This interactive live webinar, was wildly classy and a huge success as we all got to participate tasting and learning about urban-wild edible plants local to our neighbourhoods (with the exception to wild leeks). Guests received a special #forijthrills delivery early that morning and we all met online later that afternoon (adhering to social distancing best practices).
We reviewed this springs most delightful urban-wild ingredients.
Lilacs
Violets
Spruce tips
Dandelions (seeds)
Tulips
Hostas
Forget-me-nots
Serge Savchuk, founder of Vaka Chocolate, amazed us with his amazing talk on “Chocolate Tasting Etiquette 101”. We had an exclusive access to batch #149 in collaboration with us, harvesting violets for a small craft batch of 63% dark chocolate, Blueberry and violet bar.
Yoda Olinyk, Chef and Author @Yodaswords shared her wisdom and knowledge on sustainably harvesting ramps and prepared us a bowl her Forest soup to enjoy! It was out of this world delicious. We enjoyed it as she read us a preview of her upcoming book: “Salt & Sour”- super excited for you!
We finished of the webinar decorating the cutest little lilac infused cakes, provided by our restaurant sponsor, Reverie. They were almost too cute to eat, but wayyyyy too delicious to resist. We decorated our cakes together (virtually) with the supplied pressed, fresh flowers and dandelion seeds. The Nylon tweezers by our sponsors Microfleur really helped with the steady and intentional placement. We also loved the Max Flower Press to press our violets.
Pictured below there were many other goodies in our urban-wild box to explore during and after the webinar. Glen Farms Gourmet provided us with a beautiful very fresh batch of "Spruce tip Jelly with Chardonnay"
Even though we could be together as we would have typically planned an event it was still amazing to see everyones experience on socials @forijthrills tagging #forijthrills. It was exceptionally rewarding to see everyone had a great time!
Check out these beautiful photos by one of guests, making a beautiful use the spruce tip on her Violet Dandelion Mocktail. And the beautiful spread of freshly candied, spruce tips, lilacs we provided and the pansies from her own garden!
[Photo credit: @vanvonsweetness]