Become “George of the Jungle” by eating what Mother Nature intended.
Here’s a recipe for a homemade power bar made mostly with food foraged from the wild, courtesy of the famous urban forager Pascal Baudar.
Raw, paleo and packed with protein, vitamins and minerals, you won’t find anything like it in the store.
If you’re a Southern Californian you gather all of the ingredients from the wild or local farms, but similar ingredients can be found around the country.
With a mortar and pestle mash up the following ingredients into a paste. A handful or two of wild berries – currant, toyon powder, blueberries, ripe California juniper berries, manzanita, coffee berries, local wild figs and dates. The exact measurements aren’t necessary.
Go by your gut instinct, just like Mother Earth would want you to. Taste each ingredient separately so you know how much to add. Some berries taste sweeter, some more sour. You are the boss of your sticky-berry sauce.
I recommend having enough figs or dates to make sure it’s paste-like, though. Once the fruit mixture is mashed up, rough chop and mix in following ingredients – nettles, broadleaf plantain (high in calcium and vitamins A,C, and K), black sage, white sage, lambs quarter( high in magnesium and vitamins A, C, and B-6), sedge, and at least 1 tablespoon of native chia seeds.
Chia seeds have 2 grams of protein, 4 grams fiber, and 3.5 grams of fat in every tablespoon. So, load up on this stuff if you like. It’s no wonder it’s considered a super food.
If you’re needing an extra protein boost add some roasted (or unroasted) lemon ants to your bar. You’ll need roughly a thousand, though, if you want at least 10 grams of protein. If gathering ants is too time consuming, use another form of insect in the form of powder.
Cricket flour is a great source of nutrition. One tablespoon is packed with 7 grams of protein. You’ll have to gather up a bunch of crickets – dry them out in a dehydrator, the sun, oven or lightly roast over an open fire – then grind them up with a mortar and pestle or blender.
You’ll have to process them twice to get a flour-like consistency. After the first round of smashing, you’ll want to remove the wings, legs or anything else that’s not mashing up real smooth. Then mash or blend again. If you’re not ready to get that “wild” yet, you can buy cricket flour online
Once all the ingredients are combined and moulded into bars, wrap in Arunda Donax or “Giant Weed,” an invasive species the City of Los Angeles tries to eradicate every year with chemicals, often with little result. Gather leaves from areas not likely to have been sprayed and rinse any that are suspect. Tie a bow around it using local yuca fibers.
This recipe can be modified with whatever local berries, herbs, seeds, and other plant life are in your neck of the woods.
This is what real, local, wild-sourced food looks like. Help become a better steward of the Earth by using what she’s given you. No more toiling in the mono-cropped fields of hell.
If you’re feeling weak and tired, step outside and taste what Mother Earth has to offer.
For more information on Pascal Bauder and other recipes check out his book
