 Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosal here today. I'm on a foraging expedition with Jerusalem's chief forages I think that's a word, right? We're going to lift it which is on the outskirts of Jerusalem This place definitely has a sort of semi-tragic history. It was a depopulated Palestinian village But it's now just a natural park on the outskirts of Jerusalem And there's amazing foraging opportunities here and she's gonna a Dara is gonna teach us all about the plants that can be picked here So I was I was doing about saving money and then I started like writing about it and people said could you teach us? I'm like, I can't teach this. I'm not a teacher They're like just try and that was 11 years ago and I haven't looked back since because people begged me to do it again And fortunately, I realize that I might not be a formal person, but I have a lot of fun teaching called pasta con sardine I don't know how to pronounce it sardine sardine. I can't say it. It's made with sardines and wild fennel and currants and pasta and parmesan breadcrumbs. I don't know which one and Yeah, we're not making that. We're making something else a different Italian Italian pasta dish with this So we have to pick some of these and if you can Not the not the hard parts. That's why I'm saying not the hard parts So wild fennel It is an ancestor of the fennel that we buy in the supermarket and It is good for upset stomachs and it just tastes good in general if you don't hate the taste of fennel Do you see this one over here? It is a wild plant that is edible that you find in the supermarket This would have to touch feet and they guess what plant that is. This is a more mature form of it You can't eat it at this stage But this is what it looks like when it's overgrown and mature in the winter you look for a plant like this Usually it's not behind bushes. So it's easier to tell you find like one like this look on the ground And you will find asparagus growing like regular asparagus They're slightly thinner than usual and we need to know about this asparagus is that it's um It dries out quickly so it doesn't stay well in the fridge You want to eat it immediately the same day, but it's really really good stuff and it's fun trail nibbles I don't find it all over Jerusalem, but the lift has a perfect place to find it Lettuce is in the in the dandelion family, and it's called the Lactuciae family Lactu, coming from the word milk like lactose It's called that because everything in this family when you pick it has like this white sap This one you're not gonna find as well because oh you do see that you see that white sap over there It's all dried up. You still see that white sap when you um when you pick it So everything in this family has flowers that look like a dandelion white sap when you pick it I usually they're bitter. This is actually one of the exceptions that are not bitter No a different family has white sap not everything has white sap isn't that family there was also poison This family has white sap, but this was um This is a different one. Okay old Hawthorne. Have you heard of Hawthorne before? um like family Hawthorne The flower I mean sorry the fruit are edible and Hebrew is called Ozrar The fruit are gonna be um the fruit are gonna be ready and then the summer sometimes they're yellow sometimes they're red The fruit kind of tastes like apples to be honest. Um, they taste um, they're like slightly mealy also They're very good for your heart Um, apparently they're good for if your heart is too like your heart If your heart rate is too high or too low, it's good at balancing it out when these are ripe. Yeah, they're they're they're tasty They taste like uh like for years They're mostly native to here Plants don't have the ability to do that so plants have to have other ways to protect themselves they protect themselves by Being poisonous being too hard to eat being poisonous being too hard to eat Being prickly Being so prolific that even if they die there's so much more of them or looking like poisonous plants So often the ones that look the least edible are usually edible most of the thorny plants are edible Because they have thorns to protect themselves. They don't also need to be poisonous this land over here Shemshon the foodie I assume you've eaten these before Yeah, you know that's already yeah, these are capers You do not want to eat them up like this Because capers have um really bitter mustard oil in them The entire caper plant is edible the gemara talks about it what broccoli make in each part Um In order to eat it what you need to do is you need to soak it in water every day change the water for about three days Uh, they change color from like this purplish green to like this modeled White and green like white and olive green color And then you pickle it either with vinegar and water or like a salt um salt and water like um lactic lactic fermentation and then the flower opens up like that Well, this is actually a messed up flower. Yeah, they've yes these are these flowers look alien like almost They're one of the most unique flowers here um and then Um, and then they turn into fruit the fruit of the caper plant is called a caper berry It kind of looks like a little cucumbers and it has a lot like this big sometimes it could get bigger But they're better when they're smaller. They've got a bunch of seeds in them. They taste similar to capers But more spicy capers are actually very hard to grow from seed But once it's growing it's almost impossible to kill barley and wheat If you see the difference, I mean Okay, barley is kind of like Weak A braid with like with uh spikes coming off at both sides Whereas barley kind of is more like a six braided, you know, it's the the braid looks is on all sides um Right, so wheat and barley they grow upward This is already dried out. You're not going to be able to get the seeds near the seeds are gone But this is still beneficial um because this is called oats straw at this stage You said hey and yes oats straw is basically like hey If you make it into tea, it's actually very good for um, very calming Hi guys, I'm here with two amazing people. We've got Daniel Rosehill. He's my partner in crime for many exciting pink adventures in Jerusalem And we've got Adara here. I'm trusting my life with no she's taken me to the middle of the forest Deep down near the river gorge here, and it's just very dangerous. We almost fell a few times going It's a very steep decline here Are we going to survive this all these plants we want you want us to eat is it going to work out? Um, it's not just going to work out. You're going to actually be pleasantly surprised at how good the food is going to be Okay, good life insurance one million shekels. Is that enough or should I call my broker now? I think it should be enough. I think you're going to want to um You want to get rid of the life insurance because you're not going to need it after this So the fig tree we all know that um That figs are edible, right? Now when you pick figs the sap that comes out is white It is not in the dandelion family. It's a different family that has a white sap Um, now this sap has a few different benefits It is medicinal. It is an antifungal a really strong antifungal antibacterial Um, also this white sap could be used to curdle milk and to make cheese But it has a slightly bitter taste so we're not going to use that in ours But you can make cheese using the sap from the fig tree And the last thing about them is if you take them and you wrap food with them You could bake them with keeping the moisture in it like um like you would uh, you know with aluminum foil or parchment paper Uh, but it's biodegradable if you see This is why it's a poisonous lookalike if you see the seeds kind of look like fennel seeds That's why we say there's a poisonous lookalike But no poisonous smellalikes because it does not smell like fennel Um When it's younger it looks kind of like parsley See if you see something it looks like wild parsley. Do not eat it. I mean This is poison hemlock poison why this is what they used to kill socrates Hey to think of a duck's foot or a goose's foot Um, it's called an english goose foot is one of his name in latin It's chenipodium which means foot of a goose and in hebra it's called kafavaz which means foot of a goose it's one of those names that Among different languages Okay, so this plant over here yesterday. It's one of the few greens you find like growing prolifically in the summer in israel I was looking for this especially when I was coming down to look and I I only found this plant but I said fine. We'll use this plant whatever greens we'll find over here We'll do something with that and then yesterday I was in Jerusalem and I I hit jackpot. I saw one plant this tall. Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention It's officially called goose foot, but its other name is lamb's quarters. That's a name I use for it Um, I don't know why it's called lamb's quarters. Some people also call it wild spinach Um, one plant. I mean you see how small this is but one plant could grow this tall That hairs have um, have stuff that sting you But they're not poisonous if you see something that maybe you think might be this But it stings you It's nettles and it's also edible. So you don't have to worry about that We'll get to nettles a different time because this is not in season But um, the leaves don't look actually webbed now. There's another plant called annual mercury that looks similar to this Except it doesn't have this is more concave. Whereas those are convex Outside if you see like this is more webbing and the other one is kind of more like a lacedoile edge So liftoff also has kind of a checkered historical history This was actually a palestinian majority almost exclusively village That was depopulated after the foundation the state of israel and you can see here It's now in nature reserve in israel. You can see all around us here Houses are actually abandoned our properties and you can actually see behind me here These coils are pretty crazy Razor wire that are intended to stop people from coming into these runes and they're just all around as well as the spring so, um, you know, there's definitely two sides to the israeli palestinian narrative and Lifta has been likened to the Pompeii of the palestinian narrative and uh, so it's kind of also I try to keep that in mind Whenever I'm visiting here that's for where the thorns are so we're gonna I want to show you how we take off the thorns There's also the big thorns and then there's these tiny little thorns called glow kids Which are basically invisible ones. I mean practically invisible ones and they're hard to get off So you have to be careful of these But the young ones the light green ones You could see them more easily because um, they have bigger thorns on them And they're soft and they taste like lemony green across between lemony green greens and green peppers And we will be making two different things with them And I can't wait to show you so the way we do it This is my favorite way to do it because you can't put these in bags because then the thorns get in I put them in a box like this And then I cut them off like that see now. No need to that's my own invention. See this is my my own cool foraging a Hatch you should paint it that So we've completed the foraging part of our adventure now. We spent 30 minutes there down in Lifta under Adara's guidance picking out plants And now we've brought all the things we foraged back in our little foraging bowls And we're actually preparing a sit-down banquet on one of these pull-out tables here So what we're currently cooking is palak paneer It's a mixture of food that Adara's brought from her house as well as things that we've foraged When that's all the way off then we're going to rinse them and then chop them up to cook them Oh, and then you have to know around the edges You actually have to cut off the edges because you can't get the thorns fully off the edges I'm cooking rice noodles almost finished. We're going to have them with wild fennel And um fake sausage beyond sausage and cheese that we're making It's uh It's an Italian if you call the the wild fennel finocchio in In italian and we're gonna we're making cheese that's going to go in the fennel. We're Paneer cheese, right? Paneer cheese. Yes. We're waiting for the water to boil for that And we are also making a palak paneer indian curry and we're going to make Lemon butter cactus and we're going to make a cactus chickpea tomato pepper salad How much of these ingredients have you faraged and what have you brought? I brought Tomatoes peppers onions Rice milk noodles and spices and the rest is all coming from nature. That's amazing Um This is rice we forged the rice in the fields of china And this is um This is palak paneer cheese. Um, it's made with lamb's quarters and paneer cheese that we made ourselves And tomatoes and onions and garam masala This is a cactus paddle salad with chickpeas and peppers and tomatoes This is a fennel and fake sausage and pasta dish And this is lemon butter cactus and this is the oat straw tea that we also faraged from Hi friends, we've been through this big adventure now. We've walked through nature We've been to springs. We're into in the forest. We've picked all these healthy healthy foods We've cooked them together and it's come out into an interesting vegetarian dairy meal And there's a lot of flavors here, which are very wild. They're unfamiliar and I'm also not familiar with Indian food So it's been an amazing experience with Adara and I certainly can recommend it I was scared. I'm still scared, but I'm going to eat it at the moment. I feel good. So Cheers, okay So we've just finished the dining part of the experience and it was absolutely everything was absolutely incredible This is the spin on palak paneer that in like your typical palak paneer is made from ingredients Found right here in Lyft in Jerusalem. This is cactus. I never had any idea what cactus would look like It's actually very tasty. This was cooked in butter and it's a little bit stringy as well Like a bit like reminds a bit like malakia the egyptian dish and we have some rice here as well Everything was absolutely fantastic. This was an absolutely amazing experience. We spent three hours connecting With the the plants here and then cook them afterwards I think if you're interested in sustainable more sustainable ways to eat a cool experience in Jerusalem or you're a tour group visiting The city then I highly highly recommend going on one of Adara's tours And you can classes and then at the end of it, you can eat delicious food like this What more could you ask for it? It was really nice having a group Along to learn about our foraging stuff If you want to learn more about my forging adventures check out my new website adara peskinshalem.com That is a d a r a p e s k i n S h a l e m dot com or check out my other website pennilessparenting.com Where I have a lot of write-ups about how to identify different wild plants