Subscriptions - Maximum Yield Cannabis USA September/October 2020 | Page 40

cooking with
CANNABIS
by Chef Sebastian Carosi
Blackberries spread so rapidly that dogs
and small children were sometimes
engulfed and never heard from again.”
— Tom Robbins
We are finally starting to see hemp as part of the daily
meal plan. For those of us that have been around this
plant for any length of time, we are used to utilizing the fan
leaves, sugar leaf, shoots, sprouts, and even the pollen of
the cannabis plant. More and more people have pushed for
cannabis consumption in eateries and coffee shops across
the country; this consumption equates to smoking, not eating
hemp or cannabis. I prefer to eat my cannabis as if it were
what it is — a leafy green. A piquant, plant-based, proteinloaded,
young leafy green at that. With that said, let’s get into
the brambles: wild blackberries, the hand-staining drupes.
This salad is easy-peasy and relies on the freshness of the
products used. But let’s not forget about these pickled purple
beauties. Blackberries are extremely popular when eaten
fresh, but they also make outstanding additions to sweet pies,
savory pastries, all sorts of jams, jellies, syrups, and many
other creative condiments these days. Most people really
don’t think of them as a pickled addition to their food. Here
in the Pacific Northwest where I live, we have this vast dank
mountainous landscape entangled with thorny briars that
are literally dripping with sweet, plump, dark-purple berries
in the summertime sun. There are deep thickets of free, wild
edible commodities that sometimes stretch for miles, begging
to be eaten. I can recall Tom Robbins noting in one of his
more horticultural moments: “blackberries spread so rapidly
that dogs and small children were sometimes engulfed and
never heard from again.” This formidable, mostly evergreen
vine with compound leaves and stout thorns is especially
fond of the Pacific Northwest climate and thrives here like
few other places. That means a lot of blackberry goodies for
me — small hand pies, jams and jellies, but most of all eaten
out of hand. Yup, eaten out of hand under the late summer
sun, in the middle of a potentially dangerous patch of very
thorny brambles is my all-time favorite way to consume these
drupes. Enjoy these lightly pickled berries in this thoroughly
nourishing hemp salad.
SC
Chef Sebastian Carosi trained at Portland’s Western
Culinary Institute, apprenticed with renowned chefs in
Italy, and went on to lead the Farm 2 Fork movement in
New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Find him on
Instagram at @chef_sebastian_carosi.
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Maximum Yield