Kevin Kossowan (Top 40, ‘12) spent two years searching Alberta for one elusive plant: sweet cicely. The wild, anise-flavoured herb with a punchy black licorice taste tends to grow in the shady transition zones between aspen parkland and prairie. Sweet cicely’s delicate white flowers and ornate leaflets remained on his radar until a stranger on a foraging walk tipped him off. While guiding one day, someone asked if he worked with sweet cicely; he asked them to drop a pin of where they found it, and the search began.
That discovery opened the door to all kinds of new recipes — from tiger ice cream cocktails, to Indian curries and handmade sausages.
The filmmaker behind From the Wild, a James Beard-nominated docuseries about wild food, grew up around hunting culture, but it was the locavore movement that deepened his exploration about a decade ago. While chefs leaned into farm-to-table, Kossowan turned his attention to flavours hidden in the woods, lakes and trails.
Evidently, he was years ahead of the wild food movement because these days he’s as busy training would-be foragers as he is creating food documentaries. He runs several classes throughout the summer and fall, usually on weekends in Edmonton, with foraging walks offered in Calgary as well. There are also day camps held in a forested area near Athabasca, covering everything from field cookery to big game butchery to a foraged cocktails workshop that introduces a bit of forest mixology.
Kossowan’s walks are intentionally small, limited to 16 guests, with rotating locations and seasonal focuses. Some participants pick and taste on the spot; others take notes or snap photos. But these aren’t harvest missions — they’re about learning what’s edible, and what’s in season. In any ecosystem, he says, you should be able to identify at least six edible species in your immediate surroundings.
“Most of the food at grocery stores is from very few plant species,” he says. “When you get into nature, you’re looking at like, two million. The scope is vast.”
Edmonton is no exception. It takes creativity and helpful hints to see the abundance: beaked hazelnuts, highbush cranberries, Saskatoons, sea buckthorn, sweet cicely, violets, spruce tips, wild onions. Even urban trees have culinary potential, from pine tips to tapping Manitoba maples. The river valley, in particular, is densely packed with overlooked edibles.
Fireweed can be oxidized to mimic black tea in a variety of drinks, and cow parsnip seeds have a crisp, cucumbery bite which Kossowan is currently pickling. Another favourite is prickly pear cactus. Native to Alberta and found notably north of Edmonton in the Gibbons Cactus Prairie, it’s perfect for salsas served with pork — a seasonal highlight at RGE RD (for whom Kossowan forages).
Foraging, he says, isn’t nearly as risky as people think — especially around Edmonton. “Most of the time when I’m guiding, I won’t be able to find a poisonous plant to show people,” Kossowan says.
While there are toxic plants like water hemlock or death camas, they’re uncommon in urban areas. And many familiar foods (like rhubarb or asparagus) have inedible parts too. With a bit of foundational knowledge, navigating it all is surprisingly straightforward. “It just takes someone telling your brain that this is important information, and if you have that guidance, it’s pretty easy to figure out.”
