Wild Living with Sunny: Episode 16 - Mallow Plant S'mores

Sunny Savage joins Dr. John Kallas, of Wild Food Adventures in Portland, Oregon for a class on making marshmallows out of the common mallow plant. Dr. John Kallas has been teaching wild food classes since 1978, and truly embodies the spirit of scientific inquiry, and all the positive discoveries to which that can lead. With an open and inquisitive mind, he has been doing the work to answer some of the oftentimes vague or loose historical references, around the use of wild edible plants.

For many years John has worked to develop a recipe using common mallow (Malva neglecta) to make marshmallows. The traditional way of making marshmallows was to use the root of the marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis), which grows in marshy areas. But the above-ground parts of common mallow are also mucilaginous, and this plant is widely available to most people throughout North America. Watch the video below to get an idea of how to make mallowmallows using the small fruits, buttons, cheeses, or peas as John likes to call them, of the common mallow plant. We also briefly discuss how he has noticed differences in when plants are ripening due to climate change.

Sunny's wild food television series Hot on the Trail with Sunny Savage airs on Veria Network (DISH channel 218 and Verizon FIOS channel 162).
See http://veria.com/hot-on-the-trail.html for show times and more information.

Learn more about wild food plants:

Sunny's web blog at http://sunnysavage.com

Sunny's wild food site at http://wildfoodplants.com

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Sunny Savage
• wild food
• living wild
• bushcraft
• wild edibles
• in
• the
• wild
• foraging
• identify
• harvest
• cooking
• edible
• plants
• john kallas
• adventures
• malva
• neglecta
• common
• mallow
• marshmallow
• s'mores

[WudLass]

yeah wow um that's my uncle john...

[sunnysavage]

ha...family members rating in. Your Uncle is a good guy...take care, ~sunny

[sunnysavage]

So glad you liked the video! where are you at? you should definitely have common mallow growing around where you live.

Take care.

cheers, ~sunny

[weldmaster80]

How cool, sub!

[MiWilderness]

Thanks for sharing this. I have this book and it's got a lot of detailed information on a good number of green leafy wild plants. I've used it to ID, and more importantly use quite a few plants.

[RuinedTemple]

Is there somewhere where I can find out how to use the mallow root for making such confections or other foods? Is there a resource or recipe?

[BJBOBBIJO]

Oh cool! I cant wait until winter is over so I can go find some fresh mallow. I figured that was a big patch of mallow I had in my yard but I couldnt tell for sure. Now I know. Although I dont think Ive ever saw those pea looking things on them. Perhaps my free ranging chickens eat those pea looking things before I ever get a chance to see them?

[rainbowzalla]

Yay for John! And yay for mallowmallows. I'm going to have to sneak upstairs for a marsh'smore one of these days when he's having a workshop. Congrats to you both.

[RawVeganBabyBoomer]

ohhhhhhhhh such a good video ! Man, I wish we had food all over like ya'll ! You're BLESSED !