Dinner

It's been a while since I posted a dinner picture.  What do we have here? Orzo and wild rice with foraged mushrooms and asparagus. Hard boiled quail eggs and fresh garden tomatoes and cucumber with pineapple sage.

A simple dinner, full of flavor and goodness.

Tinctures

Continuing my self education on plants, the next step for me was to have a go at making a tincture or two.  I did some research and decided to make dandelion and chamomile tinctures.  Dandelion is good for liver health and chamomile is good for a lot of things including tummy troubles, anxiety, and sleeplessness.  

I guess I won't really know if the dandelion tincture works or not, but the chamomile should be easy to detect it's effectiveness.  I will let you know how it goes.

Wild Edibles - Part 3

I hope you were encouraged to see what plants were growing in your back yard.  Looking through this new lens of foraged foods is pretty exciting.  

Pictured below, among ALL that poison ivy, are a few leaves of dandelions.  I think most people know they are edible, but in case you forgot, those pretty yellow, flowering weeds in your yard can also be food.  The leaves are best eaten before the plant flowers, but the flowers are also good battered and fried.  I've also used the petals as an addition to zucchini bread and in cookies, just because it's fun to eat flowers.

 This is called Dock.  Plants found closer to water are known to be less bitter.  Steam slightly and use like grape leaves.  It's a great green to wrap foods in for cooking.  It's rich in protein and vitamin A.

 This is a Green Brier - these grow all over our fence and I hate them.  They can be invasive.  However, the very tendril tips look like a pea plant, and guess what? They taste like peas too.  The root-stocks of many species can be used as a gelatin substitute.

 This beautiful flower is from a Black Locust tree.  Oddly, only the flowers are edible on this plant.  They taste and smell like honeysuckle.  It seemed like such a treat to eat one after tasting so many bitter or zingy plants.

 We found Wild Grape Vine.  The leaves are edible. You can boil and eat them or use them for wrapping and cooking foods.  Wild grapes are also edible.

Heading up the hill, Santiago the Turkey still touring with us.

 The last plant on our foraging expedition is Mallow.  I've seen these pretty plants before - perhaps you have to?  You can eat the tiny leaves.  Each plant bears a few pods.  When opened, they reveal the below. These can be eaten just as they are or pickled and used like capers (much safer than the marsh marigold). You can also eat the root of this plant.

We headed to the tee-pee and fire circle to eat a salad of foraged greens mixed with some spring lettuce mix.

We have owned this book for quite a while, but I just looked at it with slight interest.  Taking this class definitely gave me the push and confidence I needed to go exploring on my own.  Knowledge is soon forgotten if not practiced, so I plan on keeping up with this whole learning thing.  

Wild Edibles - Part 2

Continuing on our forage walk, with Santiago the Turkey in tow, we also learned about these plants:

 Toothwort - this plant has a whiteish root-stock that can be used in place of horseradish, just mix with vinegar and a pinch of salt.

 Jewel Weed is great for soothing poison ivy or the sting from nettles.  The stem has a liquid similar to aloe which can be directly applied to the skin.  Not surprisingly, this plant is normally found close to poison ivy - our Creator's way of giving a helping hand.  The leaves of this plant are also edible and nutritious.  Cook them up and add them to quiche for a delicious dinner.

Wild onions - this plant is getting ready to flower so the stem was a bit woody.  On younger plants, you can use the stem just like spring onions or chives.

This is another plant that grows in our yard that I just assumed was a worthless weed.  This is actually field mustard.  Who'd a thought, right?  This plant has a lot of nutritional value: vitamins A, B1, B2, and C. Mix the leaves with other greens to spice up a salad, saute like spinach, or add it when making pesto for a little zing.

This is Sassafras, which our family is very familiar with.  We make home made sarsaparilla, which is the most amazing, refreshing drink.  You can also use the root in teas as well.  The leaves are dried and used to flavor gumbo - which was new information for me.

These plants might be a little less common for your backyard, but we have mustard and sassafras growing on our property.  If you have any overgrown spaces, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

Wild Edibles - Part 1

I recently discovered the North American Bushcraft School.  This is an amazing local organization dedicated to keeping ancestral knowledge alive.  The farm is situated on 130 remote acres, it was beautiful country.  I signed us up for a class in foraging and headed over to get some hands on experience from a few experts.

 We were greeted by Santiago the Turkey - a farm pet that followed us around the entire time just like a dog would.  He was quite friendly.  It was a hoot to have him walking along with us.

 Our first foraged find was Purslane - a woodland succulent.  It can be eaten raw and is a great addition to salads.

 These heart shaped leaves (not to be mistaken with clover) - is Wood Sorrel.  It gets small, yellow flowers.  It tastes a bit sour and has a very nice lemon flavor.  This was one of my favorites.  It can be eaten raw. They are also good to steep for 10 min in hot water, add a bit of honey, then chill for a refreshing drink.  This plant is rich in vitamin C.

 These silly plants which are all over my back yard (and were always considered a weed in my book) happen to be Plantains.  The rounded leaf is a Common Plantain and the slender one is called Seaside Plantain.  When young, they can be picked to eat in salads or steamed/boiled and served with butter.  As they grow, the leaves become tough and stringy, but they are still useful.  They are used to make spit poultices (chew them up and spit them out) to be used on bug bites for instant relief.

This fuzzy leaf is called Mullein.  We discussed the benefits of having this around to use in place of toilet paper if ever stranded, but it also has other benefits as well.  These are great to dry and use in teas, specifically for chest colds as it is an expectorant.  You can also steep them in hot water to make a steam vapor for inhaling to eliminate a chest cold.

I bet if you run out to your backyard, you can find at least 1 of these plants.

*They did note the importance of teaching your kids, specifically little ones, that you should always ask an adult before picking and eating any plant - just to be sure.  Also, you should never gather plants directly beside a roadway due to weed spraying and car pollution.

This is a fun activity to do with your family.  You can literally make a salad from backyard or a quick neighborhood stroll.

Exploring the Woods

I love finding secret streams off the beaten path full of emerald gems of green, green moss.  Dappled sunlight streaming down, creates a magical fairy land forest.

 We stumbled upon this old iron - it was full of fire ants when we picked it up to inspect it.  It was promptly thrown down and left to be admired by others and to continue providing a retreat for said ants.

This swampy area is our favorite spot to forage cattails.  They are gathered in the spring when they are about the size of leeks - they look a lot like leeks too.  Just grab them around the base and pull gently.  Cut the tops off and peel the first layer of leaves off the plant.  What is left is a white, tubular shoot that is quite edible.  

It tastes like a mild cucumber and perhaps a little "foresty".  You can find out more here.  Oh, it's also important to remember to wear shoes that can get wet and muddy!

If you are lucky enough to live close to a forest, don't take it for granted.  I am so blessed to have these gifts of trees and land at my fingertips.

Morel Season

This spring has been great for morels.  The season is short, only lasting a few weeks. My husband and son went foraging almost daily to pick these crazy mushrooms.  There are so many varieties that grow in our area.  They don't dry or store well which is why I think people are a bit crazy about them.  It's a once a year, spring treat.
After picking, we cut them in half longways, soak them in salt water, rinse and then...
we eat them lightly breaded and fried or sauteed in quiches, on pizza, in cream of mushroom soup, etc. You can't eat this mushroom raw, it must be cooked.
Admittedly, this isn't my favorite mushroom.  I prefer chanterelles ,but I will take what nature gives us and enjoy these for the season.

*Note, when picking mushrooms, an old onion bag is perfect to use.  You should always use something that allows the spores to fall from the mushrooms as you walk, allowing them to reproduce the following year.

Last year  was not as fruitful - we only found a few mushrooms.

Stinging Nettle

Saturdays I find myself by the riverside with thick rubber gloves foraging this crazy plant that is super nutritious and full of health benefits. 

I remove the leaves with scissors.  Cooking removes the stinging hairs, leaving only the woodsy-tasting leaves behind. 

You can use nettle to make pesto, use in quiches, soups, etc.  This batch was cooked down and mixed with roasted quail and stuffed into homemade raviolis.  This is definitely a plant worth foraging and using.

Marsh Marigolds

Foraging foods is a tricky business.  Edibles are normally in their prime for a few short days.  Catching plants at the right time is always a challenge.  This year we managed to forage a few Marsh Marigolds buds which grow wild in our side yard.  

The tightly closed buds can be pickled and used on salads much like capers.  The process to use the plant is pretty detailed and the warnings about not preparing them correctly is a bit off putting: consumption of raw leaves or buds without proper preparation will result in irritation and burning of the mucous membranes of the throat and nasal passages.  The poisons, once ingested, can cause vomiting, bloody diarrhea, fainting and convulsions.

Due to those warnings, we aren't sure if we are going to risk it for a few capers.  It's good to know the leaves and buds are edible after boiling the heck out of the plants.  I guess in a survival situation, I would chance it.

More Woodland Romping

A Moss Forest - A bug's view

I love the variety of mosses that can be found

Ferns are a close second to Moss in my woodland plant love

Eternal Beauty

 mushrooms - co-joined at birth.

After the Storm

 To explore this amazing planet, rich in color and mystery is a privileged we should never take for granted

 To notice the little things that make it all a mystery; the silken web, the intricate weaving of vegetation

  The coolness of freshly fallen rain water squishing between our toes

 The magic of mushrooms that seem to appear before our eyes, with color palettes chosen by the author of the the universe

 waterfalls that strum the very depths of our souls with songs of cleansing gratitude

and the fragrance of the forest, after the storm.

Foraged Food

On our hike we were hunting for edibles and found a few items to add to the menu.  This is what we made:

Floral Syrup: 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c water 1 cup flower petals.  Boil sugar and water until dissolved.  Add petals and remove from heat.  Steep overnight.  Use to sweeten teas.

You can strain the flowers, but I didn't mind them floating in my tea.  They were pretty.

Nettle Pesto Pasta with Morels and Egg Plant.
We foraged some stinging nettles and made pesto - it was so good!  Next time we will bring gloves, it was tricky business and our hands did not escape the sting.  We only found a few morels, I think 6 in all, but enough to saute and put on top our pasta.

Sassafras Syrup - for home made root beer.  Mix 1 part mixture to 2 parts club soda - add ice.  Drink and Smile!