About 30 people gathered at Mystic Farm & Distillery on a recent warm spring morning to learn about foraging wild edible ingredients and the magic of fermentation! Local-food educators from Piedmont Picnic led attendees on a foraging walk around the Mystic Farm property to teach participants how to identify wild edible plants and forage for leaves and flowers to add to their very own fermentation mix.
Upon return to the Distillery, participants were instructed in how to turn their foraged ingredients into a bubbling, delicious wild soda through the simple but magical process of wild fermentation! Samples of other wild sodas were served, each tasting of a particular wild ingredient or collection of ingredients from a particular place and time. Participants went home with instructional handouts and their very own mix of fermentation materials collected on site – the contents of which would ferment over the next couple of weeks and result in a bottle of soda to remind them of the time spent at Mystic’s farm.
The Piedmont Picnic Project uses food history to build awareness and skills around traditional food practices (foraging, gardening, mixology, preserving, fermenting, and creative reuse). Co-founded by Elizabeth Weichel and Amanda Matson, Piedmont Picnic creates highly-interactive classes, walking tours, and picnics in the Triangle region based on the principle that food history can be a lot of fun and teach us practical ways to eat and live more locally, sustainably, and simply.
Mystic Farm and Distillery produces the Triangle’s only field to bottle spirits in a distillery located on their 20+ acre farm in the heart of the Research Triangle just minutes from downtown Durham. Mystic produces their own corn, wheat, honey and botanicals to produce distinctive spirits flavored by the unique agriculture, water and climate of the Carolinas.
