For our third run of One Mile Meal, we explored a mile surrounding the Brewhouse on Pittsburgh’s South Side. With our increasingly honed eye for wild edibles and more local knowledge than we’ve had in the two previous cities, we rounded up our most extensive and varied menu yet!

We started the day by planning a route from our home base at the Brewhouse on 21st Street. We figured we’d head up into the South Side Slopes first. As we set out on our bikes, we soon found 21st to be one of Pittsburgh’s infamous “paper streets.” These look like streets on a map, but in reality they end abruptly and turn into staircases. Locking our bikes at the bottom of the hill, we followed the stairs up through South Side Park where a ‘midget’ football game was underway.

We spotted several backyard garden plots as we wondered through the narrow streets of the Slopes, but didn’t have much luck finding the gardeners and sparking conversation. While taking in the breath-taking view of downtown, we spotted an oak tree outside of a catholic retreat house. As we collected up the fallen acorns, we got to talking with a few of the attendees at a weekend spiritual retreat. One long-time resident of the Slopes told us stories about collecting walnuts from a nearby tree with his Grandfather as a child.

Retracing our steps through the park, we collected a wide assortment of edible plants we’d spotted on the way up—including Lamb’s Quarters, Lady’s Thumb and Wood Sorrel. These greens have become standard One Mile Meal fare. An exciting new addition was sumac. The pink variety (different from its poisonous, white cousin) can be steeped in cold water to produce a tasty beverage, reminiscent of lemonade. Another first-timer on the One Mile Meal line up was Queen Anne’s Lace – also known as wild carrot.

Stopping back at the Brewhouse to drop off the morning’s harvest, we discovered that a former resident had moved out of the building, leaving behind an untended roof-top garden. A current resident invited us to use anything that was still growing, so we went up to the roof to find tomatoes, diakon radish and green beans—along with another spectacular view.

Next we rode down to the river wondering if we might come across some fisherman who would be willing to donate their catch. Instead we found Fontana Fest in full swing. We weren’t sure what the celebration was all about, but since it didn’t seem to include fishing, we continued on our way. We did spot some pine trees along the bank though and stopped to collect some pine needles to soak for a tea-like beverage. While we collected pine needles, we spotted some mushrooms growing nearby and put in a call to our friend Shaun, who is a mushroom enthusiast, to ask him to bring his mushroom identification guide to the dinner that evening. As it turned out, the fact that they were growing near pine trees was the crucial bit of information that allowed Shaun to identify the mushrooms later and determine that they were in fact edible…

Since our mile extended across to the north side of Monongahela river, we decided our next destination should be 5th Avenue where we’d spotted crab apples during our ride the Brewhouse that morning. On the way we stopped by a friend’s house to borrow a coffee grinder, thinking we would grind our collected acorns to make flour for acorn pancakes. It turned out that their neighbors had recently moved out, leaving behind a large over-grown garden. Like we had earlier done at the Brewhouse, we collected up the left-behind veggies. Next we continued on foot up 5th Avenue toward the crab apple tree. Along the way we also spotted a tree baring ripe cooking apples. Along with the elder berries from the abandoned garden, these promised a tasty dessert!

Returning to the Brewhouse, it was time to start cooking. We were presenting One Mile Meal in a former living/work studio with a well-equipped kitchen. The space now serves as a group studio space for the eight artists participating in the D2—a professional development program for emerging artists. The other D2 artists and program organizers started helping out with food prep and as other audience members arrived, we put them to work as well. A group armed with hammers and pliers formed a circle on one side of the studio and cracked open hundreds of acorns. The acorn meat was then gathered and put into a pot of boiling water to leech out the bitter tasting “tannins.” Meanwhile, others were chopping vegetables, sorting and cleaning greens, pealing apples, setting the table and searching through edible plant guides to identify mysterious berries we’d collected during our foraging.

Our Pittsburgh audience proved to be an interesting mix of friends and strangers who all seemed to fall easily into tasks and conversations. We actually hated to pull them away from their various activities for the “presentation” section of the evening. We kept things simple and informal as we went through the list of ingredients and explained how to identify the wild plants on the evening’s menu. Then we sat down for dinner and everyone dug in. One side of the table got creative with some colorful left-over food scraps, creating and photographing designs on their plates.

By the time we were all done eating, the acorns were still boiling away on the stove. The dull brown liquid in the pot indicated that tannins were still present. The water had to be refreshed periodically and the boiling process repeated until the water remained clear. It was clear that this wasn’t going to be a quick process, but a handful of audience members were excited by the prospect of acorn pancakes and made the commitment to see the project through! After thanking the rest of the audience for coming and officially concluding One Mile Meal, the Acorn Party began... We were psyched that One Mile Meal sparked a spin-off evening of cooking and great conversation. The hard-core hold-out acorn crew feasted on the much anticipated (and still slightly bitter!) acorn pancakes 1am. What a great conclusion to One Mile Meal – Pittsburgh!