This started as a post about coffee alternatives but quickly turned into a love letter to the TikTokker/Instagram darling Black Forager. So read on if you can’t have caffeine, or you’re just looking for an all-natural, and free, alternative to coffee. But also, read on if you want to meet the loveliest person to ever share foraging tips on the internet.
Foraging is fun! they said. To which we responded – but we live in a city!
How can we forage when we’re surrounded by concrete, skyscrapers and honking taxicabs?
Well, it’s time y’all take a look at an Instagram account called @blackforager. It actually started on Tik Tok and is the brainchild of a twenty-eight-year-old social media manager from Ohio named Alexis Nikole.
She was recently profiled in Bon Appetit. Here’s what they had to say:
“Since April of last year, Nikole’s now viral account has been showcasing her immeasurable knowledge of foraging and cooking with wild plants: a sorbet made out of Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) turned into lush salads, and common dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) battered and fried like fritters. She studied environmental science and theater at Ohio State University, and often combines her two passions on the platform—where you’ll find her singing original songs about cattails and sassafras.”
Her videos about foraging are fun and engaging, but they also address a serious issue. “During the early months of the pandemic, Nikole’s TikToks focused on how foraged goods could extend groceries and increase access to fresh ingredients, especially for those living in food deserts,” reports Bon App.
Anyway, whether you watch for fun or to learn more about the edible food all around you, or for new flavours to bring into the kitchen – just watch. This is the kind of thing that makes life better. She was also profiled in The Kitchn, and the New Yorker!
Oh yeah, and if you want a free substitute for coffee? Put down the Starbucks and pour yourself a cup of dandelion roots. Haha. Just kidding.
No really. It’s dandelion roots and apparently it’s delicious. Check it out here.
Happy foraging!
