Nature's Candy | First We Eat

Wild Rose petals, lungwort flowers, dandelion flowers and spruce tips. Photo by Suzanne Crocker

Wild rose flowers are out in abundance around Dawson City. Suzanne and Tess have been gently grazing as they walk through the forest. Two delicacies are wild rose petals and lungwort (blue bell) flowers, which are lightly perfumed with a touch of sweet. Spruce tips (late May) provided the citrus candy of the forest.

Lungwort flowers (Bluebells) are also a delicious wild food. Photo by Suzanne Crocker. From FirstWeEat.ca, the Food Security North of 60 website supporting First We Eat, a documentary by Yukon filmmaker Suzanne Crocker about eating only locally-grown foods in in Dawson City, Yukon, in Canada's North, for one year.

Wild rose petal close-up. Photo by Suzanne Crocker. From FirstWeEat.ca, the Food Security North of 60 website supporting First We Eat, a documentary by Yukon filmmaker Suzanne Crocker about eating only locally-grown foods in in Dawson City, Yukon, in Canada's North, for one year.

Blue bells (lungwort flowers) and Wild Rose petals are two edible delicacies for foragers. Photos by Suzanne Crocker. Wild rose petals can be eaten fresh, used as a garnish, steeped as a tea, or sun-steeped for rose-flavoured water. They can also be dried for storage through the year. Recently Suzanne has learned they can also be frozen. Remember to leave a few petals on each flower you pick so that they continue to attract bees.

Place rose petals in water to give it a refreshing rose flavouring. Photo by Suzanne Crocker.

If you know of any tips/recipes for eating rose petals that only include ingredients local to Dawson, let Suzanne know through firstweeatproject@gmail.com

Tess with a bucket of Nature’s Candy. Photo by Suzanne Crocker.

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Suzanne's ongoing list of available local ingredients:

Meat: Moose (all parts) Chicken (all parts) Boar/pig (all parts) Caribou (all parts) Mutton Grouse Rabbit Fish: Chum salmon (incl salmon eggs) Grayling Burbot Dairy: Milk, cream Yogurt Butter Ice cream Eggs Grains: Small amount of barley Small amount of rye Lambsquarter/pigsweed Fruit: Low bush cranberries High bush cranberries Rosehips Crowberries Saskatoon berries Haskap berries Black currents Blueberries (a few) Apples (a few precious apples!) Raspberries Rhubarb Strawberries Bunchberry/Dogwood berry (for its pectin) Golden Berry/Ground Cherry ( a few precious berries) Sour Cherry (a few precious cherries) Vegetables (can store fresh year round): Potatoes Carrots Cabbage Kohlrabi Onions Garlic Celeriac Root Rutabaga Turnip Beets Hubbard squash Spaghetti Squash Salsify Vegetables (can store frozen, dried or canned): Tomatoes Kale Spinach Swiss chard Broccoli Romanesco Caulifower Zucchini Celery Peas Pumpkin A few Sweet Peppers A few Hot Peppers Cucumbers as fermented pickles Seasonal only vegetables: Lettuce Green onions Cucumbers Fresh Radish Bok Choy Mustard Greens Sorrel Corn (a few precious cobs) Herbs: Basil Dill Mint Thyme Oregano Cilantro/coriander Marjoram Rosemary Parsley Sage Sorrel Lemon Balm Catnip Wild plants: Fireweed Bear Root Juniper berries Spruce tips Labrador tea Wild Sage Colts foot Stinging Nettle Yarrow Dandelion Chickweed Wild Rose Petals Mushrooms Chaga Willow Catkins - the sweet ones! Sweetener: Birch syrup Honey Sugar beet syrup Sugar beet sugar Thickener: Potato starch Fats: Butter Moose lard Pig fat Miscellaneous: Kephir Sourdough starter made from juniper berries Kombucha scoby

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