Alex spots a cluster of forest gold: chanterelles sprouting from the moss. She pulls out a knife, severs the stems, and happily loads up her basket. When she started foraging with Lori, they took their foraged plants and fungi to a local university to be identified as safe to eat. These days, apps help to instantly identify different species, there are bestselling books (like Lori and Marsha Tulk’s Food, Culture, Place), and local foragers know exactly what they’re looking for. Alex hands me a small, raw chanterelle to sample. I plop it in my mouth and instantly get walloped with a multitude of spicy, earthy flavours. Having gathered beach salads like sea rocket, beach pea and the parsley-like Scots lovage, it’s time to escape the soft rain for the kitchen.

Trained as a chef in Ireland, Alex cut her teeth as a sous chef for restaurants in Newfoundland, France, New York, and her favourite, Italy. The homely cottage she shares with her husband – also a chef – is instantly inviting. She hands me slippers “knitted by Nan,” and we gather at the large kitchen island with a view of an expansive garden and lake. Fireweed dries in the window, mason jars pickle on the shelves, and smooth jazz plays on the stereo. The walls are decorated with tasteful art and family heirlooms, and the warm, wood interior is exactly what’s needed for a wet summer afternoon. It’s a scene that homely restaurants aspire to because it is indeed somebody’s home. From her cottage, Alex offers seasonal cooking classes, a popular Underground Supper Club, and multi-day culinary retreats. Lori, a passionate advocate for coastal foraging and game cooking, often participates, as does Alex’s grandmother Gerri, who imparts her culinary wisdom from eras past. Both show up for lunch, and we effortlessly chat about this, that and the other at a large homemade wooden dining table that took years to complete. Across Newfoundland, everyone and everything has a story. The afternoon floats into a six-course meal that Alex prepares from her kitchen, using freshly pestled alder and other plants we’d just foraged that afternoon.