In Puglia and Basilicata, bunches of asparagus at small greengrocers have a wild look. These lanky stalks are distant relatives of the shoots you’d find packaged in a supermarket — because they’re foraged.
Learning the art of scavenger hunting for asparagus in forests, and king trumpet mushrooms among wild thistle, is a way of life in towns around Alta Murgia National Park, about 55 miles west of Bari. Culinary traditions in towns such as Gravina in Puglia (its 17th-century Ponte Acquedotto bridge was featured in the 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die) and Altamura (known for its bread), focus on foraging.
