Honolulu (KHON2)- Forage for food with an adventure into the “jungles” of Honolulu with tours led by Dr. Nat Bletter and Hawaii’s Slow Food organization.

The tours are usually on the 3rd Sunday of the month (the next one is September 15th on Tantalus) and it’s a way to learn about all the delicious, nutritious, and healing plants you can find safely there, how to identify them, and how to prepare them.

Examples include ivy gourd, elephant apple, Jamaican vervain, nom nom fruit or natal plum, coral vine, pink peppercorns, hawksbeard, amaranth leaves, turk’s cap hibiscus, wild mac nuts, strawberry guava, allspice, cinnamon, and much much more.

Dr. Bletter brought some of the things he found foraging and dishes we cook from them like pink peppercorns, stir fried ivy gourd, elephant apple chutney, and allspice tea for Tannya to try on Living808.

The goal is to preserve heirloom varieties of plants, breeds of animals, and traditional cooking methods through meetings, cooking classes, cook book discussions, and foraging and chili pepper classes like the ones Bletter teaches.

Classes include knife skills, poke, fermentation, Thai food, gnocchi, chocolate, and more.

As for the benefits of foraging?

It’s nutritious, you get good exercise finding your food, you feel happier being out in nature and knowing where your food comes from.

There is a chili pepper class coming up in September featuring the 5 species and 120 kinds of chilis that Bletter grows, which ones are good in different parts of Hawaii, how to cook them into delicious things like your own sriracha, szechuan chili oil with cacao, and Mexican mole poblano chocolate sauce.

They also have outings to restaurants, chocolate classes, meet ups at community food events, and other fun food gatherings.

Website: SlowFoodOahu.org