Wild Foraged Cocktails

In 2021, Gilian started making taste experiences, in the form of ferments and syrups, with wild plants that they foraged in the 12,600 acres of water, salt marshes, freshwater and brackish water ponds, upland fields and woods, open bay and islands surrounding her residence on the land of the Lakawe or so called Rockaway Peninsula in New York City.

They were made from Wild Mulberries, Queen Anne’s Lace flowers, Milkweed flowers, and Rugosa Rose petals.

Gilian is thrilled by the idea that you can see, smell, taste, and be embraced by the senses in interacting with nature because of how personal it feels.

So much of what they are interested in involves exploring the ways that nature cares for our bodies, and how that understanding motivates our desire to care for nature in return.

Gilian created an interactive installation involving these taste experiences at a performance party with creative collective GlitterMilk in Brooklyn, NY, and also served them at The Greenhouse Café in Far Rockaway, NY. Guests were encouraged to experience these plants through taste, smell, and color, many of which they had never heard of, and let the plants guide their experience that night. 

Gilian enjoyed being a bystander while the bartender served the concoctions, and felt thrilled to overhear conversations in NYC nightlife and cafés that centered wild plants and personal sense experiences with them.

Gilian continues to build on this project as they consider how to best work with the personal experiences prompted by sensory connections with these plants.