Grateful for sansai

At this time of year, my neighbors love to go foraging for sansai (mountain vegetables). I've learned a lot from them about making the best use of nature's bounty, and one of my favorite sansai is fiddlehead ferns, or kogomi in Japanese.

A bag of kogomi my neighbor dropped off!

It got me thinking about how sansai can really help the household budget. If you know where and how to forage legally and safely, sansai can supplement groceries at essentially no ingredient cost. Even a small haul can bulk out dishes (we have them mixed in with rice, used as tempura, simmered as sides, or added to soups or pastas) so we end up using less store-bought veg overall.