Let’s just admit it. The kids are good foragers. They hunt and gather things that the rest of us don’t see. Like seasoned professionals, they rummage their surroundings for anything interesting. Unfortunately, these items are often dangerous and never elusive. Also unfortunate is the fact that they often end up in their mouths. (Why is it difficult to get my kids to eat kale, but not dirt?)

Taking a cue from our children, we were inspired to take their enthusiasm for foraging and turn it into an educational experience on two fronts – in our bellies and in our trash cans.

The plan:

• Clean the trash from our diets
• Clean the trash from our neighborhood
• Teach the kids the difference between trash and food
• Get dirty
• Eat well
• Have fun

For our bellies, the foraged menu consisted of mostly whole, naturally occurring foods with minimal preparation required.

The Feast

The menu (pictures to follow):

• Grassfed steaks (2 sirloins, 2 T-bones) marinated with spices and olive oil
• Grilled fresh pineapple glazed with a honey-based sauce
• Primal pancakes (small children have a hard time chewing steak)
• Fruit salad with apples, bananas, grapes, pineapple, and raspberries topped with an optional primal-style decadent fruit dip
• Vegetable salad with tomatoes, leeks, green peppers, celery, radishes, mushrooms, and spinach topped with an optional oil-based dressing (most of the vegetables were obtained from the local Community Supported Agriculture farm)
• Fried okra coated in coconut flour and paprika

Is your mouth watering  yet?

All of the food was tasty, but the pleasantest surprise for us were the paleo pancakes, which were adored by kids and adults alike.

Paleo Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1.5  cups blanched almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• coconut oil for pan

Instructions:

1. Mix eggs, honey, and vanilla well in a large bowl.
2. Add almond flour, salt, and baking soda and mix again to form a batter. Add raspberries after stirring.
3. Let the batter sit for 10-20 minutes to thicken up.
4. Warm small amount of coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
5. Ladle pancake batter onto skillet (keeping them silver dollar-sized makes them easiest to flip).
6. When pancakes begin to form bubbles, flip over to cook the other side until lightly browned.

We did not serve these with syrup because there was no need. Everyone liked them just how they were.

As part of our “trash” theme, we decided to clean the garbage from our neighborhood as well. Our fun group activity consisted of picking up trash. Don’t think that’s any fun? You must either not have kids or have forgotten how much kids like this kind of thing. The kids saw it as a treasure hunt. Our goal, as adults, was to keep them from eating the garbage. That’s not always easy with little ones.

When it was all said and done, we had four plastic bags full of garbage that we foraged from our yard and other nearby areas.

Hunting and gathering trash.

We think Grok would be proud!

The Tribe

Matthew Sattley, Ann Sattley, Josiah Sattley, Samuel Sattley, Daniel Kiteck, Karen Kiteck, Nathanael Kiteck, Cherish Kiteck

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