eaten raw or added to salads.
"Maybe not on a road trip, but you can, because I did it on my road trip, you could make a blackberry shrub, [which combines] fruit with sugar and vinegar. I cook mine up, but you can also do it the raw way, and then you've got this, like sweet, sour, sharp, fruity cordial."
Sophie says shrub recipes are deliciously simple, pair beautifully with soda water (and gin), and are perfect for using up seasonal fruit — whether these were wild, homegrown or store-bought.
Stone fruits
Speaking of seasonal fruit, that's Sophie's next favourite foraging item. She says anything that can be made into a jam can also be made into a shrub - which leaves many options ripe for the picking.
"All the stone fruits, like cherry and vanilla shrub and in the book I have an apricot and lavender... I made a spiced apple one last night because I had a big box of apples," she says.
She says during summer other flavour combinations that could easily be sourced in the wild included; cherry and wild thyme, elderberry and orange zest, peach and rosemary, plum and cardamom, blackberry and sage.
"Honestly, shrubs are so easy and delicious, and I don't know why every single bar doesn't have them."
Huhu grubs
Found some decomposing pine along your path? Perfect! Pull back the bark and reveal your next squirmy snack or adventurous appetiser, says Sophie.
In her book, she writes that huhu grubs are actually huhu beetle larvae, "but larvae don't sound so appetising". They are a traditional food source for Māori, with more protein (by weight) than beef, lamb, chicken, soy and chickpeas.
"If you’re cooking the grubs, I recommend leaving them for a few hours so they can clean themselves out: once they have excreted their contents, they taste less like sawdust and more like peanut butter," she writes.
Watercress
Sophie stresses that when it comes to consuming wild watercress, you need to know about the quality of the water.
"A friend of mine once said 'if it's growing, it means it's healthy water'. That's absolutely not the case. Ideally you want it from a spring so then you don't have livestock coming through and contaminating it.
"But watercress just as it is in salads, it's so delicious. In summer we want something cool like salsa verdes, pestos or chuck it in your boil up. You can even make pasta with a watercress.
Ika mata (raw fish)
When it comes to a summer foraging staple - Sophie says she simply can't go past ika mata, which translates to raw fish in Cook Islands Māori.
In her book, Sophie shares Katherine Mitchell's recipe for ika mata, which traditionally is made using white fish cured in citrus juice, then mixed with coconut cream and other fresh salad ingredients.
"Everyone loves going out fish. Well, lots of people love going out fishing. Maybe up north, you're getting snapper, and raw fish just speaks summer to me. It's not so much foraging, but that's a dish every everyone can make.
She says if people can't stomach the high seas for themselves, store bought fish works too and then you can forage for some extra leafy greens, or herbs and spices to go alongside the dish.
Other tips and tricks
Sophie says there were a few items that were trickier for novices to identify (such as sumac), and other items that were "controversial", such as banana passionfruit.
"They're controversial because they nicknamed the gorse of the sea, they just take over and they can suffocate different plants and also feed our pest population."
For this reason, she says, it is illegal to sell, cultivate or distribute the plants - but they can be eaten with permission, respect, and good judgement.
"Perhaps there's a field of these banana passion fruits growing in the wild, totally choking a plant or a tree. And perhaps you want to collect some of those and also pull the vines off, to dispose of them appropriately.
"So I guess, curiosity, caution and respect when it comes to where you're foraging, and also how you're foraging, what you're foraging as you want to always be 100% sure of what you're collecting, and look at multiple guide books."
She says with all foraging, it's important to "always go into foraging with curiosity, respect and caution", whether you're on private or public land.
Sophie Merkens is the author of Eat Wild, A Foraging Journey Across Aotearoa (Penguin Random House NZ).
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