INTRODUCTION I've spent a lifetime exploring the lands and waters of the Pacific Northwest with food in mind. My home is a paradise for foragers, and I've harvested more than a few pockets' worth of delicious plants, mushrooms and seafoods throughout the years. Over this time, I've woven these wild ingredients into myriad recipes. Old family recipes passed down from my grandmother, chef friends and mom keep me grounded and are the basis for all of my cooking. Cooking is like a form of meditation for me: repeating the same motions of cooks throughout time makes space for quiet contemplation and connection. These recipes are a look into my life of traveling to places like Spain, Italy and Japan to eat, cook and learn from people and places with long traditions of using wild ingredients. At home, my dishes reflect the foraging expertise of Indigenous peoples who were living on the coast long before my family, and I am thankful for their help during my culinary journey through their lands and territories. This cookbook reflects my life as a coastal chef and strives to be a celebration of West Coast cuisine.

I am sharing my collected research with you in hopes that, like me, you will learn to connect the dots from wilderness to plate and begin to uncover some of the delicious secrets found everywhere in the Pacific Northwest, from the forest to the sea. My advice is to gently follow the seasons and harvest what is offered up fresh each month. In spring, we have the shoots and leaves; the flowers blossom and berries ripen in summer; we dig roots and fungi in the fall; and when winter's frost settles in and drives the mushrooms underground, we head to the sea to pluck mussels from the rocks. This is the seasonal dance, although the exact timing of the steps may vary. A careful eye will watch for when the maple blossoms sashay in and the elderflowers take the stage. Make a mental note of these subtle changes to guide your foraging for years to come. When flowers have lost their petals at lower elevations near the sea, follow the cooler air up into the mountains and, just like magic, you'll see that their sisters still have their blooms. Sometimes we lose touch with the natural rhythms of the seasons that are expressed by wild things.

I believe it's important to relearn these patterns, remember the steps and experience the joy in dancing with our planty partners. Nothing feels better than knowing how to move with the natural world. I hope that you enjoy learning a few of my steps. Happy foraging. Chef Robin.