Find Dining

The quest for ever-more-local produce and unparalleled flavors is driving a boom in foraging tours.

- Lori Rackl

LORI RACKL; COURTESY OF WITHIN THE WILD; COURTESY OF NO TASTE LIKE HOME

I WAS JUST STEPS into the redwood forest when my guide, Ty Kun, began filling his wicker basket with fiddleheads. Then he spotted a patch of pea-green miner's lettuce, which looks like a mini lily pad, and plucked a few leaves. “Devour the whole thing,” he said, handing it to me. “Tastes like spinach!”

We were in northern Sonoma County, California, spending a few hours exploring the woods and tide pools in search of wild edibles. The excursion, which Sonoma County Tourism started offering earlier this year, would end at Timber Cove Resort (doubles from $300), where our finds would be turned into hyperlocal dishes: morels stuffed with wild onions and lemonade flavored with the tart, heart-shaped leaves of redwood sorrel.